Explanation
Our aim was not so much to be reverently faithful to the original, as to preserve the spirit of the type face and to breathe new life into it. Baskerville is a type face with the character of a gentleman, a type face of sober elegance and clear design. Its nature is remote from dramatic contrasts, as we know them from the Continental typography of the Late Baroque period. A project of a type face family which includes twenty designs cannot rely on a single pair of tired eyes; that is why we are again grateful to Otakar Karlas for his valuable advice, especially when putting the finishing touches to the typeface. It was upon his recommendation that, among other things, the anatomy of the basic (original) design was reinforced, the rhythm of the italics in text sizes was made more tranquil, the balance of the & sign form and the colour of the small caps were improved. The result is an absolutely ordinary and inconspicuous type face, a worker in the service of literature. The softness of its design predetermines it for every type of fiction and poetry, while its rational construction makes it useful also for scientific publications. Having worked on Baskerville's type face for more than a year, when we see it now, it feels like meeting an old friend.
