Monitor Distance Calculator
Enter your screen size to get a comfortable, ergonomics-backed viewing distance range — no more guessing how far back to push your monitor.
Recommended viewing distance
Why viewing distance matters
Sitting too close to a monitor forces your eyes to hold a near-focus position for hours, which is a common contributor to digital eye strain, dry eyes, and tension headaches by the end of the day. Sitting too far away has its own cost: you end up leaning forward to read small text, which drags your neck and shoulders out of a neutral position.
The right distance depends on the screen’s physical size, not just its resolution. A bigger monitor needs more distance to keep the same amount of your visual field filled comfortably, which is why this calculator scales its recommendation directly with the diagonal measurement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the recommended viewing distance worked out?
It scales with the screen's diagonal size — roughly 1.6 times the diagonal for an ideal distance, with a range from about 1.3 to 2.0 times the diagonal. So a 24-inch monitor lands around 38 inches away, while a 34-inch ultrawide sits further back, near 54 inches, to fill a similar amount of your field of view.
Why is there a floor of about 20 inches?
Below roughly 20 inches your eyes have to work harder to focus at all, regardless of how small the screen is, so the calculator won't recommend sitting closer than that even for a small monitor. That floor matches the commonly cited minimum comfortable viewing distance for computer screens.
Does a bigger, more distant monitor still fit my desk?
Not always — a 32-inch or larger monitor pushed back to its ideal distance may not fit a shallow desk. If you can't get the recommended distance, consider a smaller monitor, a shallower desk mount, or accept a closer distance and rely more on zoom/font-size adjustments to reduce eye strain.
Does resolution change the ideal distance?
A sharper, higher-resolution panel (like 4K) lets you sit a little closer than the diagonal-based estimate without seeing individual pixels, because the same physical size packs in more detail. This calculator uses diagonal size alone, so treat its output as a comfortable starting range rather than a hard limit.
Educational tool only. Results are a general comfort range, not a vision or medical assessment — see an eye-care professional for persistent eye strain or vision changes.