Font Licensing
Most font trouble comes from one mistake: treating "free download" as "free to use". This page explains the licence types you will meet on this site and what each one actually allows.
Open licences
SIL Open Font License (OFL) 1.1 is the most common open font licence. It allows free personal and commercial use, embedding in documents and apps, and modification. Two conditions matter: keep the licence and copyright notice with the files, and if you modify and redistribute, do not use the reserved font name.
Apache License 2.0 also permits free personal and commercial use, with the licence notice retained. Ubuntu Font Licence is free to use and redistribute, with conditions on renaming modified versions.
Free for personal use
This is not an open licence. It usually means you may use the font in your own non-commercial work, but not in client projects, products for sale, monetised videos or company branding. Many fan-made recreations of film and game lettering fall into this group - and the underlying logo may still be trademarked even when the font file is free.
Commercial and proprietary licences
Retail families are sold per use case. A desktop licence covers installing the font to make artwork. A web licence covers embedding as a webfont, often priced by page views. App and game embedding, and broadcast use, are typically separate again. Subscription services bundle activation rights for as long as you subscribe - which is why a font can disappear from your library when you cancel.
System fonts
Fonts bundled with Windows, macOS, Office or a phone are licensed for use on that system. That is not the same as a licence to redistribute the file or serve it as a webfont from your own server. Reference them in a CSS font stack instead.
Trademarks are separate
A licence covers the font software. It does not give you rights to a brand's logo, wordmark or title treatment. Recreating a film or franchise logo with a lookalike font can still infringe trademark even if the font itself is free.
How this site handles it
| What the page shows | What it means |
|---|---|
| Download from Official Source | Open licence family; the button opens the publisher's own download page. |
| Download source coming soon | We have no verified legitimate source yet, so the button is disabled rather than pointing nowhere. |
| Licensing restricted | Commercial, platform-restricted or trademark-protected lettering. Informational page only. |
| Information not verified | We could not confirm that field, so we do not state it. |
A practical checklist
- Open the licence file that came with the download.
- Confirm commercial use if any money is involved, including client work.
- Check web and app embedding separately from desktop use.
- Keep a copy of the licence with the project files.
- If the licence is unclear, ask the foundry before you ship.