The Importance Of Font Licenses

When embarking on a new website project, there are loads of elements come together to create the final product, from icons and colours and animation through to the written content and imagery. Among these elements, fonts play a crucial role in defining the visual identity of your brand, and the readability of your site.

However, using fonts isn’t just about choosing the ones that look good; it’s also about ensuring you have the legal right to use them. Understanding font licensing is essential to avoid legal pitfalls and ensure your new website is both aesthetically pleasing and compliant. 

In this blog, we take a look at what font licensing is and why it’s an important consideration when planning or designing a website.

Disclaimer: This is obviously not legal advice. This is just our insight and experience as a web agency – we always encourage all of our clients to seek their own legal advice and ensure they have the appropriate rights for any fonts or images.

Understanding Font Licensing.

Font licensing dictates how fonts can be used, shared, and modified. Unlike other design elements, fonts are often quite heavily protected by intellectual property laws, meaning you can’t simply download and use any font you find online and then think you’re fine to go ahead and use it all over your branding.

Here’s a few things you need to consider about different types of font licences.

Types of Font Licences.

Freeware Fonts

• Description: These fonts are available for free use, but the terms can vary significantly.
• Usage: Always check the specific license. Some freeware fonts are free for personal use only, while others may be free for both personal and commercial use.

Public Domain Fonts

• Description: Fonts that are not protected by intellectual property laws and can be used without restrictions.
• Usage: These fonts can be used freely for any purpose, but it’s still good practice to review any accompanying documentation.

Open Source Fonts

• Description: Fonts released under open source licences (like the SIL Open Font Licence) allow for free use, modification, and distribution.
• Usage: These are ideal for web projects as they often come with fewer restrictions. Google Fonts is a popular repository for open source fonts.

Commercial Fonts

• Description: Fonts that require purchasing a license for use. The terms can vary widely.
• Usage: These licences can include restrictions on the number of views per month, usage in commercial projects, or modifications.

Subscription-Based Fonts

• Description: Access to a library of fonts through a subscription service (e.g., Adobe Fonts).
• Usage: These services typically come with comprehensive licensing agreements that cover various use cases.

Google Fonts.

If our clients are unsure, we often encourage them to consider a Google Font for a lot of reasons – but chiefly, because it makes everybody’s life a lot, lot easier!

1. Wide Selection: Google Fonts provides a vast library of free, high-quality fonts, catering to various design needs and preferences.
2. Ease of Use: Integrating Google Fonts into your website is straightforward from a development perspective, requiring only a simple link or import statement in your CSS.
3. Performance: Google Fonts are optimised for fast loading times, which helps maintain your website’s performance and user experience.
4. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Fonts from Google Fonts are designed to work seamlessly across different browsers and devices, ensuring a consistent look for your website.
5. Open Source: Fonts available on Google Fonts are open source, meaning they are free to use for both personal and commercial projects without licensing complexities (but always check for yourself!!).
6. Regular Updates: Google Fonts regularly updates its collection, adding new fonts and improving existing ones to ensure quality and variety.
7. Web & Print Compatibility: Many Google Fonts are designed to work well both on-screen and in print, providing flexibility for various types of media.
8. Language Support: Google Fonts supports a wide range of languages and scripts, making it suitable for multilingual websites.

Steps For Better Font Use.

• Identify Font Source and License – Always verify the source of the font and read the licence agreement carefully. Trusted sources like Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts, and reputable font foundries provide clear licensing information.
• Read and Understand the Licence – Pay attention to details regarding commercial vs. business use cases. You need to ensure the licence covers commercial use if your website is for business. It’s also worth taking a look at website embedding too, as you need to check if the font can be embedded in websites and any limitations on how it can be embedded.
• Choose Fonts from Reputable Repositories – Utilise fonts from well-known repositories like Google Fonts or Adobe Fonts, which clearly outline their licensing terms. These are huge, trusted suppliers, who have a brilliant licensing process – you know if you go with one of these and follow the necessary steps, you’re unlikely to get into trouble later down the line for improper usage of a font.
• Keep Records of Licences – This is such an important one, and one we constantly remind our clients. It’s crucial to maintain records of all font licences, including purchase receipts and licence agreements. This documentation is crucial in case of a dispute. If you purchase the license to use a font for your brand, you want to make sure all that documentation is correctly saved, and accessible to anybody in your company who might require it (a good tip here is to think years and years down the line, and imagine you have moved on from your role – who might you need to share the licensing documentation with?).
• Consult Legal Advice – And probably the most important point – if in doubt, consult with a legal professional who specialises in intellectual property to avoid any inadvertent infringement. It can be frustrating to have to go through this process, but if your brand and website are going to be built upon this font type, you want to make absolutely certain you have all the necessary licenses to go ahead and splash it everywhere.

Common Mistakes To Avoid.

• Assuming “Free” Means Free-for-All: Just because a font is free to download doesn’t mean it’s free to use for commercial projects. Also, just because a font is accessible on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free. Many font files themselves are readily available for download, but are laden with baggage about how you can and can’t use it. It’s important to not confuse having access to a font with having permission to use it.
• Ignoring Licence Updates: Font licences can change. Ensure you are compliant with the latest terms if you’re using an updated version of the font. It’s a very menial house-keeping task, but we would encourage clients to check in with the licensing status of their font every so often as it can change, and you don’t want to be caught out.

Conclusion.

Font licensing can seem daunting, but understanding the basics and taking the necessary precautions can save you from headaches later down the line. Always verify the source, understand the licence terms, and keep proper records.

It’s also important to sometimes compromise too – you’d much rather have a beautiful website with an amazing font that is yours than risk building your brand on a font that might get you into a legal dispute at any moment.