If you're a graphic designer, whether you're working for many clients or starting your personal blog, one of the most important pieces in your setup is the monitor. This is what allows you to work on and edit your content, so you need something that properly reflects reality. The last thing you want is for content to look one way on your monitor and then look completely different once your client opens it. With this in mind, you'll want to get a monitor that displays a wide range of colors for the color space you're working with, whether it's in the common sRGB or the wider Rec. 2020 color spaces. And if you aren't planning on calibrating the monitor, you'll also want it to have accurate colors before any sort of calibration. We test the accuracy and color gamuts as part of nearly 400 tests we perform on every monitor.
There are other factors you may want to consider related to the monitor's specs. The screen size can help you be more productive with multiple windows opened side-by-side, but size is ultimately a personal preference. What's important is the resolution, as having a high resolution helps make content look sharp with a ton of details. 4k monitors are generally the best choices because of this, but there are a handful of 5k monitors, although they're costly. You may also want to think about which inputs the monitor offers in case you want to connect devices directly to the monitor.
We've bought and tested more than 360 monitors, and below are our recommendations for the best monitors for graphic design. Also see our recommendations for the best monitors for photo editing, the best monitors for video editing, and, if you have a MacBook, the best monitors for MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
Quick Look
We buy and test more than 30 monitors each year, with units that we buy completely on our own, without any cherry-picked units or samples. We put a lot into each unbiased, straight-to-the-point review, and there's a whole process from purchasing to publishing, involving multiple teams and people. We do more than just use the monitor for a week; we use specialized and custom tools to measure various aspects with objective data-based results. We also consider multiple factors before making any recommendations, including the monitor's cost, its performance against the competition, and whether or not it's easy to find.
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Best Monitor For Graphic Design
Editing8.2SDR Picture7.4Color Accuracy8.8HDR Picture7.6Brightness9.3Office8.4Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration)8.8Size32"Pixel TypeIPSMax Refresh Rate144 HzSee all our test resultsNative Resolution3840 x 2160The best monitor for graphic design we've tested is the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX. It's a 32-inch, 4k monitor with great picture quality for content creation. This is mainly because it has a Mini LED local dimming feature with 1,152 dimming zones, and it's effective at improving the picture quality. It helps the monitor display deep blacks against bright highlights, ideal if you need something for content creation in dark rooms, but it has haloing around bright objects, which is disappointing if your content has a lot of bright objects against dark backgrounds. You may prefer not using local dimming if that bothers you, but although the monitor gets bright even without local dimming, using it allows the screen to get incredibly bright, enough to fight glare even in a sunny workspace.
Whether you use local dimming or not, the monitor displays a wide range of colors in SDR and HDR color spaces, and displays bright colors very vividly. This makes it ideal for editing colorful content. The monitor is also very accurate in its sRGB mode without any calibration, but there are limited settings for a full calibration. On the plus side, the screen's 4k resolution lets you view your content with high details.
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Best Upper Mid-Range Monitor For Graphic Design
Editing7.9SDR Picture7.5Color Accuracy8.1HDR Picture6.2Brightness8.1Office8.5Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration)7.8Size27"Pixel TypeIPSMax Refresh Rate120 HzSee all our test resultsNative Resolution3840 x 2160If the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX is too expensive or you aren't going to take advantage of its HDR performance, then check out a cheaper option, like the Dell U2725QE. If you can't find it through any retailers, you can also get it directly from Dell's website. It's another 4k monitor, but it's still different from the BenQ in a few ways. It doesn't have Mini LED backlighting and has a terrible local dimming feature that you can't turn off in HDR. Although it has an Enhanced IPS Black panel whose native contrast ratio is higher than standard IPS monitors, blacks still look gray in dark rooms. It's also dimmer than the BenQ, and strong reflections result in a pink tint, so it's best to avoid placing this opposite a sunny window.
On the plus side, it also comes with an accurate sRGB mode, but you'll want to calibrate it for the best accuracy. One of the biggest advantages of the Dell is its large USB hub, which allows you to connect all kinds of devices to it. It even supports Thunderbolt 4 and 140W of power delivery, ideal if you have a power-hungry editing laptop, and it has a KVM switch that makes it easy to change between sources and use the same devices on both.
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Best Mid-Range Monitor For Graphic Design
Editing7.7SDR Picture6.9Color Accuracy8.9HDR Picture5.5Brightness7.3Office8.5Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration)9.1Size27"Pixel TypeIPSMax Refresh Rate60 HzSee all our test resultsNative Resolution3840 x 2160If you can't afford high-end monitors for graphic design, a mid-range option like the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV may better suit your needs. Like the Dell U2725QE, it's a 4k, 27-inch option, but there are some trade-offs for getting the lower-end monitor. It has a smaller USB hub and doesn't support Thunderbolt like the Dell. Instead, it supports DisplayPort Alt Mode with 90W of power delivery, so you can still display an image from a laptop and charge it with one cable. That said, it doesn't have a KVM switch like the Dell either, making it a worse choice for multitasking with different computers connected to the monitor.
At least the ASUS has advantages in other ways. It's much more accurate before any sort of calibration, which helps if you don't want to pay extra for a full calibration and you still want fantastic accuracy. It even has different picture modes for various color spaces that you may work with, from sRGB to Rec. 2020, and it displays a wide range of colors in the sRGB color space. Unfortunately, it has limited picture quality aside from that, as blacks look gray in dark rooms. It at least gets bright enough to fight some glare in well-lit rooms, but not sunny ones.
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Best Budget Monitor For Graphic Design
Editing7.6SDR Picture7.1Color Accuracy9.1HDR Picture5.1Brightness7.4Office7.7Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration)9.3Size27"Pixel TypeIPSMax Refresh Rate180 HzSee all our test resultsNative Resolution2560 x 1440If you're on a tight budget, there are some trade-offs you'll have to make when getting a monitor for graphic design. There are still quite a few options you can choose from, with the best graphic designer monitor at a low cost being the ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS. It's actually a gaming monitor that performs well for content creation, but it has some drawbacks versus the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV, which is a dedicated graphic design monitor. For example, the XG27ACS has a lower 1440p resolution, so images are less detailed. It doesn't have as many picture modes or features either, and it only has one USB-C port that's limited to 5W of power, so you still need a separate charger to connect your laptop to the monitor over USB-C.
What makes this better than other budget monitors for graphic design, though, is the fact that colors are very accurate before any sort of calibration. This is a nice touch, as you'll get an accurate image almost out of the box. It does have more limited picture quality in HDR, though, mainly because of its low contrast ratio. You can get the AOC Q27G40XMN if you want a budget monitor with better picture quality, but it has a bug when using local dimming.
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Best Cheap Monitor For Graphic Design
Editing6.8SDR Picture5.8Color Accuracy8.1HDR Picture4.9Brightness7.1Office7.7Color Accuracy (Pre-Calibration)7.6Size27"Pixel TypeIPSMax Refresh Rate170 HzSee all our test resultsNative Resolution2560 x 1440If you want a basic and cheap monitor for content creation, you can get some useful options for a bit cheaper than the ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS. One of those is the MSI G274QPF-QD, which is similar in specs to the ASUS because it has a 27-inch, 1440p screen. It also has a USB-C port that you can use to connect a laptop, but even though it delivers slightly more power at 15W, it's still not enough to charge a laptop while you're using it. Luckily, this monitor displays a wider range of colors than most cheap monitors and comes with an accurate sRGB mode. However, it's less accurate than the ASUS, so you'll need to calibrate it if your work requires perfectly accurate colors.
Besides that, the MSI comes with the basics for productivity, like an ergonomic stand that's very easy to adjust. While it gets bright enough to fight some glare, visibility is still an issue in a sunny room. And like most cheap monitors, it has limited picture quality in dark rooms, as blacks look gray, and it lacks a local dimming feature to further improve that.
Notable Mentions
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ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM:
The ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM is a high-end 4k monitor with incredible picture quality and better black levels in dark rooms than the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX. However, it doesn't get as bright and risks burn-in with constant exposure to the same static elements over time because it's an OLED.
See our review -
Apple Studio Display:
The Apple Studio Display is a premium 5k monitor that's an alternative to the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX if you edit content with a Mac. It has features you can only get with macOS, like its extremely accurate sRGB mode, but it has worse overall picture quality than the BenQ.
See our review -
Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx:
The Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx is a mid-range monitor that costs a bit more than the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV. It delivers better picture quality because it uses Mini LED backlighting and has a decent local dimming feature. It's something to consider if you care about that, but it has fewer productivity features than the ASUS.
See our review -
Dell P2425H:
The Dell P2425H is a cheap monitor that costs less than the MSI G274QPF-QD. It's something to consider if you're on a tight budget and don't mind getting something with a smaller screen. However, it lacks an sRGB mode and has less accurate colors than the MSI.
See our review
All Reviews
Our recommendations are based on what we think are the best computer monitors for graphic design currently available. They're adapted to be valid for most people in each price range. The rating is based on our review, factoring in price and feedback from our visitors.
If you'd prefer to make your own decision, here's the list of all of our monitor reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. Most monitors are good enough to please most people, and the things we fault monitors on are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.