How do font licenses work?

A font licence is a legal agreement that sets out how you may use a piece of font software: where you can install it, which media you can use it in, how many people or pageviews it covers, and whether you can modify or share it. When you buy a font, you don't buy the font itself; you buy permission to use it under those terms. Commercial fonts are usually licensed separately for desktop use, websites, apps, ebooks and servers, and priced by the number of users, pageviews or titles. Open-source fonts, most often released under the SIL Open Font License, let you use, embed and modify them freely, with a few conditions. Understanding which type of licence you have, and what it permits, is the only reliable way to know whether a given use is allowed.

Font licences matter because the same file can be legal in one context and an infringement in another. A designer may have a perfectly valid licence to create a logo in a font, while the developer who uploads that font to the website has no right to do so. In this article you'll learn what a font licence covers, the main licence types, how open font licences work, the common pricing models, how subscriptions differ from perpetual licences, and how to check and record the terms of the fonts you use.

What a Font Licence Actually Covers

Fonts are software. A font file contains outlines, spacing data, kerning tables and OpenType code, and in most countries that software is protected by copyright. The licence, often called an End User Licence Agreement or EULA, is the contract that grants you rights to use it.

Most font licences cover a combination of the following:

• Licensee: Who holds the licence, usually a person or an organisation. Many licences don't allow you to transfer them to a client.
• Media: Which uses are allowed, such as installing on computers, embedding in a website, bundling in an app, or including in a PDF.
• Scale: How much use is covered, counted by computers, users, monthly pageviews, app installs or published titles.
• Duration: Whether the licence is perpetual or lasts only while you pay for it.
• Modification: Whether you can change the font, for example by subsetting, converting formats, or editing glyphs.
• Distribution: Whether you can give the font file to anyone else, including clients, printers and contractors.

Output Versus Software

One distinction runs through almost every font licence: the difference between the font software and what you make with it. A static image, such as a logo, a printed poster or a JPEG banner, usually counts as output, and most desktop licences let you create and use output freely, even commercially. A website, app or ebook that contains the font file itself counts as distributing the software, which needs a licence for that specific medium.

That's why a logo created in a commercial font is usually fine, while uploading the same font to your web server may not be.

The Main Types of Font Licence

Commercial foundries and distributors typically split licences by medium. Names vary, but the categories are broadly similar.

Licence type	What it allows	Typically priced by
Desktop	Installing the font on computers to create documents, print and images	Number of computers or users
Web	Embedding the font in websites with @font-face	Monthly pageviews or domains
App	Embedding the font inside mobile or desktop applications	Number of apps or installs
Ebook or digital publication	Embedding in ePub files, PDFs or digital magazines	Number of titles or issues
Server	Using the font on a server to generate content, such as personalised PDFs or images	Number of servers or outputs
Broadcast	Using the font in TV, film or streaming graphics	Per production or per channel

You often need several. A company that sets its brand in a commercial typeface may need desktop licences for its designers, a web licence for its site, an app licence for its mobile app and a server licence for its invoicing system.

Web Licences in Detail

Web licences are the ones most relevant to developers. They commonly include:

• A pageview cap: For example, up to a certain number of pageviews per month, with higher tiers available.
• Approved domains: Some licences list the domains on which you may use the font.
• Format requirements: The licence may include WOFF or WOFF2 files and forbid serving the desktop OTF or TTF files on the web.
• Protection requirements: Some licences require you to take reasonable steps to prevent the font being downloaded and reused, such as not linking to the font files publicly.
• Self-hosting or hosted service: Some foundries let you self-host, while others require you to use their hosted service, which counts pageviews automatically.

When you self-host a commercially licensed font, it's good practice to keep a note of the licence next to the @font-face rule, so anyone editing the stylesheet later knows where the font came from.

/*
  Font: Example Sans Pro, Regular and Bold
  Licence: Web licence, 500,000 pageviews per month
  Licensee: Example Ltd
  Order reference: recorded in the brand asset register
*/
@font-face {
  font-family: "Example Sans Pro";
  src: url("/fonts/example-sans-pro-regular.woff2") format("woff2");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

Open Font Licences

Many excellent fonts are released under open licences that let anyone use them, including commercially, without paying. Google Fonts, for example, only distributes fonts under open licences. For a list of practical choices, see the best free fonts for commercial use.

SIL Open Font License

The SIL Open Font License (OFL), version 1.1, is the most common licence for open-source fonts. In summary, it allows you to:

• Use the font for any purpose, including commercial projects.
• Embed it in websites, apps, documents and products.
• Modify it and create derivative fonts.
• Redistribute it, on its own or bundled with software.

Its main conditions are:

• No selling the font by itself: You can't sell the font files on their own, though you can bundle them with software you sell.
• Reserved Font Names: If the copyright notice declares a Reserved Font Name, modified versions must not use that name. This stops altered versions being confused with the original.
• Keep the licence: Redistributed or modified versions must remain under the OFL and include the copyright notice and licence.

Subsetting or converting an OFL font to WOFF2 for your website is common and generally accepted. The OFL FAQ published by SIL discusses these cases in detail, including how Reserved Font Names relate to web font optimisation.

Apache License 2.0 and Others

Some fonts use the Apache License 2.0, a permissive software licence that also allows commercial use, modification and redistribution, with conditions about keeping notices and stating changes. You'll also see the Ubuntu Font Licence, which is similar in spirit to the OFL, and occasionally fonts released into the public domain or under a Creative Commons licence.

"Free for Personal Use"

Many font download sites offer fonts marked "free for personal use". That isn't an open licence. It usually means you can try the font for non-commercial projects and must buy a licence for anything commercial, which typically includes a business website. Always read the included licence file, and if there isn't one, assume you don't have commercial rights.

Pricing Models and Subscriptions

Commercial fonts are sold in a few different ways, and the model affects what happens later.

Perpetual Licences

A perpetual licence is paid once and lasts indefinitely, within its limits. If your website's traffic grows past the pageview tier you bought, you usually need to upgrade, but you don't lose the right to use the font simply because time passes.

Subscriptions

Subscription services give you access to a library of fonts for as long as you pay. Adobe Fonts, included with Creative Cloud plans, is the best-known example. Its fonts can be used on websites through Adobe's own hosted web projects, and the terms generally cover desktop and web use for active subscribers. If the subscription ends, fonts synced to your computer stop working and web projects stop serving them. Check what happens to work you have already published, because the rules differ between services.

Term Licences

Some foundries, especially for large organisations, sell licences for a fixed term, such as one or three years, which must be renewed. These are common for apps and enterprise use.

Modification, Subsetting and Conversion

Developers routinely change font files: subsetting to reduce size, converting TTF to WOFF2, or adding a missing glyph. Whether that's allowed depends entirely on the licence.

• Open licences: Generally allow modification, with conditions such as respecting Reserved Font Names.
• Commercial web licences: Often allow, or even provide, subsetting and WOFF2 conversion, but some forbid any modification. Some foundries offer subsetting in their download tools.
• Commercial desktop licences: Often forbid conversion to web formats, because that would create a web licence you didn't pay for.

Font files also carry an embedding flag, called fsType, in their OS/2 table. It was designed for embedding fonts in documents and is not a full statement of the licence, but it's a useful hint. You can read it, along with the licence fields in the name table, with fontTools:

from fontTools.ttLib import TTFont

font = TTFont("ExampleSans-Regular.ttf")
name = font["name"]

print("Family:", name.getDebugName(1))
print("Copyright:", name.getDebugName(0))
print("Licence:", name.getDebugName(13))
print("Licence URL:", name.getDebugName(14))
print("fsType:", font["OS/2"].fsType)

Family: Example Sans
Copyright: Copyright 2024 The Example Sans Project Authors
Licence: This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1.
Licence URL: https://openfontlicense.org
fsType: 0

An fsType of 0 means installable embedding is allowed. A value of 2 means restricted, 4 means preview and print, and 8 means editable; higher bits can forbid subsetting or allow only bitmap embedding. The licence agreement always takes precedence over this flag.

How to Check and Track Your Font Licences

Licensing problems usually come from missing records, not bad intentions. A simple process avoids most of them.

1. Find the licence for every font: Look for a licence file in the download, the foundry's EULA page, or the font's name table. Keep a copy, because terms can change for later purchases.
2. Record what you bought: Note the licence type, scale, licensee, date and order number.
3. Match licences to uses: List every place the font appears, such as website, app, PDFs and email, and confirm each is covered.
4. Check who holds the licence: If an agency bought the font, make sure the licence can be transferred to the client or that the client buys its own.
5. Review when things change: Traffic growth, a new app or a new domain may need an upgrade.

A small inventory file in your repository makes this visible to everyone on the project:

[
  {
    "family": "Inter",
    "licence": "SIL OFL 1.1",
    "source": "https://github.com/rsms/inter",
    "uses": ["website", "app"]
  },
  {
    "family": "Example Serif",
    "licence": "Commercial web licence",
    "tier": "250,000 pageviews per month",
    "licensee": "Example Ltd",
    "uses": ["website"],
    "renewal": "Perpetual"
  }
]

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FAQ: Font Licences

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Conclusion

Font licences grant you specific rights to use font software, divided by medium and scale. Desktop, web, app, ebook, server and broadcast uses are usually licensed separately, and each is priced by computers, pageviews, apps or titles. Open licences like the SIL OFL make high-quality fonts available for almost any use, while "free for personal use" fonts usually need paying for once you use them commercially.

The practical habit is simple: find the licence for every font, record what it covers, and check it against every place the font appears, especially when an agency buys fonts for a client or a site grows beyond its pageview tier. Treat the licence as part of the font, and keep it with the files.