Monitor sizes in cm: 24, 27 and 32 inch widths and desk space

Why width matters more than inches

A monitor is sold by its diagonal, but a desk, an arm and a shelf care about width. A 27 inch 16:9 monitor is 87.2% as wide as its diagonal, while a 34 inch ultrawide 21:9 screen is 91.9% as wide as its diagonal. An ultrawide is therefore wider than its inch number suggests.

The width and height are derived from the diagonal and the aspect ratio with the formulas in the laptop screen guide. The panel is only part of the product: the bezel, stand base and arm add to the footprint, so always compare with the manufacturer's dimensions as well.

Panel width and height by monitor size

Desk width for one and two monitors

The table gives the width of the panels alone, plus a 4 cm gap between two screens. A real desk needs more room for the keyboard, mouse, speakers and your elbows, so treat these numbers as the minimum for the screens themselves.

How far to sit from a monitor

A screen is comfortable when it fills a reasonable part of your view without making you turn your head. The same viewing-angle method used for televisions in TV viewing distance applies: the distance is the width divided by twice the tangent of half the angle. The table uses 30° as a comfortable minimum and 40° as an immersive view.

Reading the viewing distance table

A typical desk is roughly 70 to 80 cm deep, which means your eyes are about 60 to 80 cm from a monitor on a normal stand. At that distance the table says a 24 inch screen fills 42° of your view at 70 cm, and a 27 inch screen fills 46°. A 32 inch monitor at the same distance fills 54°, which is why people with a 32 inch screen often push the monitor back or mount it on an arm.

These angles are a guide, not a standard. Text size, resolution and your eyesight matter more than any number, so try a screen at your normal sitting distance if you can.

Choosing a size

• 24 inches fits almost any desk and works for browsing and office work at 1080p.
• 27 inches is the usual choice for general use. It is 6.6 cm wider than a 24 inch monitor, which is enough to place two windows side by side.
• 32 inches suits a deeper desk and sharper resolution: at 70.8 cm wide it needs a desk at least 120 cm wide.
• Ultrawide 34 inch and 49 inch screens give a wide workspace with no bezel in the middle, but check the width table first: the 49 inch screen is 120 cm wide and needs a desk of at least 160 cm.

Related guides and converters

The screen sizes in cm guide lists phones, tablets, laptops and monitors in one chart. Use the inches to cm converter for sizes that are not in the tables, and check the inches to cm chart for fractions. For handheld screens, read phone and tablet sizes in cm. Many monitor sizes double as TV sizes, so the 32-inch figures here match the 32 inch TV in cm page.