Five gray squares labeled 1.8 to 2.6, drawn twice on one-pixel black and white lines: on most screens a top row and a bottom row. Step back until the lines blur. The same label should vanish in both rows.
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Click, tap or press the right arrow for the next one. The left arrow goes back.
Gamma chart in two rows, 1.8 to 2.6Five gray squares labeled 1.8 to 2.6, drawn twice on one-pixel black and white lines: on most screens a top row and a bottom row. Step back until the lines blur. The same label should vanish in both rows.
Dark patches, five levels top and bottomPatches at levels 8, 16, 24, 32 and 40 on black, in a top row and again in a bottom row. Straight on, count how many you can see in each row. Count again from each side: the number should not change.
Light patches, five levels top and bottomPatches at levels 215, 225, 235, 245 and 250 on white, drawn twice. The palest differs from white by 5 levels. Patches that show from one seat and melt into white from another mean the bright end shifts with the angle.
Purple edge to edgeOne flat purple with red at 160, green at 112 and blue at 208. Hold your head still and compare the corners with the middle, then move. A part that turns bluer, pinker or paler is color shifting with the angle.
Mid gray edge to edgeLevel 128 in all three channels. With no color in the way a change of brightness is easy to see: from a steep angle one side of the screen may darken or wash out while the other holds.
Black edge to edgeEvery pixel at zero. Dim the room and look into the corners, then move your head. Light that stays put is backlight bleed. Light that grows, fades or slides as you move is glow, which depends on the angle.
Show all 18 patterns and checks (12 more)
Where to look from 6
Straight on, from your usual seatEyes level with the middle of the screen, at the distance you work from. Note what you see here first: which square vanishes in each row, how many patches show. Every other position is compared with this one.
From each sideSlide your chair, or stand beside the desk as a second viewer would. Go as far round as people really sit, and compare the near edge of the screen with the far one. This is the direction that matters when others watch with you.
From above and belowStand up, then crouch, or tilt a laptop lid back and forward, and watch the two-row chart as you go. Screens are usually built to hold up better from side to side than up and down, so a weak panel shows itself here first.
Up close, corner against middleLean in until the screen fills your view. Your eyes now meet the corners at a slant and the middle head on, so one flat color should still look the same everywhere. Where it does not, you see the shift without moving.
When the chart shows no labelsThe page hides the gamma labels when its lines cannot land on whole screen pixels, or when a narrow screen leaves them no room. The comparison still works: count the vanishing square's place from the left in each row.
Then set the tilt on the two-row chartNo setting widens a viewing angle: it belongs to the panel. What you can change is the tilt. Tilt the screen until the same square vanishes in both rows, or as near as it gets, and sit square to the middle.
What a change points to 6
The two rows vanish at different labelsGamma changes with the vertical angle. On an LCD a gamma setting holds for one vertical viewing angle only, which means one height on the screen, so mid-tones look lighter or darker depending on where they sit. Most TN panels show it.
Colors that invert from belowThe mark of a twisted nematic (TN) panel. Its viewing angle is limited, most of all vertically: from above the picture whitens, from below it dims, and off the perpendicular its colors can shift to the point of inverting.
The dark patches fade from the sideContrast is falling with the angle. A vertical alignment (VA) panel has deeper blacks than IPS seen head on, but a narrower viewing angle: its color and especially its contrast shift more as you move off to the side.
A glow over black that moves when you doA haze in the corners of the black field that changes as your head moves is panel glow, best known on IPS screens. Its strength depends on your angle and your distance, which is how to tell it from backlight bleed.
Almost no change from any sideIn-plane switching (IPS) was developed to cure the poor viewing angle of TN panels. An IPS screen keeps its colors consistent from all angles, with almost no off-angle color shift, so every pattern here should look much the same from each seat.
Black that stays black from every sideAn OLED pixel makes its own light and gives none at black, so there is no backlight to glow at any angle. A black field that stays black wherever you stand fits an OLED screen.
How this list was compiled: The patterns are this site's own drawings. Every level was computed: a gamma square is the gray level that gives half of full light at the gamma on its label, 255 times 0.5 to the power 1/g, rounded (174 for 1.8, 180 for 2.0, 186 for 2.2, 191 for 2.4, 195 for 2.6), and the purple is red 160, green 112, blue 208. That viewing angle is the angle from which a display can be seen with acceptable visual performance, that it runs from one direction to its opposite with a maximum of 180 degrees for a flat one-sided screen, that some makers report the angle at which contrast stays above 5:1 or 10:1 as minimally acceptable viewing, and that screens are usually designed for greater viewing angles horizontally than vertically, is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewing_angle. That a gamma correction on an LCD holds for just one vertical viewing angle, and so for one horizontal line of the monitor, is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction. That twisted nematic (TN) displays have narrow viewing angles, most of all vertically, with colors that shift to the point of completely inverting off the perpendicular, that in-plane switching (IPS) was developed to improve on that and has almost no off-angle color shift, and that one vertical alignment design mostly removed the off-angle glow of solid blacks, is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TFT_LCD; that viewing a TN display from above whitens colors and from below dims them is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_nematic_field_effect; that IPS panels display consistent color from all viewing angles is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPS_panel. That a vertical alignment (VA) panel has deeper blacks than IPS but a narrower viewing angle, with color and especially contrast shift more apparent, is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-crystal_display. That an OLED pixel emits its own light with no backlight and an inactive one produces no light is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED. That the strength of IPS glow changes with the viewing angle and the distance, unlike backlight bleed, is from https://www.displayninja.com/what-is-backlight-bleed/. That a gamma which depends on the viewing angle is the case with most TN displays, and that a single flat color seen from close up should look the same in the middle and near the edges, is from http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/viewing_angle.php, whose test images are not used here. All read 2026-10-06. Every reading is made by eye and points to a kind of panel without proving it; the page measures no angle and gives no viewing angle figure for any screen. Licence: own work
How it works
This monitor viewing angle test draws one gamma chart twice, as a top row and a bottom row. If a different square vanishes in each row, the picture changes with your viewing angle. Patches and flat fields show the rest.
Read the full guide
Read it from four directions
1. Press Go full screen and sit as you normally do. Step back or squint until the lines blur: one square in each row melts into them. Note which.
2. Move to each side, then stand up, then crouch, and note it again each time.
3. Click, tap or press the right arrow for the patches, the purple and the black, and repeat.
Questions and answers
How do I test whether a monitor is IPS or TN?
Use the first image and crouch. On a TN monitor the two rows of squares disagree and the whole picture changes from below; on an IPS monitor it holds from every side. That is a pointer by eye; the model's specification settles it.
Does this work as a screen angle test for a laptop or a phone?
Yes. The patterns fill any screen. On a laptop or a phone, keep your head still and tilt the device: the angle of a lid is a vertical viewing angle.
How is a monitor's viewing angle measured?
Makers measure it from one side to the opposite one, so 180 degrees is the most a flat screen can have, and some count any angle where contrast stays above 10 to 1. Judge by these patterns, from the seats people really use.