{"course":{"slug":"vector-and-print","title":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print","level":"beginner","track":"create"},"lesson":{"slug":"licensing-a-typeface","title":"The licence, which is the part that bites","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/licensing-a-typeface","position":20,"of":73,"minutes":9,"answer":"Desktop, web, app and broadcast are licensed separately; \"free for personal use\" excludes client work; outlining is not a licensing workaround; and sending a printer the font file is distributing software.","keyIdea":"Desktop, web, app and broadcast are licensed separately; \"free for personal use\" excludes client work; outlining is not a licensing workaround; and sending a printer the font file is distributing software, which is a different permission from using it."},"body":{"format":"markdown","text":"## Four different permissions, sold separately\n\nA typeface is software. What you bought is a licence, and it is normally split into uses that have nothing to do with each other.\n\n- **Desktop**: installing it on a machine and setting type with it. Usually sold per seat or per workstation. This is the one you need for print work.\n- **Webfont**: serving it from a website, usually priced by monthly pageviews.\n- **App / embedded**: putting it inside software, a game, a kiosk or a device.\n- **Broadcast / e-publication**: video, ads, ebooks.\n\nBuying desktop does not give you web, and vice versa. A designer who licenses a face for their own machine, delivers the source file to the client, and the client installs it on six machines, has put the client in breach. Nobody intended anything dishonest and the invoice is still real.\n\n## \"Free for personal use\" means what it says\n\nThe largest category of trouble. Free-font aggregator sites host enormous numbers of faces marked *free for personal use*, which excludes anything a client pays you for. Many of them also host cracked cuts of commercial families under slightly altered names.\n\nTwo tests before you use a free font on paid work:\n\n1. **Find the actual licence file.** A real open font ships an `OFL.txt` or a `LICENSE` alongside it. No licence file, no job.\n2. **Check the `name` table's licence URL.** `ttx -t name -o - font.ttf` prints it. A commercial foundry's URL on a file you downloaded free is the signature of a cracked font.\n\n## What you can safely use, for anything\n\n- **Google Fonts**: nearly all under the **SIL Open Font Licence**. Free for commercial use, embeddable, and you may sell the work you make. You may not sell the font itself, and if you modify it the modified version must also be OFL and must not use a reserved font name.\n- **Fontshare**, from the Indian Type Foundry: free for personal and commercial use, and the quality is high.\n- **Ek Type**: open Devanagari, Gujarati and Latin families.\n- **The League of Moveable Type**, **Velvetyne**, **Collletttivo**: open foundries with real design behind them.\n- **Adobe's open-source releases**: Source Serif, Source Sans, Source Code.\n- **Noto**, from Google: covers nearly every script in Unicode. Not always the most characterful choice, and always a correct one.\n\nThe OFL's one practical trap: if you modify an OFL font (changing outlines for a wordmark, say) you must rename it. Reserved Font Names exist precisely so a modified file cannot masquerade as the original.\n\n## Outlining is not a licensing workaround\n\nA common belief: converting text to outlines means the licence no longer applies, because there is no font in the file. It does not follow. The outlines are still the foundry's drawings, and most desktop licences explicitly permit output as outlines in a final artwork file while forbidding redistribution of the font itself. Read the one paragraph; foundries are generally reasonable about exactly this case.\n\nWhere outlining *does* change things is in what you hand the printer. Outlines mean you are sending artwork. Sending the `.ttf` means you are distributing software, and that usually needs the licence to cover it or a separate \"output provider\" clause. Most licences have one. Check before you attach the file.\n\n## When a client supplies a font\n\nThey send you a `.otf` with the brief. Ask two questions in one email:\n\n> Do you hold a desktop licence for this typeface, and does it cover me as your supplier for the duration of this job?\n\nIf the answer is no or unclear, the safe move is to set the job in a licensed alternative and show them both. You are not being difficult; you are keeping their exposure off your invoice.\n\n## The practical record\n\nKeep a `fonts.txt` in every project folder:\n\n```\nBody      Mukta Regular / SemiBold   SIL OFL 1.1   fonts.google.com/specimen/Mukta\nDisplay   Cabinet Grotesk Bold       Fontshare     fontshare.com/fonts/cabinet-grotesk\n```\n\nTwo minutes per job. It answers the question a year later when somebody needs to reset a page, and it is the document you point at if anybody ever asks."},"check":{"question":"A designer licenses a commercial typeface for their own workstation, sets a client's 64-page catalogue in it, and sends the printer the InDesign package, which includes the font files, as packaging always does. What is the actual problem here?","options":[{"text":"The catalogue's text should have been outlined, because a desktop licence never permits output in any embedded form.","correct":false,"tempting":"Desktop licences generally do permit output, whether embedded in a PDF or as outlines. The issue is not output; it is handing over the software."},{"text":"Packaging embeds a subset rather than the whole font, and subsetting a commercial font without permission modifies it.","correct":false,"tempting":"Packaging copies whole font files; subsetting happens on PDF export. Subsetting for output is routinely permitted in any case."},{"text":"Nothing is wrong, because the printer is acting as an agent of the licensee and inherits the licence automatically.","correct":false,"tempting":"Agency does not transfer a software licence by default. Some licences have an explicit output-provider clause, which is exactly why you check rather than assume."},{"text":"Handing over the font files distributes the software, which a single-seat desktop licence usually does not cover.","correct":true}]},"prev":{"slug":"what-is-inside-a-font-file","title":"What is actually inside a font file","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/what-is-inside-a-font-file"},"next":{"slug":"kerning-a-wordmark","title":"Kerning a wordmark by hand","url":"https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/kerning-a-wordmark"},"authorship":"Founder and series editor: Dr Mustafa Mun. Written by AI models to a written standard. Exam keys checked blind by a second model: 3,665 of 3,666 agreed. Academic review invited.","review":{"status":"Draft, open for academic review"},"cite":"Addaly (2026) 'The licence, which is the part that bites', in Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed. Edited by M. Mun. Addaly. Available at: https://addaly.com/learn/vector-and-print/licensing-a-typeface (Accessed: 13 October 2026).","licence":{"name":"CC BY-NC-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"},"reader":{"schema":1,"title":"The licence, which is the part that bites","courseTitle":"Vectors, Logos and Things That Get Printed","module":{"index":3,"slug":"type-as-shape","title":"Type, which is also vector"},"answer":null,"keyIdea":"Desktop, web, app and broadcast are licensed separately; “free for personal use” excludes client work; outlining is not a licensing workaround; and sending a printer the font file is distributing software, which is a different permission from using it.","hero":{"kind":"plate","image":null,"alt":null,"caption":null},"blocks":[{"t":"h2","id":"four-different-permissions-sold-separately","runs":[{"text":"Four different permissions, sold separately"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"A typeface is software. What you bought is a licence, and it is normally split into uses that have nothing to do with each other."}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Desktop","b":true},{"text":": installing it on a machine and setting type with it. Usually sold per seat or per workstation. This is the one you need for print work."}],[{"text":"Webfont","b":true},{"text":": serving it from a website, usually priced by monthly pageviews."}],[{"text":"App / embedded","b":true},{"text":": putting it inside software, a game, a kiosk or a device."}],[{"text":"Broadcast / e-publication","b":true},{"text":": video, ads, ebooks."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Buying desktop does not give you web, and vice versa. A designer who licenses a face for their own machine, delivers the source file to the client, and the client installs it on six machines, has put the client in breach. Nobody intended anything dishonest and the invoice is still real."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"free-for-personal-use-means-what-it-says","runs":[{"text":"“Free for personal use” means what it says"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The largest category of trouble. Free-font aggregator sites host enormous numbers of faces marked "},{"text":"free for personal use","i":true},{"text":", which excludes anything a client pays you for. Many of them also host cracked cuts of commercial families under slightly altered names."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Two tests before you use a free font on paid work:"}]},{"t":"ol","start":1,"items":[[{"text":"Find the actual licence file.","b":true},{"text":" A real open font ships an "},{"text":"OFL.txt","code":true},{"text":" or a "},{"text":"LICENSE","code":true},{"text":" alongside it. No licence file, no job."}],[{"text":"Check the ","b":true},{"text":"name","b":true,"code":true},{"text":" table’s licence URL.","b":true},{"text":" "},{"text":"ttx -t name -o - font.ttf","code":true},{"text":" prints it. A commercial foundry’s URL on a file you downloaded free is the signature of a cracked font."}]]},{"t":"h2","id":"what-you-can-safely-use-for-anything","runs":[{"text":"What you can safely use, for anything"}]},{"t":"ul","items":[[{"text":"Google Fonts","b":true},{"text":": nearly all under the "},{"text":"SIL Open Font Licence","b":true},{"text":". Free for commercial use, embeddable, and you may sell the work you make. You may not sell the font itself, and if you modify it the modified version must also be OFL and must not use a reserved font name."}],[{"text":"Fontshare","b":true},{"text":", from the Indian Type Foundry: free for personal and commercial use, and the quality is high."}],[{"text":"Ek Type","b":true},{"text":": open Devanagari, Gujarati and Latin families."}],[{"text":"The League of Moveable Type","b":true},{"text":", "},{"text":"Velvetyne","b":true},{"text":", "},{"text":"Collletttivo","b":true},{"text":": open foundries with real design behind them."}],[{"text":"Adobe’s open-source releases","b":true},{"text":": Source Serif, Source Sans, Source Code."}],[{"text":"Noto","b":true},{"text":", from Google: covers nearly every script in Unicode. Not always the most characterful choice, and always a correct one."}]]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"The OFL’s one practical trap: if you modify an OFL font (changing outlines for a wordmark, say) you must rename it. Reserved Font Names exist precisely so a modified file cannot masquerade as the original."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"outlining-is-not-a-licensing-workaround","runs":[{"text":"Outlining is not a licensing workaround"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"A common belief: converting text to outlines means the licence no longer applies, because there is no font in the file. It does not follow. The outlines are still the foundry’s drawings, and most desktop licences explicitly permit output as outlines in a final artwork file while forbidding redistribution of the font itself. Read the one paragraph; foundries are generally reasonable about exactly this case."}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Where outlining "},{"text":"does","i":true},{"text":" change things is in what you hand the printer. Outlines mean you are sending artwork. Sending the "},{"text":".ttf","code":true},{"text":" means you are distributing software, and that usually needs the licence to cover it or a separate “output provider” clause. Most licences have one. Check before you attach the file."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"when-a-client-supplies-a-font","runs":[{"text":"When a client supplies a font"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"They send you a "},{"text":".otf","code":true},{"text":" with the brief. Ask two questions in one email:"}]},{"t":"quote","runs":[{"text":"Do you hold a desktop licence for this typeface, and does it cover me as your supplier for the duration of this job?"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"If the answer is no or unclear, the safe move is to set the job in a licensed alternative and show them both. You are not being difficult; you are keeping their exposure off your invoice."}]},{"t":"h2","id":"the-practical-record","runs":[{"text":"The practical record"}]},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Keep a "},{"text":"fonts.txt","code":true},{"text":" in every project folder:"}]},{"t":"code","lang":"","label":"Text","text":"Body      Mukta Regular / SemiBold   SIL OFL 1.1   fonts.google.com/specimen/Mukta\nDisplay   Cabinet Grotesk Bold       Fontshare     fontshare.com/fonts/cabinet-grotesk"},{"t":"p","runs":[{"text":"Two minutes per job. It answers the question a year later when somebody needs to reset a page, and it is the document you point at if anybody ever asks."}]}],"check":{"question":[{"text":"A designer licenses a commercial typeface for their own workstation, sets a client’s 64-page catalogue in it, and sends the printer the InDesign package, which includes the font files, as packaging always does. What is the actual problem here?"}],"options":[{"text":[{"text":"The catalogue’s text should have been outlined, because a desktop licence never permits output in any embedded form."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Desktop licences generally do permit output, whether embedded in a PDF or as outlines. The issue is not output; it is handing over the software."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Packaging embeds a subset rather than the whole font, and subsetting a commercial font without permission modifies it."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Packaging copies whole font files; subsetting happens on PDF export. Subsetting for output is routinely permitted in any case."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Nothing is wrong, because the printer is acting as an agent of the licensee and inherits the licence automatically."}],"correct":false,"tempting":[{"text":"Agency does not transfer a software licence by default. Some licences have an explicit output-provider clause, which is exactly why you check rather than assume."}]},{"text":[{"text":"Handing over the font files distributes the software, which a single-seat desktop licence usually does not cover."}],"correct":true,"tempting":null}],"order":[2,0,3,1],"why":null},"prev":{"slug":"what-is-inside-a-font-file","title":"What is actually inside a font file","minutes":9},"next":{"slug":"kerning-a-wordmark","title":"Kerning a wordmark by hand","minutes":9}}}