About Mercator
Don’t call it a comeback, Mercator has been here for years. Presenting an updated rendition of the Dutch classic, combining the early Modernist rigor of the Lowlands with the technical precision needed for today’s multi-media landscape.
Mercator traces its origins to 1958, when the Amsterdam Type Foundry (Lettergieterij Amsterdam previously Tetterode) commissioned designer Dick Dooijes to create a neo-grotesque competitor to the wildly successful Helvetica. Launching one year after the Swiss giant, Mercator arrived with high expectations, accompanied by an iconic specimen binder designed by Wim Crouwel. Despite its ambition, Mercator never reached the global prominence of Helvetica or Univers, and instead gained a cult following among a handful of in-the-know European designers.
In 2004, Laurenz Brunner discovered Mercator in the letterpress workshop at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, where Dooijes had once served as director. Brunner began digitizing the typeface during his studies, using it modestly for personal projects, and later more formally for the school’s visual identity (designed by Alexander Shoukas) and Rietveld affiliated projects. Over the years, Mercator has occasionally resurfaced, with many designers quietly anticipating a full revival.
Wait no more. Source Type is proud to reintroduce Mercator, a heady Dutch classic that always hits right.
Mercator ST is designed by Laurenz Brunner and was first released by Source Type in 2025.
Available Cuts
- Regular
- Italic
- Medium
- Medium Italic
- Bold
- Bold Italic
Source Material

Letterpress lockup of Mercator 8pt, typeset at Archivio Tipografico, Torino

Original production proofs for Mercator (1958)

Mercator specimen by Lettergieterij Amsterdam, designed by Wim Crouwel (1964)

Mercator specimen by Lettergieterij Amsterdam, designed by Wim Crouwel (1964)

Mercator specimen by Lettergieterij Amsterdam, designed by Wim Crouwel (1964)

Page from the Mercator specimen by Lettergieterij Amsterdam, designed by Wim Crouwel (1964)

Signage set of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, set in Mercator

Signage set of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, set in Mercator

Identity for the Gerrit Rietveld Academie by Alexander Shoukas (2008)

Mercator in use for “ik kan lezen” by Dick Bruna (1965)
Type Specimen
Special Features








Typetester
Glyphs Overview
Letters
Figures
Latin Supplement and Extension
Stylistic Set
Ligatures
Punctuation and Symbols
Case Sensitive Forms
Superscript and Subscript
Fractions and Ordinals
Currency and Mathematical Operators
Tabular Figures
Circled Figures
Roman Numbers
Arrows
OpenType Features
Stylistic Set 1
Åndrift
Åndrift
Ligatures
Case Sensitive Forms
[SIC] (PARENTHESES) {A,B}
RE: SUBJECT ICE-CREAM
« MERCI » ‹DANKE›
[SIC] (PARENTHESES) {A,B}
RE: SUBJECT ICE-CREAM
« MERCI » ‹DANKE›
Contextual Alternates
Tabular Figures
111 CHF
111 CHF
Tabular Fractions
Superscript
Information
Technical Data
Encoding:Latin Extended
File Formats:OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2
Version:Beta (unreleased)