#ROYALTY FREE TYPEFACES HOW TO#
#ROYALTY FREE TYPEFACES LICENSE#

In this, font is like a stock photo. You can purchase a stock photo for your book cover, but you need to check the fine print to ensure you bought the correct license to sell it. There are many companies out there that earn their revenue by creating and selling fonts – think of it like word art. In some cases, they will make it free in a certain way so people can see them and find them. Creating a font from scratch, however, is much easier said than done. What this means is that you could basically recreate a typeface from scratch and name it something completely different, and in most cases, you could use it. In addition, a font name can also be trademarked so you can't always use the name. However, they can be eligible for patent protection through a design patent. So for simplicity's sake, we will use both terms interchangeably.Ĭan fonts be copyrighted? In the United States, fonts are protected under copyright. However, most people use “font” to refer to the typeface as well. So in this case, if you had an italicized 12 point Times New Roman style, Times New Roman would be the typeface, and its individual variation (in this case 12 point size and italics) would be the font. This includes different sizes, bolding, and other stylistic variations.

Font vs Typeface: What is a Font Really?Ī common mistake people make is the use of the word font. When most people say font what they actually mean is typeface. So, to help us all be on the same page, here is a quick breakdown between a font and typeface.Ī typeface is the individual lettering design that serves as the basis for all of the individual fonts within that design.Ī font is the specific computer program for each variation of every typeface. If you haven’t checked out Atticus, you can see it here. If you use Atticus to format your books, rest assured all fonts in Atticus has been checked by a lawyer and are safe to use.

#ROYALTY FREE TYPEFACES HOW TO#

So, in order to protect yourself, it’s best to have an understanding of font copyright laws, how to figure out if your font is allowed to be used, and if necessary, how to purchase the rights to use a font. However, I do think that going forward, we authors should take care to be compliant, and choose fonts that we can absolutely use. This includes fonts in the book, chapter title, or even on your book cover. The only major court case that I found was against a major company and involved a Harry Potter font. If you use Times New Roman in your print book without a license, the chances of you getting sued are slim. That means that if an author isn’t careful, they could choose a font from their Word or other writing software, like Times New Roman, that isn’t legally allowed to be put in a print product without an extra paid license. Some fonts, while free to use personally or in other electronic forms, have extra requirements or copyright rules if you are to put it on a physical product…like a book. The before and after are really quite different, but Johan’s work gave me a great foundation, and the client loves the result.' 41.Did you know that just because a font came with your computer or Word doesn’t mean you can use it in your physical print book? 'For an identity project, I used Comfortaa as the base for a bespoke wordmark. 'A lot of free fonts need too much work cleaning up the points, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find good options,' he says.

Part of the Google Font Improvements Project, the latest updates to the family include the addition of a Cyrillic character set and support for Vietnamese.ĭavid Airey, a graphic designer and occasional writer in Northern Ireland, is among its admirers. Created by Johan Aakerlund, a design engineer at the Technical University of Denmark, it’s a simple, good looking font that includes large number of different characters and symbols. Free font Comfortaa could work well in a logo design (Image credit: Google Fonts)Ĭomfortaa is a rounded geometric sans-serif type design intended for large sizes.

Royalty free typefaces