Mister Earl, released by Bitstream in 1991, was designed by Jennifer Maestre. Inspiration came from a page in a ‘how-to’ book published in the 1930s. Later versions of Extra Light, Light and Bold were added by Jim Lyles, with the help of Wally Petty.

Mister Earl is named in honor of Earl Biscoe, a Bitstream designer who retired in the mid-1980s because of illness.

In the winter of 1994–1995, Richard Stetler accidentally left a copy of Mister Earl outside his Alaska home... In the spring, amazed to discover the unfortunate font was still just about alive, he decided to release the result to a wider public as Snow Cap.