Your Pupillary Distance (PD) is the distance between the centre of one pupil to the centre of the other pupil (the blacks of your eyes) measured in millimetres.
This measurement is an important piece of information that we need to deliver the very best vision in your new glasses.
Your PD is usually written as one value (e.g. 66mm) but sometimes written as 33/33 if you are symmetrical or 34/32 if one eye is slightly further away from the centre of the nose than the other, which is very common.
The average PD measurements for women is 62mm and for men 64mm. Between 58 and 68 is quite normal though.
We do encourage you to ask your optician for your PD measurement. If your optician is reluctant to give you this, you’ll be pleased to hear that it is easy enough to measure your PD using a simple ruler and the help of a friend.
Here is how you can measure your pupillary distance:
METHOD
- Pupillary distance can be easily measured looking in a mirror and using a ruler! Please follow these steps:
- Stand in front of a mirror at a distance of about 20cm (8 inches)
- Close your right eye Place your ruler flat against the mirror and align it horizontally with the millimetre scale pointing upwards
- Looking over the top of the ruler with your left eye, align the zero mark of the ruler in the centre of your left pupil
- Now open your right eye and close your left but keep your head still and the ruler in the same position
- Read the millimetre measurement corresponding to the centre of your right pupil
To be sure, you can repeat this process a few times for consistency.