6x13 fixed vs Bitstream Vera Sans Mono

6x13 fixed is the apex of bitmap fonts. It has a nice, defined character set and great proportions for quantity of text onscreen, making for excellent readability. It is aesthetically pleasing for a bitmap font and has been deservedly termed 'classic'.

At a small text size, each character has a limited resolution. A character size of 6x13 pixels means only 78 pixels per character. Modern fonts are designed to be scalable and are less legible at these small sizes. Using bitmap fonts increases legibility by eliminating scaling and sub-pixel aliasing artifacts. Some scalable fonts include "ppems" embedded bitmaps for this reason.

6x13 is the classic fixed monospace bitmap font that is expected to be available on every X server. It is part of the misc-fixed family. These fonts were handcrafted for readability in a terminal.

It is distributed alongside the X Window System.

You can fit a lot of text on the screen.

Width is just right (not too narrow, not too wide). Many other fonts lack this.

Smooth at small sizes while still clear.

All characters are easy to recognize at small sizes (comma, period, etc).

This is subjective but this font is very easy to read. The letters are all spaced and sized properly.