How to buy fonts for commercial use.
Web fonts
Design
Brand fonts
Carefully selected after much deliberation, the perfect font can make the difference between a lackluster marketing campaign and a strong brand identity that leaves an unforgettable impression.
But if you plan to use fonts to create commercial materials, there are some important legal considerations to keep in mind. Before you use a font for your next commercial project, you’ll want to be certain that you’ve sorted out the font licensing. Keep reading and we’ll explain how to buy fonts for commercial use, providing all the info you need to make sure you have the right licenses and your font use is completely lawful.
What counts as “commercial use” when it comes to fonts?
Desktop and web font licenses: choosing the right licensing model
When you’re purchasing fonts for commercial use, you must consider which font licensing model you’ll need. Desktop licenses and web font licenses are two of the most common font licensing categories:
- Desktop licenses allow you to install fonts on your computer for use in design programs.
- Web font licenses allow you to embed fonts into the code of a website or email.
What happens if I don’t buy a font for commercial use?
Using a font for commercial purposes without establishing the appropriate license agreements can create costly legal consequences. Font foundries—companies that design, create, and own fonts—have copyrights in place to protect their intellectual property. Typefaces can’t technically be copyrighted, but because fonts are actually a type of software, they’re subject to copyright law.
Using fonts for commercial projects without paying for them is both unethical and illegal. It’s a form of theft that can lead to expensive complications and setbacks.
If you don’t pay for a commercial font before using it, and someone notices that you’re infringing on a font copyright, the company that owns it may send a cease-and-desist letter demanding that you pay for a retroactive license. This license will probably cost you considerably more than paying for the font up front would have.
If you can’t afford these fees, still more legal consequences could be on the horizon. You or your client could even be sued. (Perhaps the most high-profile example is the case of NBCUniversal, which was sued for font theft to the tune of $3.5 million, although that lawsuit was eventually settled.)
How do I know if a font is free for commercial use?
“Not to worry! I’m using a free font,” you might think, assuming that you’re in the clear. But even free fonts can be problematic, depending on their licensing terms. If you use a font that’s licensed “free for personal use” but not for commercial use (that is, for the goal of earning money), both you and your clients could face legal trouble.
Even if a font is free, check its license before you assume that you’re allowed to use it for profit-making purposes like advertising, branding, or website design. In addition to the legal risks that come with commercial use of free fonts, unpredictability, missing glyphs, and other headaches are all the more reason to pay for quality fonts.
Free or not, any font you download should come with an end-user license agreement (EULA) that tells you exactly what you’re allowed to use the font for. To determine that a font is free for commercial use, you’ll have to review its licensing terms to find explicitly stated permission for such purposes. The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is the most common open source font license to look out for, but there are many others as well.
If you are still uncertain about whether you can use a font commercially after reviewing its license, you may have to contact the font’s designer/owner (for instance, the foundry that produced it) directly to clarify.
Where should I buy fonts for commercial use?
Rather than buying individual fonts—and attempting to keep track of each of their licenses over time and throughout your agency—you can streamline your typographic process by investing in a font subscription that includes a font manager, which centralizes all your fonts in one unified library.
Monotype Fonts is the premier all-in-one cloud-based font manager. With a Monotype Fonts subscription, you and your creative team gain instant access to more than 150,000 professional-grade fonts from the Monotype library and their foundry partners, plus built-in organization for your existing font collection.
Choose from a range of Monotype Fonts subscriptions for individuals, teams, and large enterprises to customize your plan for your commercial needs. Access every font type imaginable—and breathe easy knowing there’s no risk of that dreaded “missing fonts” error.