Digital signage screen size calculator
Tell the calculator how far away your furthest reader stands and what the screen will show. It gives you the smallest screen that stays readable, and the size to look for in a shop.
How the calculator works
Screens are sold by the diagonal, but what decides whether people can read one is the height of the letters, and letters scale with the screen’s height. So the calculator counts screen heights.
Six heights for large text
A few words across the screen, such as a welcome, an offer or a clock, read from up to six screen heights away.
Four for line by line
A menu with prices, a timetable or a price list needs the reader closer: no more than four screen heights.
Measured from the back
Use the person furthest away: the back of the queue, the last waiting chair, the doorway. Not the middle of the room.
Common screen sizes and how far they read
For a 16:9 screen in landscape. In portrait the short side sets the text size, which gives the same distances.
| Screen | Height | Large text, up to | Line by line, up to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32" | 40 cm | 2.4 m (8 ft) | 1.6 m (5 ft) |
| 43" | 54 cm | 3.2 m (11 ft) | 2.1 m (7 ft) |
| 50" | 62 cm | 3.7 m (12 ft) | 2.5 m (8 ft) |
| 55" | 68 cm | 4.1 m (13 ft) | 2.7 m (9 ft) |
| 65" | 81 cm | 4.9 m (16 ft) | 3.2 m (11 ft) |
| 75" | 93 cm | 5.6 m (18 ft) | 3.7 m (12 ft) |
| 86" | 107 cm | 6.4 m (21 ft) | 4.3 m (14 ft) |
| 98" | 122 cm | 7.3 m (24 ft) | 4.9 m (16 ft) |
Link to this calculator
The calculator is free to use and free to link to. If you write about screens, sell them or install them, paste this link wherever your readers ask how big theirs should be.
<a href="https://www.signagestack.com/en/screen-size-calculator">Screen size calculator</a>Questions about screen size
No. In portrait the screen’s short side is its width, and that width limits how large the text can be, so measure with it. That gives the same distances as landscape. Check that the display is meant to run on its side before you mount it that way.
Panels are sold in a handful of sizes: 32, 43, 50, 55, 65, 75, 86 and 98 inches are the usual ones. The calculator shows the exact minimum next to its answer and picks the first common size at or above it, because the screen that is a little too small is the one that fails.
Yes. Find its diagonal in the table above: it shows how far large text and line-by-line text read on it. If your furthest reader stands further back than that, the screen is too small for that content.
Put fewer items on each page so each line can be larger, split the content across two screens, or measure where people actually choose. The Menu board app adds pages rather than shrinking the text when a menu does not fit.
The furthest distance divided by six, or by four, gives the screen height the text needs. A 16:9 screen is about half as tall as its diagonal: its height in centimetres is roughly its diagonal in inches times 1.25. The calculator then rounds up to the next size panels are sold in.
From the blog
- Digital signage display vs TV: when a consumer TV is enoughWhat a commercial display does that a consumer TV does not: hours, brightness, warranty, power and portrait. And when the TV you have is fine.
- Digital menu board design: how to make a menu people can readDesign rules for a digital menu board: size for the queue, one category per page, photos and cut-outs, prices, light or dark, portrait or landscape.
Thirty minutes, no slides.
We pair a screen live, build a playlist with your content, and show you the report at the end. If it is not a fit you will know inside ten minutes and we will say so.