diff --git a/include/QF/ui/vrect.h b/include/QF/ui/vrect.h
index 64d3b6302..c05bc51f9 100644
--- a/include/QF/ui/vrect.h
+++ b/include/QF/ui/vrect.h
@@ -165,4 +165,27 @@ vrect_t *VRect_Union (const vrect_t *r1, const vrect_t *r2);
 */
 vrect_t *VRect_Merge (const vrect_t *r1, const vrect_t *r2);
 
+/** Return up to three rectangles resulting from carving out the upper-left
+	rectangle of the specified width and height.
+
+	The first rectangle in the list will be the part of the supplied rectangle
+	that is covered by \a width and \a height (if either parameter is larger
+	than the supplied rectangle, then the returned rectangle will have the same
+	size as the supplied rectangle in that dimension). The other rectangles,
+	if there are any, will be the remainder of the supplied rectangle such that
+	the areas are min-max (to avoid creating long narrow rectangles).
+
+	\param rect		The rectangle to carve.
+	\param width	Width of the sub-rectangle carved from \a rect.
+	\param height   Height of the sub-rectangle carved from \a rect.
+	\return			The carved-out sub-rectangle, plus up to two rectangles
+					representing the remainder of \a rect, with splits such
+					that the two rectangles are both minimum and maximum area.
+					The larger of the two remainder rectangles will allways be
+					last.
+	\note	It is the caller's responsibility to delete the returned
+			rectangles.
+*/
+vrect_t *VRect_SubRect (const vrect_t *rect, int width, int height);
+
 #endif//__QF_ui_vrect_h
diff --git a/libs/ui/vrect.c b/libs/ui/vrect.c
index cbfe72595..f9ff47763 100644
--- a/libs/ui/vrect.c
+++ b/libs/ui/vrect.c
@@ -258,3 +258,44 @@ cleanup:
 	}
 	return 0;
 }
+
+VISIBLE vrect_t *
+VRect_SubRect (const vrect_t *rect, int width, int height)
+{
+	if (width > rect->width) {
+		width = rect->width;
+	}
+	if (height > rect->height) {
+		height = rect->height;
+	}
+	int         a = rect->height - height;
+	int         b = rect->width - width;
+	vrect_t    *r, *s;
+	if (b * height > a * width) {
+		// a horizontal cut produces a larger off-cut rectangle than a vertical
+		// cut, so do a vertical cut first so the off-cut is as small as
+		// possible
+		r = VRect_VSplit (rect, rect->x + width);
+		if (VRect_IsEmpty (r->next)) {
+			VRect_Delete (r->next);
+			r->next = 0;
+		}
+		s = VRect_HSplit (r, r->y + height);
+	} else {
+		r = VRect_HSplit (rect, rect->y + height);
+		if (VRect_IsEmpty (r->next)) {
+			VRect_Delete (r->next);
+			r->next = 0;
+		}
+		s = VRect_VSplit (r, r->x + width);
+	}
+
+	if (VRect_IsEmpty (s->next)) {
+		VRect_Delete (s->next);
+		s->next = r->next;
+	} else {
+		s->next->next = r->next;
+	}
+	VRect_Delete (r);
+	return s;
+}