System Settings → Displays shows a row of sizes from Larger Text to More Space instead of a percentage. Each is a resolution the screen "looks like"; the Mac draws at double that resolution and scales the picture down. On a Retina MacBook screen or a 4K monitor every step stays sharp, because 2x rendering is what those pixels are for.
The soft-text problem: on a 1080p or 1440p monitor, macOS finds no sensible 2x mode and either runs at 1x (tiny, sharp) or scales from a fake 2x buffer (bigger, blurry). Windows draws at 125% or 150% natively and has no such problem. The fixes, in order:
- A 4K monitor at 27 inches, set to "looks like 2560 × 1440". This is the size Apple's own displays use.
- Turning off font smoothing helps slightly on 1x screens: a hidden preference, no switch.
- A tool that creates a virtual HiDPI display mirrored to the monitor, which is what BetterDisplay does for 1440p screens.
Text size alone can be changed without touching resolution: System Settings → Accessibility → Display → Text size, and each app's ⌘+ zoom.