font size of sub- and superscripts

I got a problem with the font size of my sub- and superscripts. In my opinion, they are a bit too big and look quite unproportional. Is there a way to decrease the font size of sub- and superscripts?

\documentclass[a4paper,pagesize ,landscape, 5pt, fleqn]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[left=0.75cm,right=0.75cm, top=0.75cm, bottom=1cm]{geometry}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage{amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb}
\usepackage{bbm}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{array,multirow}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{tabularx}

\pagestyle{plain}
\columnsep 30pt
\columnseprule .4pt

\begin{document}

\begin{multicols*}{3}

$\text{superscript: }x^2$

$\text{subscript: }x_0$

\end {multicols*}
\end{document}

• you have a 5pt option set so your base is already 5p5 small which is already only just legible, by default latex does not let cm fonts go smaller than that. Why set the base so small? – David Carlisle Dec 4 '14 at 15:00
• So if I would increase my general font size I would get a decent proportion between the letter and my sub-\superscript ? – montju Dec 4 '14 at 15:07
• the smallest base size that can allow distinct sizes for first- and second-order scripts (using computer modern) is 7pt -- 6pt for first-order and 5pt for second-order. even so, the actual choice of sizes is up to the document class. – barbara beeton Dec 4 '14 at 15:45
• @montju the drfault math sizes (for display, text, script, scriptscript) are as follows. You had a base of 5pt so they are all set at 5pt: \DeclareMathSizes{5}{5}{5}{5} \DeclareMathSizes{6}{6}{5}{5} \DeclareMathSizes{7}{7}{5}{5} \DeclareMathSizes{8}{8}{6}{5} \DeclareMathSizes{9}{9}{6}{5} \DeclareMathSizes{10}{10}{7}{5} – David Carlisle Dec 4 '14 at 16:17
• @montju if you are planning to print on paper you really don't want to go much below 5pt, if it's a document people can zoom it's less of an issue. You can for example set it double size at a2 rather than shrinking the fonts, then if someone really wants to print it they can just scale form a2 ro a4 while printing. You can also change the above declarations to set smaller sizes if you use fix-cm to allow arbitrary cm sizes. – David Carlisle Dec 4 '14 at 20:50