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Desk Setup Glossary
The measurement and equipment terms used throughout this site — geometry and gear language, defined plainly.
Elbow height
The distance from the floor to the bottom of your elbow when seated (or standing) with relaxed shoulders. The single most useful number in desk setup: your work surface wants to be at or just below it.
Eye line
Where your gaze lands on the screen with your head in a neutral, relaxed position. A common starting point puts the top of the screen around eye level, adjusted for screen size and tilt.
Monitor distance
The distance from your eyes to the screen — commonly around arm’s length, scaled up for larger screens. Distance, height, and tilt together define your monitor geometry.
Negative tilt
Angling a keyboard so the back edge sits lower than the front, keeping wrists straighter at typing height. The opposite of the flip-out feet on most keyboards.
Seat depth
The distance from the chair’s backrest to the front edge of the seat. Matched against your femur length, it determines whether you can use the backrest without the seat edge pressing behind your knees. The most underrated dimension on a chair spec sheet.
Lumbar contact
Where and how firmly the chair’s lower-back support meets your back. Adjustable height matters because lower backs are not all in the same place.
Femur length
In setup terms: the seated distance from your back to the inside of your knee. The body measurement that seat depth has to match.
Gas spring (monitor arm)
The mechanism in most adjustable monitor arms. Each arm has a supported weight range — too light a monitor drifts up, too heavy sags down. Check the range against your monitor’s actual weight, including any soundbar or webcam.
Load rating
The maximum weight a frame, arm, or shelf is specified to carry. Standing-desk ratings include everything on the desk — monitors, arms, and the desktop itself count against it.
Wobble test
Checking a standing desk’s side-to-side and front-back movement at full height under a real load. Frames that feel solid at sitting height can sway noticeably at standing height — which is why this site tests every frame with the same monitor array.
Duty cycle
How long a desk motor can run before it needs to rest, often written as something like “2 min on / 18 min off.” Relevant if you change heights frequently.
Crossbar
A horizontal stiffening bar between standing-desk legs. Adds stability at height; costs knee room. One of the genuine design trade-offs between frame models.
Sit-stand ratio
How you actually split your day between sitting and standing. The honest number matters more than the aspirational one — and it tends to drift with the seasons.
Cable spine
A flexible channel that carries cables from the floor to a height-adjustable desk so nothing pulls taut at full height. Part of cable management that has to move with the desk.
VESA
The standard mounting-hole pattern on the back of monitors (commonly 75×75 or 100×100 mm). What makes a monitor compatible with arms and mounts.