Understanding Font Licences
What is a Font Licence?
A font licence is a legal agreement that grants you permission to use a specific font under defined conditions. Fonts are intellectual property protected by copyright law, and using them without proper authorization can result in legal action.
The terms of a font licence specify how you are allowed to use a font, including any restrictions on user numbers, types of media, and distribution. Understanding and adhering to a font licence is essential for legal compliance and to support ethical design practices.
Pitfalls to Look Out For
We have worked hard to make our font licensing as transparent and user-friendly as possible – and our licences actively avoid restrictive practices – but different suppliers approach font licensing in very different ways. It’s important to examine their terms and limitations carefully, as subtle restrictions can significantly impact design flexibility, administrative overhead, and overall project costs. Common pitfalls you might encounter in licences from other suppliers include:
- Device Limits: Counting a single user with multiple devices (e.g. desktop, laptop, printer) as multiple licensed units.
- Product Restrictions: Preventing the use of fonts on merchandise or products intended for resale, like mugs or keyrings.
- Logo Restrictions: Requiring additional payments for using fonts in logotypes.
- Media Restrictions: Imposing extra fees for specific use cases beyond everyday desktop or web usage, such as broadcast media.
- Excluded Industries: Forbidding font usage in specific sectors, like power generation or public transportation.
- Geographic Limitations: Restricting use geographically or requiring licences per location, complicating global projects.
- No Self-Hosting: Mandating use of a supplier’s own webfont hosting service, with potential GDPR implications.
- Credit Requirements: Requiring fonts and foundries to be explicitly credited in every project.
- Extensive Reporting Requirements: Requiring detailed, ongoing reports of all font usage.
- Non-Transferrable Licensing: Restricting licence transfers even within an organization during restructuring or mergers.
- Hidden Costs: Including unexpected charges, like annual renewal fees or usage-based royalties.
Our Licence Types
We’ve designed our font library’s licences for clarity and simplicity, with labelling that is obvious, and terms that are expected and fair. With a licence type for each of the ways that fonts can be used, there is no forced bundling of things that you don’t need. Our Licence Agreement presents our three distinct licence types, plus our all-inclusive ‘Unlimited’ licences:
| Licence Type | Usage | Pricing Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Install & Use Licence | Install ‘Desktop’ fonts on your own devices and use them to create documents, presentations, and artwork | Per user; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Host & Link Licence | Self-host ‘Web’ fonts and link them via CSS to your own websites and online ads | Maximum page impressions per month; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Embed & Distribute Licence | Embed ‘App’ fonts into products that you distribute, such as ebooks, apps, games, and hardware devices | Maximum total lifetime distribution units; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Unlimited Perpetual Licence | Everything above without limits, plus software bundle distribution and server installation | All inclusive; pay once, use forever, no upgrades needed |
Free Trial Fonts
To help you make informed typographic choices, we also offer a free trial licence for all our library fonts, allowing you to experience their full capabilities within your projects before committing to buying licences.
Next Steps
All of our perpetual licence types for our font library are available to buy online, or get in touch if you need a renewable licence or any additional help. We’re always ready to answer any questions or concerns you might have, ensuring that your projects run smoothly without unforeseen restrictions or surprise costs.