Mrs. Eaves XL: A Modern Font
For my typography class, we were asked to create a poster that sells a specific typeface to other graphic designers. It had to include information on the font history, the full alphabet/ numbers, and examples of its various weights (regular, italic, bold, bold italic, etc.) It needed a minimum of three colors, so I used a pink background, black and dark violet lettering, and a white dashed line as trim.
In 1996, Zuzana Licko created Mrs Eaves XL, a transitional serif typeface. It was an improvement on the Mrs Eaves typeface, which Licko based off of a design by John Baskerville. It focused on its thick to thin strokes in each letter, and used other variants like swashes and open spaces. Mrs Eaves did not suit well with large body text, since it had loose and uneven spacing. As a result, Licko made a typeface that had a tighter look, as well as a higher X-height.
In history, the name comes from Sarah Eaves, a woman Baskerville hired as his house-keeper (later becoming his wife). She would help him with setting and printing his typefaces. Intent to honor her as a woman who contributed to the history of typography, Licko immortalizes her name through this Baskerville-esque typeface.
