The Letraset type foundry, based in England, became synonymous with type design in the latter half of the twentieth century after its foundation in 1956 to take advantage of the new transfer sheet lettering. The company became very popular indeed after 1961 and was responsible for the creation and distribution of a number of extremely successful products in the 1970s and 1980s, including Action Transfers (later Kalkitos).

Letraset became one of a number of foundries which made use of a program known as Ikarus to digitize the fonts only previously available on photographic film. Since scanning the fonts would create rasterized images which were unable to be scaled up or down effectively, Ikarus gave foundries the means to create alternative, vector based image output. These vector images were dependent on mathematical coordinates to determine graphic structure, so the resulting fonts were able to be used at any size without loss of clarity.

When Brignall designed the Edwardian font family, he had access to the Ikarus software, which also helped create different font weights with a much greater level of ease than before. The entire font creation process took him around five months, creating a number of weight variations as well as a true italic. While the font family retains serifs in accordance with a Roman look, the ambience is significantly more whimsical and warm.

Because of its user friendly nature and creation with the Ikarus software, Edwardian became a surprise hit upon its release. Its designer, Colin Brignall, had found considerable acclaim for his work with the Letraset foundry, having been responsible for the creation of the popular Italia™ and Romic™ font families.

Edwardian, with its early twentieth century charm, is suitable for a wide range of applications including headlining and display. The font is equally suitable for a smaller text usage because its initial engineering ensured legibility as well as beauty. Additionally, logo designers have found the font intriguing and useful, particularly as a build-upon design.