Which screen size for digital signage? Distance, height and orientation

The question comes up in almost every signage project: how big should the screen be? The honest answer does not depend on the budget but on four things: the viewers’ distance, the kind of content, the mounting height and the orientation. Settle these four points first and you buy once, and right.

Distance decides the size

For pictures and video, a simple rule of thumb from practice:

Beyond about eight metres, in halls or on facades, a single display reaches its limit. That is where an LED wall comes in, modular and scalable to any size.

Measure the distance where people actually stand or sit: at the counter, in the queue, at the table. Not at the opposite wall.

Text needs more room than pictures

A video works even on a small surface. Text does not. For lettering: at least one centimetre of letter height per metre of distance, and rather double that for older eyes and quick glances in passing.

An example: a price list to be read from six metres needs letters six centimetres high. A 65-inch screen in landscape is about 81 centimetres tall. With line spacing, that fits around eight lines, no more. To show more, you need a bigger screen or several pages that rotate.

Portrait or landscape

Orientation follows the content, not the wall.

Simply rotating a screen is not enough. Content has to be designed for the orientation, otherwise black bars remain at the top and bottom and the effect is gone.

The right height

The centre of the picture belongs at the viewers’ eye level. For standing people that is about 1.5 to 1.7 metres above the floor; for seated people, in a waiting room or restaurant, about 1.2 metres.

If the screen hangs above head height because shelves, a counter or walkways sit below it, tilt it slightly downwards. Otherwise the ceiling lights reflect and colours look washed out. Tilting mounts cost hardly more than fixed ones.

Light and brightness

The brighter the room, the brighter the display needs to be. A screen facing a window needs far more brightness than one inside. In a shop window with direct sun, a TV will not do; it takes devices built for that use. Our article on shop-window brightness has more.

Mount and wall

Large displays are heavy. From 86 inches, the device with its mount exceeds 40 kilograms, and considerably more at 98 and 120 inches. The wall has to carry that; with plasterboard you need a substructure or a floor stand. Add power and network behind the device so no cable hangs in view, and a player that plays the content reliably.

Decide in short

1. Measure the distance where people really stand. 2. Define the content: video, picture or text. 3. Choose the orientation by content, not by wall. 4. Picture centre at eye level, otherwise tilt. 5. Brightness according to room light. 6. Clarify wall, power, network and player before buying.

We plan this with you on site, mount the device and set up the content, in Solothurn and across Switzerland.