Font Licensing

Font licensing is the legal permission required to use a commercial typeface. Fonts are software, and like other software they are licensed rather than sold outright. Different licence types permit different uses. A desktop licence allows a font to be installed on a computer and used in design software to create static documents and images. A webfont licence allows the font to be served on a website. An app licence covers use within a mobile or desktop application. An ePub licence covers use in electronic publications. Broadcast licences cover use in video and television. For logo design, font licensing has important implications. If a logo wordmark is set in a commercial typeface without modification, the client must hold an appropriate licence to use that font in all the contexts where the logo will appear. Most professional logo designers either use open licence fonts (freely usable for any purpose), create custom lettering, or modify a licensed typeface sufficiently that the final wordmark is no longer considered a direct use of the original font.