Desk size calculator
The other way round. Choose the screens you want and this works out the desk they need — width, depth, and the difference between the narrowest one that holds them and one you would actually enjoy using.
An arm clamps to the back edge, so the desk needs no room for a stand.
- Desk width
- 111.6 cm55% of it used — comfortable rather than crammed
- At a minimum
- 65.4 cmthe screens are 61.4 cm edge to edge
- Desk depth
- 48 cmthe deepest stand, plus a clear zone for a keyboard
Drawn on the desk above at true scale. To go the other way — a desk you already have, and what fits on it — the monitor size calculator.
How the desk width is worked out
The calculator measures each screen by its body, bezels included, because the body is what stands on the desk. Two or more screens go side by side with a 2 cm gap between each pair, and the screens and gaps together make up the width of the group.
The minimum width is that group plus 2 cm at each end: the narrowest desk that holds the screens with nothing spare. The comfortable width is the desk on which the screens take up 55% of the width. That is the middle of the range the calculator treats as a comfortable fit, and it leaves room at each side for whatever shares the desk with them. A desk narrower than comfortable still works, but the screens crowd its edges.
Take a single 27 inch on a stand. Its body is 61.4 cm wide, so the minimum is 65.4 cm. The comfortable width is 111.6 cm: the screen takes 55% of it, with about 25 cm clear at each side. The answer above shows the same three figures for whatever you enter.
Depth: the stand, the curve and the keyboard
Depth is the room the screens need from the back of the desk to the front: the foot of the deepest stand, plus the bulge of any curved panel, plus a 30 cm zone in front of the screens for the keyboard.
A 27 inch on a stand needs 48 cm: an 18 cm foot and the 30 cm keyboard zone. The stand’s foot is the part a monitor arm takes off the desk, which is why an arm can make a shallow desk usable.
On a monitor arm the calculator counts no stand at all, only the screen’s curve and the keyboard zone, so a flat panel needs 30 cm. The arm clamps to the back edge of the desk and takes no room on the surface. The calculator does not check whether the screen then sits at a comfortable distance from your eyes. The monitor size calculator does, size by size.
Two screens need a much wider desk
The comfortable width is the screens divided by 0.55, which makes it about 1.8 times the width of the screens. Two 27 inch screens side by side are about 125 cm of screen and gap, so the minimum is about 129 cm and the comfortable width about 227 cm.
That is more than most people expect from the screens alone. A desk about 130 cm wide will hold the pair, but close to its edges. Measure the desk you have before you decide whether the second screen fits.
What the width and depth do not check
The answer describes the surface the screens need. It does not check your wall, your chair, the cables behind the desk, or the distance between the screens and your eyes. For that, use the monitor size calculator, which ranks each size by the distance it needs.
If the desk is already there
Measure the desk’s width and depth and compare them with the figures above. A desk between the minimum and the comfortable width takes the screens, close to its edges. A desk at or above the comfortable width gives them room. A desk narrower than the minimum will not take them at all, and for depth the stand plus the keyboard zone is the figure to beat.
The monitor size calculator runs the same check the other way. Enter the desk, and it shows which sizes fit and draws them onto it at true scale.