Keep in mind that someone dislikes Ms. Eaves built-in spacing.
As for a sans, Mr. Eaves would be a safe choice.

…a tad more feminine

Leksa and Leksa Sans?

I think Mrs. Eames is both overused and not a great choice for body copy, which Emigre openly admits. You could look at Mrs. Eames XL, the new-ish version with a larger x-height and more condensed proportions.

http://emigre.com/EFfeature.php?di=212

But, honestly, there are a lots of "formal/historic" serifs with touches that might be considered feminine. Just a quick glance at Typographica's Best of 2011 will yield several options:

http://typographica.org/features/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2011/

> someone dislikes Ms. Eaves built-in spacing.

Like Robin Kinross. Or the guys who paid Terminal Design
to fix it. It's not just me! :-) I'm probably the most vocal though.
Partly because it's also over-used, and it's just unnerving to me
seeing a font with defective spacing being blindly used for text,
which thankfully happens a lot less these days.

> Emigre openly admits

That's gracious. (Even though it did take a while...)

Leksa looks quite nice.
It's very big on the body though, so would have to be used small.

hhp

I had no idea that Mrs. Eaves had already become overused. I would have tended to recommend one of the much more overused plain garden-variety Baskervilles - such as Monotype Baskerville instead as an option for body copy. Not Fry's Baskerville.

Thanks for the feedback and advice here.

Been experimenting for a couple days now on body copy, headers, etc.. The zine size is smaller than I would like, with lengthy provided text.. needs to be readable.

The client requested ".. a combo of Georgia and Raleway.." .. Georgia just isn't sitting with me.

Thoughts?

Georgia > Miller.
Raleway > Bree.

It sounds like your client is gravitating towards free fonts...
If that's the case let us know, since that greatly limits choice.
Leksa though is looking stronger now, since you have the issue
of saving space (and the bigger the x-height the better for that).

BTW, Raleway looks like it needs some spacing help of its own...
As for Georgia, if you could nail down exactly what's bothering
you about it that would help.

hhp

Thanks a lot - Yes, completely agree w/ Raleway.. trying my best to make it work.. Looks really nice with the simple/minimalist photography that I'm using..

And I do suppose the more free, the better ha wish I had a budget for this, just trying to make it beautiful with little resources and tight-ish deadline..

Georgia just reminds me a college brochure body text (previous project had me use it every way, shape and/or form) so I'm prob just biased.. It's a classic, but kind of wanted an update from that.

Hope that makes sense?

Free stuff does go from classic to overused at lightning speed!

I think you find just the right font and it's not too
expensive you should be able to get your client to
pay for it. It would set a good precedent, all around.

hhp

True.

hm. Definitely going to request an upgrade. Just can't seem to get what I'm after using the requested type..

Those damn PetiteCaps.. keeps me wanting to use Mrs Eaves!

Multiple smallcap sizes:
https://www.fontfont.com/fonts/atma-serif
http://ernestinefont.com/

hhp

The client requested ".. a combo of Georgia and Raleway.." ..

Georgia, a great typeface, was designed optimally for screen reading. How will your zine be printed? Offset? Digital? That should influence your typeface's choice. As a personal advice, I would rahther use a bundled - and probably "overused" font -, instead of a free one, if you don't have to spend anything on fonts. And if you don't want to go with Garamond or Arno, then there is Adobe Caslon, which has been designed by a woman and has some classy "feminine" feel. But, generally speaking, I wouldn't avoid using a well-designed typeface just because it is overused.

Wait, Riccardo, by "someone" did you mean yourself? :-)
http://typophile.com/node/91007#comment-499280
If so, cool.

hhp