A technique is disclosed for dynamically adjusting dimensions of characters, such as digits, displayed on a configurable display, such as in a human-machine interface. The height of the characters is fixed and the width is altered depending upon the number of characters to be displayed, resulting in changing aspect ratios for the characters. The width may be set to a predetermined maximum character width if all characters to be displayed will fit within the available space, or the width may be reduced to accommodate more characters. The technique may take into account cushion spaces for borders or frames, as well as spaces between characters. The resulting display allows for a change in the number of significant digits in a displayed numeral, while maintaining excellent readability.