Lenses · Screens and work

Varifocals or single vision for computer work? Usually neither is the whole answer.

There’s a third kind of lens most people are never offered.

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This is a guide, not an eye test — any change in your vision is an examination first.

Side one

Why everyday varifocals struggle at a desk.

A general-purpose progressive gives its widest, clearest zone to distance, because that is what most of life asks for. The near zone at the bottom is calculated around close reading at roughly 40 cm. Between them runs the intermediate corridor — the narrowest working part of the lens.

A monitor sits at roughly 70–90 cm, squarely in that corridor. Nothing has failed; the lens is simply being asked to cover a distance it was not designed around. The tell is the chin lift, the head turn between screens and the hunt for the clear bit.

Why varifocals go soft at the computer

Side two

Why plain single vision struggles on long screen days.

A single-vision lens holds one distance beautifully and leaves everything else to your own focusing. On a short day that is no trouble at all. On a seven-hour day, held at one close distance, it is your eyes doing the work the lens is not — which is where tired eyes, leaning in and pushing back from the screen tend to come from.

Long before anyone needs a varifocal, there is a single-vision design with a small amount of near support built into it, made for digital device users. The support level is a decision, not an age: support level 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 or 1.25 chosen with you, not by age band. It is an ordering value we choose with you in practice, never from a date of birth.

Screen-ready single vision (Relaxsee): it is still a single-vision lens — it will not turn into a varifocal or replace a prescription check.

The third kind

Three honest routes — and the one most people are never offered is the middle one.

Which route is yours depends on your prescription, your working distances and whether you would genuinely use a second pair. Each names a lens family, never a tier, and each is honest about what it will not do.

Your everyday pair, improved

The pair you already reach for, fitted around the distances you actually use rather than around an average — the frame checked for corridor and fitting height, the near zone set from your measured working distance. Where your day genuinely spans several distances and you also described difficulty moving between them, that same design is configured more deeply still.

The distances you actually use, noted from your profile and measured where it matters.

A general-purpose lens will still be a compromise for a long working day compared with a pair made for it. We would show you the difference rather than claim it.

STOTTS. Everyday STOTTS. Precision

Screen-ready single vision

A single-vision lens with a small amount of near support built in, made for digital device users. It wears like an ordinary pair and is the usual route for people who are not in varifocals — including plenty who are years away from needing one.

Support level 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 or 1.25 chosen with you, not by age band.

Screen-ready single vision (Relaxsee): it is still a single-vision lens — it will not turn into a varifocal or replace a prescription check.

STOTTS. Screen · Single vision, screen support

A dedicated desk pair

An occupational design calculated around your working distance — the desk, the screens, the person opposite and, where your day spans it, the room. Which of the two working-distance designs it is comes from your measured furthest distance, not from a preference.

The furthest and nearest distances you actually use at your desk, measured — this is what decides 1 Metre or 2 Metres.

Stated up front: “Lens design not suitable for driving”. It lives at your desk, beside your everyday pair — never in the car.

STOTTS. Screen · Desk reach STOTTS. Screen · Room reach

Nikon E-Life Pro family for a desk pair (likely E-Life Pro 1 Metre or 2 Metres, decided by your measured furthest distance); Nikon Relaxsee family for screen-ready single vision. Lens technology: Nikon Lenswear. Configuration: STOTTS.

A designer leaning over a drawing board at a desk, wearing glasses — Imagery: Nikon Lenswear

The one question that decides it

Furthest thing you regularly need to see clearly while working?

This one genuinely changes what we'd suggest. Pick the stop that matches your desk and we'll show you the distance the Nikon Lenswear Dispensing Guide 2026 sets that design at.

Stated up front: “Lens design not suitable for driving”. Both working-distance designs below are desk pairs. They sit beside your everyday glasses, not instead of them.

One pair or two

Some people would rather have one pair. We start there and say the rest out loud.

A second pair is only worth having if it is genuinely convenient for you — if it will live on the desk and actually get worn. Plenty of people know themselves well enough to say it would not, and that is an entirely reasonable place to start from. When you tell us that, the profile leads with the pair you already reach for and keeps the desk option alongside rather than ahead of it.

What we will not do is let the convenient answer pass as the complete one. A general-purpose lens will still be a compromise for your working day compared with a pair made for it — so we show you the difference at the distances you actually use, and you decide.

Whether it lives beside your everyday pair — decided with you. And if nothing you tell us earns a change at all, that is a real answer too: When nothing you told us earns a change: your current set-up, kept, with what is working said out loud. That is a real answer, not a soft one.

A dedicated computer pair

“Screens aren't a big enough part of your day to justify a pair of their own.”

Another dedicated work pair

“You already own and use glasses made for your working environment. We would review those before suggesting anything new.”

Two of the refusals written into the Lens Profile, in the words it uses on your own result.

Desk lenses, answered straight.

Varifocals or single vision for computer work — which is better?

Neither, on its own, is the whole answer. An everyday varifocal gives its widest zone to distance and leaves the desk in the narrow intermediate corridor. Plain single vision holds one distance well and asks your eyes to do the focusing for everything else, which is what long screen days make tiring. The third route — a lens calculated around your working distance — is the one most people are never shown.

I am not old enough for varifocals. Is there anything for screens?

Yes, and it is not a varifocal. A single-vision lens with a small amount of near support built in is made for digital device users, and the design option is an ordering value rather than an age: support level 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 or 1.25 chosen with you, not by age band. Whether it is appropriate at all is decided from your prescription and your day, in practice.

Can I drive in a desk pair?

No. The guide's own line is "Lens design not suitable for driving", and every Screen card carries it. It would live at your desk.

Do I need a separate pair just for the computer?

Not always. If you would rather have one pair, the profile starts with your everyday lenses and keeps Screen alongside as the option — with an honest line about what a desk pair would still do better.

Not sure screens are the issue at all? Count your screen hours first.

Ready when you are

Tell us your distances. We'll tell you which route is yours.

Three minutes about your desk, your screens and the rest of your day — and we'll show you the configuration we'd build, or say honestly that nothing needs to change.