Viewing Distance Calculator
Work out how far to sit from a TV or monitor. Enter the screen's diagonal size and resolution, and this calculator finds the closest distance at which individual pixels disappear, the range that stays immersive, and the field of view you get at any distance — shown in both feet-and-inches and centimetres.
From the closest pixel-sharp distance out to a still-immersive 30° field of view.
Close enough to use comfortably, far enough that individual pixels disappear.
The THX immersive distance — the screen fills a cinematic 40° of your vision.
Below SMPTE's 30° guideline — the screen may feel small, and you are not using its full resolution.
At this distance the pixels blend together and the image looks perfectly sharp.
How to choose a viewing distance for monitors vs TVs
There are two different goals, and they pull in opposite directions. On a desk you sit close, so the priority is sharpness: get near enough to fill the screen with detail, but not so near that you can pick out the pixel grid or have to swivel your head to read the corners. On a couch you sit far, so the priority is immersion: get close enough that the picture fills a satisfying slice of your vision, without sitting so far that a large screen feels small. The recommended range below spans both — its near edge is the closest "pixel-sharp" distance, and its far edge is where the image still fills a cinematic field of view.
The pixel-acuity basis: why 4K lets you sit closer
A person with normal 20/20 vision can resolve detail down to about one arcminute — one-sixtieth of a degree of arc. Below that, neighbouring pixels blur into one and the grid becomes invisible. Each pixel's angular size depends on the pixel pitch (how physically small the pixels are) and how far away you sit, so the "retina" distance where pixels vanish works out to roughly 3438 divided by the display's pixels-per-inch, in inches. Because a 4K panel packs four times the pixels of a 1080p panel of the same size, its pixels are half as wide, and you can sit about half as close before the grid appears. That is the whole argument for higher resolution: it buys you the freedom to sit closer, or to use a bigger screen at the same distance, without softness.
Field-of-view guidelines: SMPTE and THX
Immersion is really about field of view — how much of your vision the screen fills — not distance on its own. The horizontal field of view is 2 × arctan((screen width ÷ 2) ÷ distance), and rearranging it gives the distance for a target angle: distance = (screen width ÷ 2) ÷ tan(angle ÷ 2). SMPTE recommends a horizontal field of view of at least 30° for a comfortable cinema-style experience, which sets the far edge of a good range. THX recommends around 36–40° for a more immersive, front-row feel, which sets a closer target for home theatre. Anywhere in the 30–40° band suits most people for mixed film and general use.
Wasting resolution, and viewing comfort
- Sit too far and you throw away resolution: past the point where pixels are already invisible, extra sharpness is wasted, and a 4K screen looks no different from 1080p. If you sit far, a bigger or higher-resolution screen is what actually helps.
- Sit too close and two problems appear — the pixel grid or screen-door effect becomes visible on lower-resolution panels, and the screen fills so much of your vision that you must move your eyes or head to take it all in.
- For a desk monitor, position the top of the screen at or just below eye level and keep the whole panel within a relaxed cone of vision so you are not constantly refocusing.
- Eye comfort is driven more by brightness, glare and taking breaks than by distance itself. The 20-20-20 habit — every 20 minutes, look at something about 20 feet away for 20 seconds — helps regardless of how far you sit from the screen.
Related calculators
Both of the distances above come from pixel density. The Retina Display Calculator checks whether a screen is pixel-sharp at a specific distance, and the PPI Calculator works out the pixels-per-inch and dot pitch behind these numbers.