Amsler grid check.
A quick way to notice wavy, blurry, distorted, dark, or missing areas in your central vision, tested one eye at a time. This is an educational screening tool, not a diagnostic test.
Testing: right eye — cover your left eye.
Your results
Right eye
No areas marked yet.
Left eye
No areas marked yet.
This tool only records where you tap — it can't detect distortion on its own, and screen size and lighting affect what you notice. New wavy lines, a blurred patch, or a dark or missing spot — especially if sudden, or in one eye only — should be checked by an eye-care professional promptly, since early evaluation matters for many causes of central vision changes.
The science behind this
The grid maps the central ~10–20° of your visual field — the macula — while you fixate the middle dot. That fixation works because the fovea, densely packed with cone photoreceptors, is the patch of retina you point at anything you look straight at.
Because retinal geometry maps directly onto visual space, a disturbance at the macula shows up as a matching defect on the grid: wavy or bent lines (metamorphopsia) suggest fluid or traction at the retina, while a gray or missing patch (scotoma) suggests non-functioning tissue.
Clinically associated with
- Age-related macular degeneration — the grid is a standard home-monitoring tool
- Central serous retinopathy, epiretinal membrane, and macular edema
Limitations
- Subjective and monocular, and it depends on steady central fixation.
- It's an early-warning and monitoring aid, not a diagnosis.
- New distortion or a fresh dark spot warrants prompt professional evaluation.