Font Licensing for Web: Avoid Getting Sued
Font licenses are confusing and expensive mistakes are easy to make. Here is how I work with licensing for commercial web work. Font licensing is the part of typography that designers most often get wrong, and the consequences range from awkward emails from foundries to actual legal action. The core confusion is that fonts are licensed software, not purchased goods, and the terms of that license determine what you can do with the font files. After navigating licensing for dozens of commercial projects, including a few near-misses, here is the practical guide I wish I had when I started. Desktop Versus Web Versus App Licenses The first thing to understand is that a single typeface family can have separate licenses for desktop use, web use, and app use, and buying one does not grant the others. A desktop license lets you install the font on your computer for design work, but it does not let you embed the font in a website. A web font license specifically permits serving the font files from a web server to browsers. An app license covers embedding in native applications. This separation catches designers who buy a desktop license, design a site with the font, and then deploy the font files to the web server. The foundry can detect this, and they do enforce it.