MonitorSelector
EN

Monitor size and resolution selector

Which monitor fits your desk, your eyes and your work?

Give the depth of your desk and what you do on it. The selector computes the viewing angle and the sharpness each format would give you from your seat, and keeps the one that fits.

Your desk, your work

1 Main use
2 Desk and distance
70 cm
65 cm

Estimated from your desk. Move the slider if you have measured it.

3 Layout
4 Time spent reading text
5 Budget
6 System

Recommended for you

27″ 4K UHD

3840 × 2160 · IPS · 60–100 Hz

94/100

At 65 cm, a 27″ 4K UHD fills 49° of your field of view: wide enough to work in, narrow enough to read without turning your head. With 73 pixels per degree, the pixel grid is below what the eye can resolve. For office work the priority goes to legibility, then to price.

49°65 cm60 cm
Viewing angle ?
49° comfortable from 40° to 53°
Sharpness ?
73 PPD 163 PPI on the panel, target 50 PPD
Screen surface
60 × 34 cm comfortable from 60 cm to 82 cm
Scaling ?
150% workspace equal to 2560 × 1440
Panel ?
IPS stable colours and clean text from any angle
Connection ?
DisplayPort 1.4 or better, for 100 Hz
  • Cheaper27″ QHD2560 × 1440 · 109 PPI · 49 PPD · 49°
    92
Compare the best-placed formats
FormatViewing anglePPDScalingScore
27″ 4K UHD49°73150% 94
27″ QHD49°49100% 92
24″ QHD44°55100% 89
2 × 27″ QHD99°49100% 87
2 × 24″ QHD88°55100% 84
2 × 24″ Full HD88°41100% 80

The score weighs viewing angle, sharpness, workspace, motion, colour and price according to your use. Read the method

Method

Three measurements behind every recommendation

No brand ranking, no sponsored podium. The selector computes what your eyes will receive at your desk, then keeps the formats that pass.

  1. 1

    The screen must fit your field of view

    A screen that fills between 40 and 53 degrees of your horizontal field is read with the eyes alone. Wider, and the head has to turn hundreds of times a day. Narrower, and you paid for surface you sit too far from to use.

    θ = 2 · atan(width ÷ (2 · distance))

    Viewing distance and ergonomics
  2. 2

    Sharpness is measured at the eye, not on the box

    The same panel looks coarse at 50 cm and flawless at 90 cm. What matters is the number of pixels inside one degree of vision. At 60, pixels are smaller than what 20/20 eyesight separates.

    PPD = PPI × distance (in) × 0.01745

    Pixel density: PPI and PPD
  3. 3

    Resolution only counts once scaled

    A 27-inch 4K screen set to 150% shows exactly the workspace of a 1440p screen, drawn with more than twice the pixels. The selector compares formats on the space they really leave you.

    workspace = pixels ÷ scaling

    Resolution and scaling

Ten chapters

The monitor handbook

Ten chapters that go from what the eye can see to what the cable can carry. Each explains one decision, with its formulas, its figures drawn to scale and its limits, so that a specification sheet holds no more mysteries.

  1. 01 Pixel density: PPI, PPD and what the eye can resolve Why the same screen looks coarse at 50 cm and flawless at 90, and the one figure that predicts it. 4 min read
  2. 02 Viewing distance: how far, how high, at what angle Between 50 cm and 1 m, the right distance depends on the width of the screen. The geometry, and the posture that goes with it. 4 min read
  3. 03 Screen size and desk depth The depth of the desk fixes the viewing distance, and the distance fixes the size. What fits on 60, 70, 80 and 90 cm. 4 min read
  4. 04 Resolution and scaling: the workspace you really get More pixels do not mean more room. How scaling converts resolution into sharpness or workspace, on Windows, macOS and Linux. 4 min read
  5. 05 Panel types: IPS, VA, OLED and Mini-LED Contrast, viewing angles, speed, text rendering: what each technology does well, and what it costs. 5 min read
  6. 06 Refresh rate, response time and motion clarity Why a moving image is blurred even on a perfect panel, and what 120, 144 or 240 Hz really change. 4 min read
  7. 07 Ultrawide or two monitors One continuous surface or two separate ones: pixels, angles, desk width and habits of work, with numbers. 4 min read
  8. 08 Colour, gamut and HDR sRGB, P3, Adobe RGB, Delta E, 10 bits, DisplayHDR: reading the colour lines of a specification sheet without being misled. 5 min read
  9. 09 Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C and Thunderbolt An image is a data rate. What each port and cable can carry, and how to avoid a 4K screen stuck at 30 Hz. 5 min read
  10. 10 Eye comfort: strain, flicker and blue light What actually tires the eyes at a screen, what the evidence says about blue light and flicker, and the settings that help. 6 min read

By situation

Guides with the selector already set

How to read the recommendation

The result is a format, not a product: a diagonal, a resolution, a panel technology, a refresh rate. Dozens of monitors share each format, and prices change every week. Once you know that a 27-inch 4K IPS at 100 Hz is what fits your desk, any shop filter gives you the models of the day, and you can compare them on what remains: stand, ports, warranty.

Each recommendation comes with its numbers. The viewing angle tells you how much of your visual field the screen fills from your seat; the gauge shows where it falls within the comfortable band. Sharpness is given in pixels per degree, the only density figure that takes your distance into account. Scaling is the interface setting suited to that density, with the workspace it leaves. The diagram draws your desk from above, to scale, so that you can see the screen on it before buying it.

What the selector does not do

It does not rank brands and does not know this week's discounts. It does not replace a calibration report for colour work, nor a response-time measurement for competitive gaming: those depend on the individual model, and the handbook explains what to check on a specification sheet. Its job is the decision that comes first and that reviews rarely settle: which size and which resolution, for this desk and these eyes.

If you want to verify a result by hand, the PPI calculator gives the same quantities for any screen, and the format comparison lists them for every size sold in volume. The reasoning behind the weights is laid out in the method.

Frequently asked questions

What size monitor should I get for a 60 cm deep desk?

On a 60 cm desk with the monitor on its stand, your eyes are about 55 cm from the panel. A 24-inch screen fills 51 degrees of your field of view at that distance, the upper limit of comfort; a 27-inch fills 57 degrees and makes you turn your head towards the corners. Choose 24 inches in 1440p, or put a 27-inch on an arm to push it back to the rear edge of the desk. The guide for 60 cm desks details both options.

Is 4K worth it on a 27-inch monitor?

For text, yes. At 65 cm a 27-inch 4K panel delivers 73 pixels per degree, beyond the 60 at which the eye stops separating pixels, against 49 for 1440p. Used at 150% scaling it shows the same workspace as 1440p with much cleaner characters. For games the answer depends on the graphics card: 4K means 2.25 times more pixels to compute than 1440p.

How far should I sit from my monitor?

Between 0.9 and 1.2 times the diagonal for a 16:9 screen: 55 to 72 cm for a 24-inch, 60 to 82 cm for a 27-inch, 70 to 96 cm for a 32-inch. Within that band the screen fills 40 to 53 degrees of your horizontal field. The chapter on viewing distance explains where these limits come from.

What does PPD mean and why does the selector use it?

PPD stands for pixels per degree: the number of pixels that fit in one degree of your visual field. Unlike PPI, which describes the panel alone, PPD includes your viewing distance, so it describes what you actually see. 60 PPD corresponds to one pixel per arcminute, the resolving limit of 20/20 vision.

One ultrawide or two monitors?

An ultrawide gives one uninterrupted surface, ideal for timelines, wide spreadsheets and games. Two monitors give more total pixels for the money and a natural separation between tasks, at the cost of a bezel in the middle and a wider total angle. The comparison chapter puts numbers on both.

All questions and answers