The amber matrices were at least clearly readable, but the presentation of information left a lot to be desired. Oxford's travel signage has always been a bit crap, though (and not alone, of course, in this - lots of places in the UK and Europe (and I'm sure US) have crap signage following similar patterns). I've also seen high-resolution signage-oriented LED/LCD displays used for this sort of thing successfully. But if you're considering the cost of a monochrome/limited-colour OLED vs an LCD against the rest of the cost of upgrading a bus stop signage display the differential won't be a huge factor - labour, metalwork, etc will be. High contrast, high legibility, high resolution, but high cost. On smaller devices it's more or less entirely replaced 7-segs and similar displays. This is really where OLED is the right answer, I think. A large readable display on a lathe is much better in terms of safety than an smaller OLED display, even considering the chance of a stuck segment. The second best choice IMHO is OLED, however glare in bright environments is still worse, and getting a large OLED gets expensive very quickly.įor big machinery, a large 7-segment display can be read across the room in any condition.

For bench instruments, 7-segment displays (especially the VFD ones) are much more readable than the alternatives IMHO. The contrast is still unmatched to other display techs. It's a quirky article, but I get the point: many people abuse 7-segment displays as an aesthetic choice where there wouldn't be no point in it.ħ and 16-segment displays can still be a superb choice in many scenarios. Still, this article is about 7 segment displays. There's nothing that comes close for public signage that needs to be placed outdoors. The individual LEDs are sunken into the black matrix to provide extra contrast from direct light exposure. Amber LED matrices are my favorite tech for signage.

Font that looks like 7 segment display