Distance Glasses

Distance glasses are prescription glasses with single vision lenses that correct your far vision. They're most commonly prescribed for short-sightedness (myopia), where objects far away appear blurry but close-up vision remains clear. Distance glasses bring road signs, television screens, faces across the room and everything beyond arm's length back into sharp focus. Every pair from Direct Sight is glazed to your exact prescription in our UK optical laboratory, with prices starting from £9.00 including lenses.

Look at your prescription from your optician. If it's written for distance vision it will usually show a minus (−) value in the SPH (sphere) box, and there will be no ADD (addition) value. Many opticians also label the prescription 'Distance' or 'DV'. If your prescription includes an ADD value, you have separate near and distance corrections, and you may want to consider varifocal or bifocal glasses instead. If you're unsure, our UK-based team can check your prescription for you on 01494 307 345.

Yes. Distance glasses are designed for full-time wear. If you're short-sighted, wearing your glasses throughout the day gives you consistently clear vision for driving, working, watching television and getting around. Wearing distance glasses won't weaken your eyes or make your prescription worse, that's a common myth. Some people with milder prescriptions choose to wear them only for specific tasks such as driving or the cinema, which is also perfectly fine.

If you need glasses to meet the legal eyesight standard, you must wear them every time you drive. In the UK you must be able to read a number plate from 20 metres and meet the required visual acuity standard, with your glasses on if you need them. Driving without your prescribed glasses can invalidate your insurance and lead to prosecution. We recommend keeping a spare pair of distance glasses in your car, and adding an anti-reflective coating to reduce glare from headlights when driving at night.

Distance glasses correct your far vision, for driving, television and seeing across a room.  They typically use minus-powered lenses for short-sightedness. Reading glasses do the opposite, they correct near vision for books, phones and close-up work, typically using plus-powered lenses. The two aren't interchangeable, so wearing the wrong pair for a task will leave your vision blurred. If you need correction at both distances, one pair of varifocal glasses can cover near, intermediate and far vision without swapping between pairs.

We glaze distance glasses for a wide range of prescriptions, including strong minus prescriptions for higher levels of short-sightedness. Over 100 of our frames are suitable for strong prescriptions, use the 'Strong prescriptions' filter to see them. For prescriptions above around −4.00, we recommend high index lenses, which are thinner and lighter than standard lenses, so your glasses look better and feel more comfortable. Our team can advise on the best frame and lens combination for your prescription.

Yes. Because distance glasses use single vision lenses, most of our range qualifies for our Next Day Express service. Order before 3pm on a working day and we'll glaze your glasses in our Amersham laboratory and dispatch them the same day. Look for frames marked as Next Day when browsing, or shop our dedicated next day glasses range.

Yes. You can customise your distance glasses with a range of lens options at checkout. Popular upgrades include anti-reflective and scratch-resistant coatings, blue light lenses for screen use, high index thinner lenses for stronger prescriptions, and our Adaptions photochromic lenses, which darken automatically in sunlight and clear again indoors, ideal if you want one pair for indoors and out.