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.

Getting a character LCD running should be really simple ... that uses just 2 of the RPi lines to address even lines of the display (four data bits plus three control bits). This is a bit of ...

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 ...