I find myself quite happy using my 4k display in native resolution along Cubase 10.5.
If you are using Windows 10, I would suggest to try out if this fixes your problem. I have no scaling issues with any plugins, had them before just as you described.
Cubase 10 looks actually really nice on a 4k Display and it scales nicely, it seems that Windows can cause these scaling issues.
But if you do that then you can’t use windows scaling…
Exactly. Because Windows 10 scaling is broken.
It is, but without it, many users are struggling to deal with Cubase’s small fonts and icons on 4k displays!
It is very strange that even 10.5 did not bring the hidpi scaling fix. My Cubase license has been about a year unused, since I bought it new, because it cannot be used. I have 50" 4k monitor with 150 % scaling in Win 10, and I watch it from about 1 m distance. Everything else is scaled perfectly. Using Cubase in hidpi-mode with 100 % scaling is too small to my eyes, because eyes start to hurt. 125 % or 150 % would be optimal. Normal mode hurts, because it is blurry. Bitwig since version 2 has scaled properly on 4k, including all 3rd party plugins as well. Why cannot Cubase handle this?
There is absolutely no excuse for users to defend Steinberg about not implementing this feature. There are always studios that use old displays, but 4k is standard in 2020, has been for many years now. It has to work, otherwise the software is obsolete. Why look at low resolution representation of the DAW, when you could have crisp graphics, like most other software? Cubase 10 was advertised having a new graphics engine with hidpi!
To me it sounds like Steinberg is doing these final updates with minimal effort, just to sell a few more licenses, before they stop supporting the software. Maybe it is not a high priority at Yamaha? I have never been as disappointed about any purchase. Money totally wasted.
Exactly.
It is completely up to Steinberg to fix this.
The proposed solution does not work well here. As it is now, I either have to use Windows scaling (like 125%), with bad proportions and display failures of plugins in Cubase, or I use native resolution and have no proper, well readable font display. And even if I try some font tricks, I run into other display problems (like fonts becoming too big for proper working of popup windows). The present Steinberg UI is utterly half-baked: simple as that. It has to become more flexible, or it simply doesn’t work as it should!
A well visible display is an utterly basic key experience when working with Cubase, and I’m really annoyed to see the failure of fixing this again and again, since MUCH too long now!
This fatal flaw has persisted for 19 months, been discussed in 1100+ posts on these forums + Gearslutz and even pointed out as a major con in magazine reviews.
Matthias Quellmann posted a survey about HiDPI December 2019, so they obviously must be fixing it this major issue but why so long?:
https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=283&t=175848
I find it ridiculous that they also say that “If you rely working with video, disable HiDPI in Cubase.” at https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/360001589520-Cubase-10-HiDPI-support-on-Windows-10 ; when they advertise it for pro video/game studio use and all video/games are 4k 60-120+fps and even 8k in 2020!
It is absolutely agonizing to see that this tragic GUI bug on their flagship products Cubase+Nuendo is a lower priority than other minor fixes and new releases of their many non-DAW niche products since November 2018.
Surely Steinberg’s team must use their own product on a 4K Windows machine vs Mac to realize the severity of this issue themselves… As a programmer, I know this is not a difficult fix and they can just follow what Ableton/Bitwig/Studio One have implemented quickly.
Does anybody know Senior Management at Steinberg to raise this issue that has been alienating and infuriating many customers for 1.5+ years? 
Yea, we deserve a fix ASAP. This is silly. I have considered Studio One, have been for a while, I don’t care what I use as long as it’s solid.
Could you please share a screenshot of your editing window? I got the feeling, you have it scaled on 200%. Even with the solution you described, there seems not to be a solution to scale to 150% 4k (which is the only real advantage of having such a big screen for me).
I will expose this company everywhere because it does not respect any of its customers and if the solution is not available before the 11th update
I will not buy the new version (11) and I will transfer all my sessions to Studio One
Just notice the difference
I work with Cubase 10.5.20 (High DPI on) on a Dell 4K monitor with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 in Windows 10 scaled at 200% and I tried your Windows High DPI settings and variations, but none changed the fact that my Kontakt 6 window and fonts are very very small and I cann’t read them, even with my glasses on. In Studio One 4 no problem at all. So in Cubase back to NO High DPi with blurred eye-tiring font!
Blumentopferd that does fix SOME plugins from cropping, but not all. Especially when dragging between monitors and monitors of diff resolutions. Also, the plugins like Native Instruments, Korg, Waves are way too small and unusable. Also remember 4k screens are popular in 15" like in laptops, 27, 32, 48, 55, 65 which is why there should be proper scaling % options.
They still need to fix this properly like Ableton/Studio One/Bitwig et al.
Without a PROPER Steinberg fix we will have no HiDPI or blurry fonts… It is also unfortunate that many big plugin companies cannot update their older plugins (Native Instruments/Waves/Korg/etc), especially Native Kontact and Komplete Kontrol - I’ve asked!
However, its exponentially easier for a half dozen DAWs to work with legacy non-HiDPI aware plugins then redevelop the thousands of legacy plugins because many of the plugin developers + GUI asset artists are probably no longer working for the companies. Many plugins have a lot of hand drawn art to look like the equipment etc. that cannot scale easily like a vector based plugin.
Korg actually responded to my request to update to HiDPI and scaling their legendary plugins and say they will work on it, and they are one by one! Waves just has too many, so I doubt it’ll ever happen and Native Instruments I think is having financial problems but they definitely need to update Komplete, Komplete Kontrol, Kontakt, Massive at least IMO ASAP.
I wrote to the wave company in their forum. They redesigned the StudioRack program from scratch and they also did not add support for the 4K screen so that I have asked them before developing the program and they answered me that they will support these screens.
See this link
https://forum.waves.com/t/new-free-the-new-studiorack-and-soundgrid-studio-ares-here/1434/10
The problem is that companies want to sell their products with the addition of flashes only and they do not want to waste time in a problem like this and they are rudely asking us to change the screen settings to 1080p!!!
Yea, I will do the same!
Of course. Here is a screenshot of my main editing window. I use a native 4k resolution and my Windows 10 scaling is set to 125% and I use a 32" display as my main monitor. I have a secondary display right next to it where I have a mixer window, my marker window and mostly my movie window, If I have to write to picture.
I wonder if any of you that threaten to switch to Studio One actually will? Is Cubase not still the most functional, feature rich DAW for MIDI editing? Studio One looks great and has improved a lot in functionality over the years, but still feels very simple and gimmicky to me.
To a certain extend I can relate to all that frustration. But after almost 25 years of producing music on and with computers I must admit that it is rarely the software that fucks up a production (nor lack of HiDPI) … (If only I had that piece of equipment, I’d make it…)
HiDPI on MacOS works fine. It is a Windows 10 “feature” that makes 4k displays a little clumsy to use. If you can’t accommodate for that, you should consider switching platforms, but not DAWs. Please take that into account when you’re ranting about Steinberg and or Cubase.
Off topic and slightly sarcastic:
I would so love for Logic to come back to Windows - I’d be first in line to purchase it. Unfortunately my religion forbids me to touch any Apple hardware or use any Macintosh software, I guess I’m stuck with Windows and Cubase. And please don’t tell anyone that I regularly make exceptions if I’m on a Job in some funny Studio that dares to use Apple Hardware! How dare they! 
Well, there may be some light down in this long, infuriating HiDPI tunnel vision:
Matthias from Steinberg and Dom Sigalas who does excellent Steinberg Youtube content recently posted:
“We are still working on it. It’s not a quick win and the scaling needs a lot of testing and refinement though. Unfortunately there won’t be any improvement before Cubase 11.” -Matthias from Steinberg
“They are working on it 
” -Dom Sigalas
I actually disagree on how long it takes to develop/implement the plugin scaling/chop fix. It has already been 19 months, so by time 11 comes out that is what 25-30 months, or over 2 years? It is just a few extra monitors for devs (which are cheap now days) and AB test for feature parity with practically any other DAW.
This actually works for me about 85%. Not a panacea, but I can now actually use HiDPI. Yes, I wish I could get the text a bit bigger… and the UI on one or two plugs (Arturia Fairlight CMI) are still outrageously large, but the absolute deal-breaker plugs are now tolerable.
Single 43" 4K display.
THANKS!
—JC
