Monitor position
Monitor position is mostly a neck problem and partly an information problem. Get the height wrong and you spend hours with your head tilted; get the distance wrong and part of your screen falls outside the arc your eyes can check at a glance.
Height
The neutral resting position for the human head involves the eyes looking slightly downward, roughly 15 degrees below horizontal. A monitor positioned so that your gaze must go up to see the middle of the screen keeps your neck in extension, which is a static load your neck carries for the length of the session.
The rule that produces the right result: top edge of the screen at or just below eye level. Your natural gaze then lands in the upper third and everything below is a downward glance.
Most included monitor stands do not go low enough to achieve this, and many people compensate by raising the monitor further with books. That is the wrong direction. If the monitor cannot go low enough, a monitor arm can.
Distance
Distance sets two things: how much of your visual field the screen occupies, and how many pixels fall into each degree.
| Panel (16:9) | Minimum distance |
|---|---|
| 24.5 inch | 65 cm |
| 27 inch | 72 cm |
| 32 inch | 85 cm |
Measure from your eyes to the panel surface, with your chair in its usual position. Most people are further back than they estimate, because the stand puts the panel behind the desk edge. The size and distance calculator gives the exact arc for your setup.
Centring
Centre the monitor on your body, not on the desk. This sounds obvious and is regularly wrong, because desks have towers and speakers and the monitor ends up wherever there was room. A monitor offset by 15 cm means your head is turned for every hour you play, and neck rotation held statically is worse than any of the height problems on this page.
With two monitors, put the primary directly in front of you and the secondary to one side, angled inward. Do not centre the pair and split your gaze across the bezel.
Monitor arms
The case for one has three parts, only one of which is about ergonomics.
- Desk space. A typical stand occupies 20 by 25 cm in the most valuable part of your desk. An arm clamps at the back edge and returns all of it.
- Height range. Included stands frequently cannot go low enough to put the top edge at eye level for a seated adult, which is the single most common position error.
- Depth. An arm lets you push the panel back further than a stand allows, which is how you get a larger screen inside the scanning arc.
Check your desk can take the clamp (thickness and a solid rear edge) and that the arm's load rating covers your panel, and check whether your monitor has the standard VESA mounting pattern, which some do not without an adapter.
The two minute check
Sit normally and close your eyes. Relax your neck and let your head settle. Open your eyes. Wherever you are looking is your neutral gaze, and the top third of your screen should be there or just above it. If you are looking at your desk, the monitor is too high. If you are looking above the monitor, it is too low.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
How high should my monitor be?
Top edge at or slightly below eye level, so that your natural gaze falls into the upper third of the screen and you look slightly downward at the rest. Looking slightly down is the neutral resting position for the head; looking up is not, and sustained upward gaze is a common cause of neck ache.
Should I tilt my monitor?
Slightly upward at the bottom, so the screen surface is roughly perpendicular to your line of sight. If the monitor is at the correct height you will be looking slightly down at it, so a small backward tilt keeps the screen square to your eyes and keeps brightness and colour even across it.
How far away should I sit?
Far enough that the screen width covers no more than about 45 degrees of your visual field, which is the arc you can scan with eye movement alone. For a 24.5 inch 16:9 panel that is roughly 65 cm or more; for 27 inch, roughly 72 cm.
Are monitor arms worth it?
For the desk space alone, often yes: a stand footprint is typically 20 by 25 cm of prime real estate directly in front of you, and removing it lets you push the monitor further back. The adjustability is a genuine benefit as well, particularly for height, which most included stands limit severely.
Should my monitor be directly in front of me or angled?
Directly in front, centred on your body rather than on your desk. A monitor offset to one side means your head is turned for hours, which is worse than any of the height issues above. If you use two monitors, centre the primary one on your body and put the secondary to the side.