I use a standard vector font in small size, around 5x8 pixels. The inherent antialiasing can give far more visual information cues than just pure binary bitmaps. The high-frequency edges of small bitmap characters are also much harsher, making AA vector fonts easier to look at.<p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/51qOPv4.png" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/51qOPv4.png</a><p>(Liberation Mono, 6pt, greyscale antialiasing, no hinting, default 96dpi setting)<p>Explore your available fonts to see which happens to scale down reasonably. Make sure to disable font hinting when using vector fonts at small sizes. Hinting absolutely destroys the shapes at those sizes, as the ~1 pixel fudging that lines get is massive relative to the glyph size of just a handful of pixels.