Font licenses explained

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When you get a font, you don’t own the font. You get a license: permission to use the files in specific ways, on a set number of computers, websites or apps. What you make with the font is usually yours to use however you like; the font files are what the license controls.

This is general information, not legal advice. For anything with real money or a trademark riding on it, read the actual license and ask a lawyer.

What a font license covers

Fonts are software. Like other software, they come with an end user license agreement, or EULA, that sets out what you can do. It might be a page on the maker’s site, a text file in the download, or both.

Almost every font license separates two things:

  • The font files. The .otf, .ttf and .woff2 files themselves. Licenses limit where you can install them, how many copies you can have, and who you can give them to (usually nobody).
  • What you make with them. A poster, a logo, a PDF, a printed box. This is usually called output, and most licenses let you use it freely, including selling it.

Keep those two apart and most license questions get easy. Trouble starts when the font file travels somewhere it isn’t covered: onto a website, inside an app, into a client’s hands.

The same family, licensed three ways. Letterhead Condensed Heavy, Bold and Regular

Desktop vs web font license

A desktop license lets you install the font on a number of computers and make things with it. Print, packaging, merch, signs, images, social posts, video rendered on your machine, and PDFs with the font embedded for viewing and printing. It’s usually priced per computer, or per user at larger companies.

A web license covers serving the font file on a website with @font-face. Every visitor’s browser downloads a copy of the file to show your live text, so the price is tied to how many people that is. Some makers count pageviews, some count monthly visitors, and the limits can be per site or across all your sites. Read which one yours counts, because a pageview limit fills up a lot faster than a visitor limit.

If text on your site is a flattened image, like a logo saved as an SVG outline or a PNG banner, that’s output, and a desktop license normally covers it.

App, broadcast and other font licenses

  • App licenses cover a font built into an app or game, usually per title. The font has to be embedded so people can’t pull the files out.
  • Broadcast licenses cover TV, streaming and film titles. Some makers fold this into desktop, some sell it separately.
  • Ebook and digital publication licenses cover fonts embedded in ebooks and digital magazines.
  • Server and template licenses cover setups where other people type their own text in the font: print on demand sites, online design tools, editable templates you sell. These are almost never included in a standard license.

Commercial use fonts, and why free for personal use isn’t free for business

“Free for personal use” means just that. A school project, a birthday card, your own room. The moment the font helps you make money, it’s commercial use: a freelance job, a logo for a friend’s café, a tee in your online shop, a post for a business account.

Lots of fonts get passed around download sites with no license at all, or with one that says personal only. The download being free doesn’t make the license free. Find the license file in the folder, or the maker’s own page, and check it before the font goes anywhere public. A commercial use font is one whose license says so in writing.

Read this line in a license as: not for anything that makes money

Can I sell a design using a font?

Usually yes. Selling things you made with a font is what desktop licenses are for: posters, tees, packaging, book covers, stickers. The output is yours.

Where it gets tight:

  • Products where the buyer edits the text. Editable templates, themes and customizable products put the font in someone else’s hands. That usually needs a separate license.
  • Products that include the font file. Bundling the font with a template or kit is redistributing it, which standard licenses don’t allow.
  • Designs that are mostly just the font. A sheet of the alphabet in someone else’s typeface is basically selling their font. Licenses that allow merch don’t always allow this.

Logos, trademarks and client work

Most desktop licenses let you use a font in a logo and register that logo as a trademark. The trademark covers your mark, not the typeface. Designers often convert the logo to outlines so the final files don’t depend on the font at all.

With client work, the question is who holds the license. If you design a brand and the client will keep using the font for their own materials, they need their own license. Some licenses let you hand yours over once. Sending the client a copy of your files isn’t that.

Open font licenses like the OFL

The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is the most common open license for fonts. You can use OFL fonts for anything, commercial work included, embed them in websites, apps and documents, change them, and share them. The catches: you can’t sell the font files on their own, modified versions can’t use the original’s reserved name, and the license has to travel with the files.

Letterhead Editorial is under the OFL. It’s based on Spectral by Production Type, and it’s a free download.

How Letterhead font licenses work

Fonts in the Letterhead shop are licensed per use, and you buy the mix you need for each family:

  • Desktop, per computer: 1, 3 or 5. Logos, print, packaging, merch, documents, social posts, client work.
  • Web, by monthly visitors across all your sites: up to 10k, 100k or 500k.
  • App, per app or game, one title on every platform it ships on.

Licenses start at $29, you pay once, and they don’t expire. Grow past your size and you upgrade for the difference. You can transfer a license to a client once. The font files can’t be shared or used to train AI. The full terms are in the Letterhead font license.

Fonts you make yourself in the editor work differently. On the Free plan they’re for personal, noncommercial use, and the file says so. On a paid plan the font is yours to use commercially, give away, license and sell, including selling the font itself. Keep the “Made with Letterhead.” note in the files and in the license you give your buyers. A font made from Letterhead Editorial stays under the OFL. See how to make your own font to get started, or OTF vs TTF vs WOFF2 for which file goes where.

Questions people ask

Do I need a web license if the font only appears in images on my site?
Usually not. A logo, banner or social graphic saved as an image is output from your computer, which a desktop license normally covers. You need a web license when the font file itself is served to visitors' browsers to set live text.
Can I use a font that's free for personal use on a product I sell?
No. Selling a product is commercial use, even if it's one tee on a weekend market stall. Buy a commercial license from whoever made the font, or use a font with a license that allows commercial work, like the SIL Open Font License.
Can I trademark a logo made with a font?
Most desktop licenses allow it, and Letterhead's does. The trademark protects your logo, the specific mark you made. It doesn't give you any rights in the typeface, and other people can still license the same font.
Can I give my client the font files?
Not by sending them a copy. The client needs a license of their own, or, under some licenses including Letterhead's, you can transfer yours to them once, after which you delete your copies.
Does a font license expire?
It depends on the license. Many desktop licenses are paid once and last forever; some web licenses are yearly or capped by traffic. Letterhead licenses are paid once and don't expire, and you upgrade to a bigger size for the difference.