Cheap character LCD displays are more versatile than we give them credit for. Most of the cheapies have a 5×8 character display, which looks blocky but legible when you have an appropriate font.

While the SSD1306 OLED has somewhat become the go-to display for up-to-date projects, the good old character displays ... clock that takes an entire 16×2 LCD to show each single digit.

For details about how liquid crystals work, see LCD subpixels for color screens and seven-segment display for monochrome. Passive displays are widely used with segmented digits and characters for ...