Through our commitment to new products-whether digital journals or entirely new forms of communication-we have continued to look for the most efficient and effective means to serve our readership.
Since the late 1960s, we have experimented with generation after generation of electronic publishing tools. The Press's enthusiasm for innovation is reflected in our continuing exploration of this frontier. We were among the first university presses to offer titles electronically and we continue to adopt technologies that allow us to better support the scholarly mission and disseminate our content widely. Trips to bookstores are always a treat for us as we find our Mrs Eaves staring out at us from dozens of book covers in the most elegant compositions, each time surprising us with her many talents.Among the largest university presses in the world, The MIT Press publishes over 200 new books each year along with 30 journals in the arts and humanities, economics, international affairs, history, political science, science and technology along with other disciplines. But if there’s one particular common usage that stands out, it must be literary-Mrs Eaves loves to adorn book covers and relishes short blurbs on the flaps and backs of dust covers. Its based on the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. While Licko initially set out to design a traditional text face, we never specified how Mrs Eaves could be best used. The layouts for my typebook for the typeface Baskerville. Due to its commercial and popular success it has come to define the Emigre type foundry. Proof, perhaps, that type is best judged in the context of its usage.Įven with all its shortcomings, Mrs Eaves has outsold all Emigre fonts by manyfold, and through major type distributors such as MyFonts, Mrs Eaves has been among the best selling types for years, listed among such classics as Helvetica, Univers, Bodoni and Franklin Gothic. This paradox (imperfect yet pleasing) is perhaps best illustrated by design critic and historian Robin Kinross who has pointed out the limitation of the “loose” spacing that Licko employed, among other things, yet simultaneously designated the Mrs Eaves type specimen with an honorable mention in the 1999 American Center for Design competition. It has an undefined quality that resonates with people. The classic Roman square capitals are even older than that, as examples have been found dating as early as 43 BCE. Yet when used in the right circumstance it imparts a very particular feel that sets it clearly apart from many likeminded types. It is considered the world’s oldest typeface as its design comes from the lettering carved into Trajan’s Column in Rome. The spacing is generally too loose for large bodies of text, it sort of rambles along. Taken individually, at first sight some of the characters don’t seem to fit together. Baskerville is a Transitional typeface, meaning it is a refinement of the Old-style typefaces that preceded it. Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (17061775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Its individual characters are at times awkward looking-the W being narrow, the L uncommonly wide, the flare of the strokes leading into the serifs unusually pronounced. There is something unique about Mrs Eaves and it’s difficult to define. She then reduced the x-height relative to the cap height to avoid increasing the set width. variety of design, and a delicacy of modelling, which few Dutch types possessed.(1). She reduced the contrast while retaining the overall openness and lightness of Baskerville by giving the lower case characters a wider proportion. Upon studying books printed by Baskerville at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, Licko decided to base her design on the printed samples which were heavier and had more character due to the imprint of lead type into paper and the resulting ink spread. Licko noticed that subsequent interpretations and revivals of Baskerville had continued along the same path of perfection, using as a model the qualities of the lead type itself, not the printed specimens. As a result his types were often criticized for being too perfect, stark, and difficult to read. One of Baskerville’s intents was to develop typefaces that pushed the contrast between thick and thin strokes, partially to show off the new printing and paper making techniques of his time. Mrs Eaves was named after Baskerville’s live in housekeeper, Sarah Eaves, whom he later married. It was styled after Baskerville, the famous transitional serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England. Originally designed in 1996, Mrs Eaves was Zuzana Licko’s first attempt at the design of a traditional typeface.
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