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 eight distinct licence types, plus our all-inclusive ‘Unlimited’ licences:
| Licence Type | Usage | Pricing Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop Licence | Install fonts on your own devices | Per user; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Web Licence | Self-host web font files for your own websites | Maximum pageviews per month; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| App/Game Licence | Distribute apps or games in which fonts are embedded | Maximum total lifetime downloads; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| ePub Licence | Distribute ebooks in which fonts are embedded | Per title (books) or issue (magazines); pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Server Licence | Install fonts on servers for the production of on-demand documents | Per server; pay once, use forever, upgrade at any time |
| Digital Ads Licence | Publish digital advertisements which use fonts | Campaign duration |
| Software Distribution Licence | Distribute fonts packaged with your software application or operating system | Pay once, distribute forever |
| Hardware/Firmware Distribution Licence | Install fonts on devices you distribute or sell | Per unit |
| Unlimited Perpetual Licence | Combines all above licence types without limits | All inclusive, pay once |
| Unlimited Annual Licence | Combines all above licence types without limits | All inclusive, per year |
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 the non-renewing 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.