John Baskerville

John Baskerville was a business man, inventor, tombstone cutter, and an atheist. During his work as a printer, he was noted for many innovative techniques in the production of paper and ink, including the development of a method to make whiter paper. Nevertheless, Baskerville is now most remembered for his contributions to typography. Although he may have been responsible for many stylistic changes in the way type was used (he was one of the first to use wider margins and leading), he is most noted for his self-entitled font, Baskerville. In the creation of this typeface, Baskerville attempted to improve the fonts of William Caslon. He heightened the contrast between the thick and thin lining of the type so that the characters could be easily distinguished between. Also, to make the font more legible, he made the serifs of the typeface more narrow and rounded some of their edges. These unique changes lead to a more unified consistency of size between the individual characters. Benjamin Franklin, a fan of his work, brought Baskerville’s techniques and typefaces back to the United States, were he used them for many governmental purposes. However, some ridiculed the sharp contrast of the Baskerville font for hurting the eyes, and eventually the typeface lost its popularity. Years later, in 1996, Zuzanna Licko revived many of the characteristics of the original Baskerville font which can especially be seen in the upper case Q (the unmistakable swish of the tale). Licko named the font Mrs Eaves after Baskerville’s wife.