How to Position Dual Monitors

The monitor is an essential part of a workstation, and for some professions, it’s indispensable to have two of them. 

If you spend a lot of time in front of a dual-monitor setup, a wrongly positioned monitor may force you to work in unnatural or awkward positions, which can result in pain and injury.

In a nutshell, when looking at your monitors, the chin should neither be tilted upwards nor downwards, you should sit straight without having to bend in any direction, and your eyes should be directed straight. Bending, turning, or tilting for prolonged periods of time can result in discomfort, eye problems, headaches, and aches throughout your body.

In order to avoid these easily-preventable health issues and inconveniences, we strongly recommend you to set up your dual monitor workstation or gaming rig properly. This small effort can go a long way when it comes to health benefits.

In this article, we’ll talk about ergonomics and the best ways to position two monitors. We’ll also cover the differences in positioning relative to whether your monitors are flat or curved. Let’s get into it.

The Optimal Monitor Position

Before going into the correct dual monitor position, let’s first discern the proper monitor position in general. We briefly touched on this, but there are two main factors that determine the proper position of the monitor, and they’re the viewing distance and viewing angle. 

The distance is the space between the screen and your eyes, while the angle refers to the height of the monitor relative to your eyes. Improperly distanced monitors can lead to eye strain, while the improper angle is often the reason behind poor body posture.

When using a single monitor, the optimal viewing angle is 15 to 30 degrees, while the viewing distance should be somewhere between 30 and 32 inches.

With two monitors, proper positioning becomes slightly more complicated. Let’s see how and why.

How to Place Two Monitors?

Dual monitor setups have been with us for a while now, and it’s been shown that dual monitor use can improve productivity. This is mainly due to a better overview of data, reduced unnecessary actions like window switching (alt-tabbing), etc.

Furthermore, people in different work settings, such as hospitals or academia, have been less prone to errors and completed their daily tasks faster with a two-screen configuration compared to a single-screen one.

However, if the ergonomic setup of the dual-monitor system is not right, the second monitor may do you more harm than good.

Before you start adjusting the height and distance of the two monitors, you need to ask yourself two questions: 

• Do you use both monitors equally? 
• How much do you use each of them?

The positioning of the two monitors will differ based on how you answer these questions.

Sit in the Ideal Position

Another step before you adjust the monitors is to assume your ideal position. Put the chair in front of your work desk and adjust it in such a way that your back is straight with your lumbar part engaged with the lower back of the chair. 

Your legs should be either perpendicular to the pelvic bone or going slightly downhill. The feet should be touching the ground firmly, with the knees bent by 90 degrees to the thighs. 

As for the arms and shoulders, the shoulders should feel relaxed — neither stiff nor stretched — while the forearms should be resting on the tabletop at a 90-degree angle at the elbows. If you’re using a standing desk, the same rule applies to the arms. 

While you are in the right position, check in with your head and neck. Place them in a comfortable, natural position, and see where your eyes are naturally looking if you look straight ahead.

Now, the monitors.

Both Monitors Used Equally

If you’ve estimated that you need to use both monitors equally, position them so that the place where they join is directly in front of you, mimicking a single screen. The two screens should form a 30-degree angle. To get them in this position easily, line the monitors next to each other, and then slowly create an angle by pushing the outer sides toward you.

Since the surface you want to cover with your eyes is now twice the size of a single screen, you may want to place them a bit further than you would place a single monitor. As always, experiment with what works best for you, but a distance of about 30 inches should still be optimal.

One Monitor Used More Often

Put the monitor that you use more in front of yourself, the same way you would position a single monitor. That will be your main monitor, which you’ll use for most of your activities. As we said, this monitor should form a 15 to 30 degrees angle to your eyes and be 30-32 inches away from your face.

Also, between each other, the monitors should be at an approximately 30-degree angle and some 12-30 inches from the central keyboard line.

How to Position Second Monitor?

In this setup, the second monitor will be your secondary one — the monitor that you mainly use for keeping track of notes, browsing, and research or watching videos. This is also the screen you’ll usually use to take a break from work and reply to your private messages or look up fun things online.

This monitor should be slightly on the side. Most people put it on the right, but if you are left-handed, with a tendency to look to the left more often, you can also position your secondary monitor to the left. Unlike the primary monitor, the second one should be at an angle, forming a semi-circle.

Still, keep in mind that both monitors should be at arm’s length distance from you and have the same height as described for the primary monitor before.

How to Place Two Curved Monitors?

Setting up two curved monitors works similarly to setting up two flat-screen ones. However, some gamers and IT professionals argue that two curved monitors do not provide as good a user experience as a single curved monitor or two-panel one. On the other hand, if the viewing angle is set wide enough, two curved monitors can indeed provide a great user experience.

One of the main benefits of using curved monitors over using flat-panel ones is that the curved monitors offer a three-dimensional view, which is far more captivating for our visual system. Images also tend to seem bigger, so looking at a curved monitor for a longer period is more comfortable than looking at a flat-panel one. 

With curved monitors, you need to make the same decision: will you use both monitors equally, or is one monitor dominant? The answer to this question will determine whether you will position a single monitor in front of your face, and the other one a bit rotated diagonally to one side, with the curved screens forming a half-circle.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Angle Should Dual Monitors Be At?

Dual monitors should be at around a 30-degree angle between each other, regardless of whether you set them up for equal use or if one monitor is dominant. With curved monitors, this is easier, as they will naturally form a half-circle when you connect their inner edges, while with the flat-panel ones, you need to form that angle.

Should the Second Monitor Be on the Right or Left?

The secondary monitor should be placed on the side of your dominant eye. For many people, the dominant hand also plays an important role here. Some prefer to have the main monitor, commonly used for reference during work, on the side of their dominant hand.

What Is the Best Way to Setup Dual Monitors on a Desk?

The monitors should be 13 to 30 inches from the middle line of the keyboard and 30-32 inches from the eyes. They should form an approximately 30-degree angle between each other and a similar one with the eyes-axis.

You can position the monitors next to each other, right in front of your line of sight, or place one on the side of your dominant eye as the secondary screen.