The best monitors for graphic artists
Work more comfortably and accurately with the best monitors for graphic artists and graphic designers.

The best monitors for graphic artists and graphic designers can really help boost the quality of your work. On a large, high-quality screen, you'll be able to see your artwork in plenty of detail, and with very accurate colours. So along with the best laptops for graphic design, they're an essential investment for anyone who's serious about developing their practice.
✅ We are solely focused on what creatives need
✅ Benchmark tests based on real workflows
✅ We consult actual designers and creative pros
✅ Over 50 monitors tested over 10,000 hours in the last two years
Here at Creative Bloq, we have a ton of experience reviewing monitors, and we don't just measure their colour accuracy scientifically, we also use them in real-world workflows, with the graphic design software. So you can be sure that all the monitors we've selected here are great to use in practice.
If you want to save time, the BenQ PD3225U is our absolute favourite monitor for graphic artists right now. But there are several more on the market that are worthy of your attention, so you'll find plenty of strong options to choose from below.
Beren has well over a decade of experience writing about creative tech, having previously worked for the digital art magazine ImagineFX, the fine art magazine Paint & Draw and Canon Pro Europe. As Creative Bloq's Ecom Editor, he's racked up hundreds of hours testing and reviewing monitors for a variety of creative purposes. He also oversees the curation of our buying guides, taking feedback on the products we've tested from contributing creatives.
Quick list
Our top pick overall is a 32-inch IPS, factory-calibrated screen that's perfect for graphic artists who want their colours to be as accurate as possible.
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We think this super-cheap 27-inch display is practically a steal. You sacrifice 4K resolution and the brightness and colour gamut are hardly spectacular, but the price is incredible.
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This premium screen provides top-tier performance, excellent contrast and colour coverage, solid connectivity, and a calibration tool.
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This is a great higher-end option for users who need an immersive, bright and accurate monitor for business and productivity work.
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Superb image quality and Apple's trademark high-end construction and design make this a solid pick. It's not without its flaws, though, including the lack of HDR support.
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A portable external monitor can be handy for working on the move, and this OLED display takes the concept up a level with solid brightness and colour coverage for visual art and design.
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The best monitors for graphic artists in full
Why you can trust Creative Bloq
The best monitor for graphic artists overall
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ You need professional-level colour accuracy: This monitor offers excellent colour performance.
✅ You want seamless Mac compatibility: With Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, M-Book mode, and Display ColorTalk software.
✅ You need a well-connected workstation: There's a built-in KVM switch and an array of USB ports.
❌ You're looking for the brightest display: With a peak brightness of 400 nits, it’s decent but not as bright as some high-end OLED or mini-LED alternatives.
❌ You want an ultra-budget option: The PD3225U is a premium monitor with a price tag to match.
❌ You need the best Adobe RGB coverage: Its Adobe RGB coverage is 85%, making other options better suited for print-focused work.
🔎 BenQ PD3225U is an outstanding choice for graphic artists, especially those working on colour-sensitive projects. With a 32-inch 4K display, superb connectivity, and Mac-friendly features, it’s a premium option that balances quality and convenience. ★★★★★
What you need to know:
The BenQ PD3225U is designed with creative professionals in mind, delivering impressive colour accuracy, versatile connectivity, and thoughtful extras like the Hotkey Puck G2.
Design and build: The PD3225U sports a sleek and professional design, with ultra-slim bezels and a sturdy stand that allows for height, tilt, and pivot adjustments. The screen rotates 90 degrees into portrait mode, though it only turns clockwise, which may be inconvenient depending on your setup. The Hotkey Puck G2 offers quick access to display settings, colour modes, and brightness adjustments. A built-in KVM switch allows seamless switching between two computers using a single keyboard and mouse.
Display: Our reviewer found that 4K resolution on a 32-inch display is ideal for creative work, offering sharp details and a spacious workspace. The PD3225U comes factory-calibrated and supports 100% sRGB, 99% Rec.709, and 98% DCI-P3, ensuring excellent colour accuracy. Adobe RGB coverage stands at 85%, which is solid but not the highest available. The IPS Black panel enhances contrast, producing deeper blacks and more vibrant colours compared to standard IPS screens.
Brightness reaches a peak of 400 nits in HDR mode, which is better than its predecessor but still not the brightest on the market. While sufficient for most environments, those working in extremely bright settings may prefer a display with higher brightness levels.
Pricing: At around £1,099 / $1,099, the BenQ PD3225U sits in the mid-to-premium range for professional monitors. It offers good value for graphic artists, particularly those who need Thunderbolt 3 support and factory-calibrated colour accuracy.
Read more: BenQ PD3225U review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
---|---|---|
Design and build | Elegant, functional, and well-connected | ★★★★★ |
Display | Excellent colour accuracy, but not the brightest | ★★★★ |
Pricing | Premium, but worth it for pros. | ★★★★ |
"This is a screen for those whose professional life revolves around the image they see on the screen being as close as possible to the image produced elsewhere."
The best budget monitor for graphic artists
Specifications
✅ You're starting out in graphic art: We think this is a great options for students or beginner designers who don't have a big budget.
✅ You want passable colour coverage: There are even cheaper monitors about, but this still provides reasonable colour coverage for visual art.
✅ You want to dabble in gaming: This display comes with a 165Hz refresh rate, which is decent for gaming and much better than the measly 60Hz many budget monitors offer.
❌ You want a 4K display: The resolution here is FHD: 1920 x 1080.
❌ You want a large display: More space can make it easier to multitask.
❌ You want pro colour coverage: This hits 80% of the Adobe RGB space and 81% of DCI-P3. That's not terrible, but it's not suitable for colour-accurate work.
🔎 Xiaomi G27i is aimed squarely at the budget end of the market, but it packs in a few surprises that make it stand out above the cut-price crowd. We think it's a great budget option for beginner graphic designers and digital artists who want a mid-sized screen. ★★★★½
What you need to know:
If you're not yet working in graphic art or design professionally, you might be tight on cash. If you're looking for a more affordable screen to get started with, we think the Xiaomi G27i is the best budget monitor for graphic design.
Design and build: Given that this is a budget monitor, the design is pretty barebones, as you'd expect. You can't adjust the display's height or positioning, while the ports are on the back of the screen rather than the underneath, which you'll need to be aware of if you want to place it against a wall. Speaking of ports, you only get two slots: one for HDMI 2.0 and one for DisplayPort (there's a 3.5mm headphone jack too). But when the price is this cheap, a little cheapness in the build is acceptable, especially when you consider the quality of the screen itself and how little Xiaomi charges for it.
Display: FHD resolution has its limits, but it's not as much of an issue for static art as it is for video. Here, you'll get 99% coverage of the sRGB colour space, along with 80% of Adobe RGB and 81% of DCI-P3. It's rounded out by 275 nits of brightness.
Pricing: The Xiaomi G27iis the cheapest monitor for graphic design and digital art that we can recommend, and it's hard to stress just how good value this monitor is. At just £110/$130, it's ridiculously cheap and a fantastic buy for those who are starting out.
Read more: Xiaomi G27i review.
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
---|---|---|
Design and build | Solid and reliable. | ★★★★ |
Display | Only FHD, but that may be all you need. | ★★★ |
Pricing | Phenomenal value. | ★★★★★ |
"If screens this cheap can be this good, it makes you wonder why you’ve been spending five times the price on them in the past."
The best premium monitor for graphic artists
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
✅ You're a pro designer or artist and want to take your setup to the next level: This beauty from Asus provides exceptional colour coverage and accuracy, ideal for precise colour matching for print.
✅ You want the perfect 4K screen: We think 32-inches is the perfect size for a 4K monitor for graphics work.
✅ You want a monitor for gaming: This monitor's specs are almost all outstanding with the exception of the refresh rate, which is on a par with most of the other display on our list.
❌ You're on a tight budget: This is naturally a very expensive monitor.
❌ You don't do work for print: If you're work is only seen on digital displays, you may not need such high Adobe RGB coverage.
❌ You want pro colour coverage: This doesn't quite manage 100% sRGB.
🔎 Asus ProArt OLED PA32DC is a premium professional monitor that very much lives up to its promise based on our own testing. Its bright, contrast and colour coverage and accuracy are excellent, and it has handy features for creatives. ★★★★½
What you need to know:
If you're a professional graphic artist looking to upgrade your setup with a premium screen, this is one of the best we've ever tested. The Asus ProArt OLED PA32DC is 4K-plus 32-inch display that shines when it comes to colour accuracy.
Design and build: This professional display is big and heavy, and it has fairly large bezels. Some might think that makes it look a little old-fashioned, but we were very happy with how sturdy it was, and we found it easy to adjust. The joystick-like controller requires a light touch but works well, and we found the generous array of ports on the back easy enough to access. The USB-C port supports power delivery of up to 65W, so you can use this as a USB hub if you have a port-deprived laptop. The monitor is available with a monitor hood to help reduce reflections and glare, and plenty of ports for peripherals, and it comes with a built-in colorimeter to allow regular calibration of the screen without needing a monitor calibrator.
Display: We were immediately impressed by the brightness and contrast of the OLED panel. It has three HDR standards, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision, all flicker-free. This is the screen to go for if you want outstanding colour coverage for print as well as digital and video, hitting 99% of Adobe RGB. Our testing also vouched for the precise △E< 1 score for colour accuracy.
There are preset modes for a wide range of colour setups – sRGB, Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, Rec. 2020, DICOM, Rec. 709, HDR_PQ DCI, HDR_PQ Rec2020, HDR_HLG, HDR_HLG DCI, Dolby Vision. It pretty much covers every colour setup a graphic artist or indeed a video editor, photographer or animator could need. Our reviewers only grumble was the fairly slow 60Hz refresh rate. You might expect higher on a monitor with such impressive specs elsewhere, but this isn't a screen designed for gaming.
Pricing: The only real problem with the ProArt OLED PA32DC as a monitor for graphic artists, and the reason it isn't at the top of our guide, is the price. At over £3,199, it's the second most expensive monitor we've included after the Apple Pro Display XDR. Considering how good the BenQ DesignVue PD3220U is at number one our our list, only those who really need the extra features and specs will want to consider spending $2,000 more for this beautiful display.
Read more: Asus ProArt OLED PA32DC review
Attributes | Notes | Rating |
---|---|---|
Design and build | Plenty of ports, and monitor hood comes included. | ★★★★★ |
Display | Excellent colour accuracy and auto-calibration. | ★★★★★ |
Pricing | Relatively expensive. | ★★★★ |
"Do you need absolute top-spec colour accuracy with infinite contrast and built-in features that come up to your eyeballs? And do you have a sizeable trust fund to dip into? Or are you a midsize-to-large studio? Then the ASUS ProArt PA32DC makes sense."