Has everyone got their Mrs Eaves XL type specimen? Lovely. I really like the way Emigre produce their type specimens, very much in the style of a traditional specimen, only with an almost indiscernible something that is exclusively theirs. So indiscernible (if indiscernability can be measured by degrees, which it probably can't) that I'm unable to tell you what that something is. But it's there...somewhere.
It's lovely. But...I'm not actually sure about XL. Is it just me or does the increase in x-height kind of destroy a fundamental aspect that makes Mrs Eaves Mrs Eaves? Yes, OK, 8/10pt XL is way more legible than it's original equivalent but haven't we just ended up with a different font? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Licko and have enjoyed using the future Mrs Baskerville many times, but as the comparison pages show, the original's low x-height is a characteristic that defines the font.
I'm terribly sorry for even thinking this and perhaps I'm about to be very unfair but the new font reminds me of Mr Beirut's dreaded ITC Garamond (not that it actually looks like it but just that the original:new-version shift is similar to what happened to Garamond once Tony Stan got his mits on it) what with it's lower-cases trying so hard to look all grown up. Booo, unfair! I hear you cry...and you'd probably be right. Give me a week and I'll be using XL on everything.
Got mine yesterday. I saw the big XL and immediately started flipping through it. At first I thought it was a new face (!). Only after actually reading the words did I see it was a new Mrs. Eaves.
I agree with you. It is a nice face, for sure, but it doesn't have that immediately recognizable Mrs. Eaves-ness. Maybe I'll start to see it as time goes on, though.
Posted by: Von K | 13 May 2009 at 08:18 PM