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What is in your opinion the most readable serif typo for very small sizes such as 5pt.?

The one and only — Minuscule, by Thomas Huot-Marchand, of course.

The same ones I’ve been talking about for years, ever since I saw them with my own eyes: Souvenir and Benguiat. You won’t believe it either.

—
Joe Clark
http://joeclark.org/

Going for elegance at small sizes could be tricky, since features that are often associated with elegance such as delicate hairlines don't work at those scales. Anyway, I'll add Fedra Serif A to the list of suggestions.

FF Clifford Six is very nice.

@joeclark
Seriously? Souvenir? I guess that the large x-height and lower contrast would certainly work well at those sizes. I've never tried it though, since it wouldn't have been the first to come to mind.

Your example shows all-caps - if you care about the text being readable then why all-caps?

Maybe it's for legal copy?
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

>Maybe it’s for legal copy?

That was my guess - but in that case why would you want a readable font?

For legal, I recommend Eric van Blokland's ThePrintedWord typeface, amazingly available for free from LettError

I haven't seen any suggestions so far that have fit the 'elegant' criteria. Here are a few choices:
Freight Micro
Cycles Five
Arno Caption

I think elegant doesn't go together with readable at small size, particularly for lower case.

But they can look good. And if you want to go all cap, as your example indicates, then Engravers Gothic or Copperplate Gothic are among the most readable tiny, because of their wide characters.