serif
In typography, a serif () is a small line or stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or symbol within a particular font or family of fonts. A typeface or "font family" making use of serifs is called a serif typeface ...
typeface designed by
Zuzana Licko
Zuzana Licko (born Zuzana Ličko, 1961) is a Slovak-born American type designer and visual artist known for co-founding Emigre Fonts, a digital type foundry in Berkeley, CA. She has designed and produced numerous digital typefaces including the ...
in 1996. It is a variant of
Baskerville
Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a Serif#Transitional, transitional typeface, intended as a ...
, which was designed in Birmingham, England, in the 1750s. Mrs Eaves adapts Baskerville for use in display contexts, such as headings and book blurbs, through the use of a low
x-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the let ...
and a range of unusual combined characters or ligatures.
Mrs Eaves was released by Emigre, a type foundry run by Licko and husband
Rudy VanderLans
Rudy VanderLans (born 1955, Voorburg) is a Dutch graphic designer, photographer, and the co-founder of Emigre Fonts with his wife Zuzana Licko. Emigre Fonts is an independent type foundry in Berkeley, CA. He was also the art director and editor of ...
, and has been joined by an 'XL' version for body text, as well as Mr Eaves, a
sans-serif
In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...
companion.
Description
Mrs Eaves is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became
John Baskerville
John Baskerville (baptised 28 January 1707 – 8 January 1775) was an English businessman, in areas including japanning and papier-mâché, but he is best remembered as a printer and type designer. He was also responsible for inventing "wov ...
's wife. Like his typefaces, John Baskerville was, himself, a controversial character. As Baskerville was setting up his printing and type business, he hired Sarah Eaves as his live-in housekeeper; eventually, her husband Richard abandoned her and their five children, and Mrs Eaves became Baskerville's mistress and eventual helpmate with typesetting and printing. She married Baskerville within a month of her estranged husband's death. Selection of the name Mrs Eaves honors one of the forgotten women in the history of typography.
Stylistically, Mrs Eaves is a revival of the
Baskerville
Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (1706–1775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a Serif#Transitional, transitional typeface, intended as a ...
typefaces cut for Baskerville by John Handy. Like Baskerville, Mrs Eaves has a near vertical stress, departing from the old-style model. Identifying characters, similar to Baskerville's types, are the lowercase g with its open lower counter and swashlike ear. Both the roman and italic uppercase Q have a flowing swashlike tail. The uppercase C has serifs at top and bottom; there is no serif at the apex of the central junction in uppercase W; and the uppercase G has a sharp spur suggesting a vestigial serif.
Licko's design is unorthodox and not a pure revival. In creating it, she was influenced by how it would be printed by contrast to printing in Baskerville's time: considering the flatness of offset lithography in comparison to letterpress printing, and the resolution of set devices and on-screen display. The overall stroke weight of Mrs Eaves is considerably heavier than most other revivals, countering the often anemic reproduction of smaller point sizes in other digital revivals of Baskerville, and restoring some of the feeling of letterpress printing's unpredictability. To compensate for this and create a brighter-looking page, Licko lowered the
x-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the let ...
, reducing the amount of space taken up by ink on the page.
Issue 38, ''The Authentic Issue'', saw the first extensive use of Mrs Eaves in ''Emigre'' Magazine
In an interview featured in Eye (magazine), ''Eye''(No. 43, Vol. 11, Spring 2002), Licko explained why she thought Mrs Eaves was a successful typeface:
Licko also designed a set of Petite Caps for Mrs Eaves, which were lower in height than regular Small Caps to accommodate the small x-height. This was the first typeface family to have a Petite Caps font and it became a feature in the OpenType specifications.
Derivatives
Several derivatives of Mrs Eaves have been released. These include Mrs Eaves XL (2009), a tighter derivative with a higher
x-height
upright 2.0, alt=A diagram showing the line terms used in typography
In typography, the x-height, or corpus size, is the distance between the baseline and the mean line of lowercase letters in a typeface. Typically, this is the height of the let ...
intended for body text, and Mr Eaves and Mr Eaves XL, a sans-serif design similar to Johnston and
Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill and released by the British branch of Monotype from 1928 onwards.
Gill Sans is based on Edward Johnston's 1916 "Underground Alphabet", the corporate font of London Underground. ...
.
Mrs Eaves XL was intended to provide a solution to a common criticism of Mrs Eaves' original release: its very loose and uneven spacing, which makes Mrs Eaves unsuitable for body text. Emigre noted themselves that "The spacing is generally too loose for large bodies of text, it sort of rambles along ... Economy of space was not one of the goals behind the original Mrs Eaves design."
Mr Eaves was released in both regular and XL designs, matching the original Mrs Eaves and Mrs Eaves XL. Both heights were released in two widths: regular and narrow, and in two styles: Sans, a
humanist
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "humani ...
design closest to the original serif model, and a more simplified Modern design resembling
geometric
Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...
Mrs Eaves is particularly well known for its range of ligatures, ranging from the common to the fanciful and including intertwined and swash designs. Ligatures in all variants of Mrs Eaves include the standard fi, ffi, and fl ligatures, as well as the classic eighteenth-century ct and st ligatures and others with no historical precedent. These have been released in a variety of formats: originally ligatures were released in separate expert set fonts; more recently they are issued as stylistic alternates using the
OpenType
OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. It was built on its predecessor TrueType, retaining TrueType's basic structure and adding many intricate data structures for prescribing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark ...
format. A Just Ligatures variant is available in roman and italic. The OpenType format fonts also contain all 213 ligatures.
Identifying characteristics
* Tail on lowercase g does not close
* Swash-like tail of Q
* small counter of italic e compared to italic a
* J well below baseline
* High crossbar and pointed apex of A
* Top and bottom serifs on C
* W and w have no middle stroke
* Long lower arm of E
* Many versions feature a calligraphic J
* T has wide arms
Prominent uses
The
WordPress
WordPress (WP or WordPress.org) is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) written in hypertext preprocessor language and paired with a MySQL or MariaDB database with supported HTTPS. Features include a plugin architecture ...
logotype is set in Mrs Eaves. It is also used for the titles (but not author names) on the covers and spines of the current
Penguin Classics
Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...
from
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Quicksilver wordmark uses Mrs Eaves. Roman and petite caps.
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine. When Bowdoin was chartered in 1794, Maine was still a part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The college offers 34 majors and 36 minors, as well as several joint eng ...
uses Mrs Eaves in the college wordmark and in many other official materials.
Logo of
Mandate Pictures
Mandate Pictures was a full-service film production company acquired by Lionsgate in 2007.
History
In 2005, Mandate Pictures was officially formed when the Los Angeles–based Senator International completed a management buyout from German indie ...
.
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass) ...
's 2003 album '' Hail to the Thief'' prominently used Mrs Eaves in its related artwork.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
Browne Review
The Browne Review or Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance was a review to consider the future direction of higher education funding in England.
It was launched on 9 November 2009 and published its findings on 12 Octo ...
.
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997. They consist of vocalist and pianist Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University Col ...
uses the font currently in their logo along with any other promotional artwork related to their 2015 album ''
A Head Full Of Dreams
''A Head Full of Dreams'' is the seventh studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released on 4 December 2015, by Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and by Atlantic Records in the United States. Coldplay recorded the album from early to mid 20 ...
''.
mewithoutYou
MewithoutYou, usually styled as mewithoutYou, was an American rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band consisted of Aaron Weiss (vocals), Michael Weiss and Brandon Beaver (guitars), Greg Jehanian (bass guitar), and Rickie Mazzotta ( ...
, a punk rock band from Philadelphia, use the font for every release, including their logo.
References
Further reading
*Blackwell, Lewis. ''20th Century Type.'' Yale University Press: 2004. .
*Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. ''Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History.'' Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. .
*Macmillan, Neil. ''An A–Z of Type Designers.'' Yale University Press: 2006. .
*Meggs, Philip B. and Roy McKelvey. ''Revival of the Fittest.'' RC Publications, Inc.: 2000.
*Updike, Daniel Berkley. ''Printing Types Their History, Forms and Use, Vol. II.'' Dover Publications, Inc.: 1937, 1980. {{ISBN, 0-486-23929-2
*Emigre http://www.emigre.com/EFfeature.php?di=109