Definately not comic sans

February 9, 2004 11:33 AM

What fonts are good for on-screen readability at small pixel sizes (<12 px)? Are bit fonts better for this kind of thing?
posted by signal to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

Screenfox 9 (at the bottom) Very readable down to 9 px.
posted by y6y6y6 at 12:27 PM on February 9, 2004

Assuming you are talking about text in images, applications, or flash (because in HTML your options are pretty much limited to arial, vendana, helvetica, or times)...
These guys make some really nice, readable "pixel fonts".
posted by malphigian at 12:31 PM on February 9, 2004

Sevenet and Mini-7.
posted by adamgreenfield at 1:17 PM on February 9, 2004

This guy:
http://miniml.com/fonts/
is the master of the pixel font, all the way down to 7px. My favourite, "standard 07_54". One important point with these fonts, though. Make sure you only use them at the original size, or doubled-up. For example, if the original size is 8px, then use that. Or 16px, 24px etc. 9 or 10px would look horrible.

I think the best standard fonts to use are Verdana 10, Tahoma 11 (the Windows standard). On a Mac, Geneva 10px is, in my opinion, the best on-screen font ever made.
posted by derbs at 1:39 PM on February 9, 2004

Let's not forget kottke's silkscreen.
posted by keswick at 2:04 PM on February 9, 2004

Response by poster: Thanks! and yes, malphigian, I mean text in images, not HTML.
posted by signal at 2:14 PM on February 9, 2004

I agree with derbs. I use miniml's "Standard" set quite often. They used to be free but I don't think they are anymore. You can also sometimes get away with Arial set to 10 or 12 with the anti aliasing turned to offf or none.
posted by dobbs at 2:24 PM on February 9, 2004

Yeah they're not free any more :(
posted by derbs at 2:26 PM on February 9, 2004