It’s familiar enough to be friendly, yet different enough to be interesting. I think Mrs Eaves was a mix of just enough tradition with an updated twist. 11, Spring 2002), Licko explained why she thought Mrs Eaves was a successful typeface:
Issue 38, The Authentic Issue, saw the first extensive use of Mrs Eaves in Emigre Magazine. To compensate for this and create a brighter-looking page, Licko lowered the x-height, reducing the amount of space taken up by ink on the page. 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. 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. Licko's design is unorthodox and not a pure revival. 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. Both the roman and italic uppercase Q have a flowing swashlike tail. Identifying characters, similar to Baskerville's types, are the lowercase g with its open lower counter and swashlike ear. Like Baskerville, Mrs Eaves has a near vertical stress, departing from the old style model. Stylistically, Mrs Eaves is a revival of the Baskerville typefaces cut for Baskerville by John Handy. Selection of the name Mrs Eaves honors one of the forgotten women in the history of typography. She married Baskerville within a month of her estranged husband's death. 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.
Like his typefaces, John Baskerville was, himself, a controversial character. Mrs Eaves is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became John Baskerville's wife.