Add to ChromeBraveFree alternatives toMercury Text
Set in Playfair, its closest free match
The closest free alternative to Mercury Text is Playfair, 78% alike by measurement, free from Google Fonts. Alice and Unna come next.
The six closest.
- 01
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Playfair
78%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 18% shorter x-height
- Sets 12% narrower
- Same weight
- Same stroke contrast
- 02
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Alice
77%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 8% shorter x-height
- Sets 9% narrower
- Same weight
- Less stroke contrast
- 03
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Unna
76%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 17% shorter x-height
- Sets 19% narrower
- Same weight
- Same stroke contrast
- 04
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Radley
76%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 13% shorter x-height
- Sets 12% narrower
- Same weight
- Less stroke contrast
- 05
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Libre Baskerville
75%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 5% taller x-height
- Sets 4% wider
- Same weight
- Less stroke contrast
- 06
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Typography is what language looks like.
Spectral
75%Close matchGoogle Fonts · SIL Open Font License
- 11% shorter x-height
- Sets 10% narrower
- Same weight
- Less stroke contrast
Measured, side by side.
Mercury Text against Playfair, from the letters themselves. These numbers are why Playfair comes first, and what the CSS below corrects for.
Mercury Text Playfair
Keep your line breaks.
Swap Mercury Text for Playfair and nothing reflows. This sets Playfair at Mercury Text’s x-height and line length, so headings, buttons and paragraphs break where they did.
font-family: "Playfair", serif;
font-size: 1.213em; /* up to Mercury Text’s x-height */
letter-spacing: -0.025em; /* to Mercury Text’s line length */About Mercury Text
Mercury Text is a paid serif, published by Hoefler&Co..
See Mercury Text on typography.com ↗Questions, answered.
What is the best free alternative to Mercury Text?
Playfair. Measured letter by letter, it’s 78% alike: 18% shorter x-height, sets 12% narrower, same weight, same stroke contrast. Alice, Unna, Radley, Libre Baskerville and Spectral are also close.
Is there a free version of Mercury Text?
No. Mercury Text is a paid serif from Hoefler&Co.. Every alternative on this page is free for commercial use, under the SIL Open Font License.
How were these alternatives chosen?
By measuring the letters, not by comparing names or tags. Mercury Text was measured as typography.com draws it: its proportions, the width of every letter and figure, its weight, its stroke contrast and the shapes of telling letters like a, g, R and Q. The same measurements were taken of 1,506 free fonts, and these came closest. Each match was then checked by eye.
Will Playfair change my layout?
Not if you use the CSS on this page. It sets Playfair 21.3% larger with a touch less letter-spacing, so text written for Mercury Text keeps its x-height and its line lengths, and lines break in the same places.
Spot Mercury Text in the wild?
Point Fontsight at any text on any website. It names the font, and offers a free look-alike you can try on the page, line breaks intact.
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