Sheet 1 · side elevation
Elbow RoomA desk-fit check from your height
Measure your chair, desk, keyboard and screen with a tape. The page works out a target for each part from your height, puts the changes in the order that works (seat first, everything else hangs off it) and draws the result, free.
1 Your measurements free
Measured lengths instead of estimates Optional, better numbers
Sit upright on a firm chair, thighs level, feet flat, shoes on. Leave any box blank to use the estimate from your height.
2 The drawing and the plan free
Not checked
| Part | Now | Target | Change |
|---|
3 Steps for your own desk
One run turns the page's plan into short steps for your setup, using what you have to hand where it fits, with a line on breaks. The targets, the order and the verdict stay as they are.
Your steps - none yet
-Leave as it is
Strain spots
Breaks
The page's check
4 Saved checks
How the page decides
Targets. Unless you measure them, three lengths are estimated from your height H: floor to back of knee with shoes 0.25 H + 2.5 cm, seat to elbow 0.14 H, seat to eye 0.45 H. A comfortable screen distance is taken as 0.30 H to 0.44 H, about an arm's length. These are rough averages for adults; your own body may differ, so measured lengths always win.
The order. The seat comes first. With a fixed desk the seat rises until the keyboard sits about 3 cm below your elbow, and a footrest makes up the gap to the floor, but never past a 20 cm footrest: a desk higher than that is too high to sit at, so the keyboard is lowered instead (a tray, or a lower desk). Then the keyboard, then the screen (its top edge at eye level; anything from 5 cm below eye level to 2.5 cm above counts), then the distance. A laptop on its own cannot have both its screen and its keys at the right height, so it is split. A change of 2.5 cm or less counts as in range.
The verdict, first match wins. A laptop on its own for 2 hours or more a day: rework it. A seat, keyboard or screen change of 10 cm or more: rework it. Anything else out of range: a few tweaks. Nothing out of range: fits you.
Not medical advice. This is a furniture-height check, not a diagnosis or treatment. If pain, numbness or tingling lasts or gets worse, see a doctor or physiotherapist. Never stand on, or sit on, anything unstable to reach a target.