Font Licenses Explained

An open-source license made specifically for fonts, and the most common free-for-commercial font license today. Free to use in commercial projects, print, web and app embedding, and may be modified.

• You may not sell the font files by themselves (you may bundle them with products/documents).
• What “keep the license notice” means in practice: take the license file that came with the font (usually OFL.txt or LICENSE.txt, which holds the copyright line and the full OFL text) and ship it unmodified alongside whatever you distribute — e.g. drop it in your project’s fonts/licenses folder, or list the font name plus a link to its full license on an “Open-source licenses” page. Don’t alter it. This only applies when you distribute the font files themselves — not to images/documents you merely set with the font.
• Modified derivatives may not use the original’s Reserved Font Name.
• Content typeset with the font (documents, images, products) is unrestricted and free for commercial use.

A permissive open-source license, common in early Google fonts (e.g. Roboto). Free to use commercially, modify, embed and redistribute.

• What “keep the license notice” means in practice: ship the font’s LICENSE file (the full Apache-2.0 text) and its copyright line — plus the NOTICE file if one is included — unmodified alongside what you distribute, e.g. in a licenses folder or on an “Open-source licenses” page listing the font name and license link. Don’t alter it. Only needed when distributing the font files themselves, not typeset output.
• No copyleft obligation — your product can stay closed-source.
• Content typeset with the font is free for commercial use.

A very permissive open-source license. Free to use commercially, modify, embed and redistribute, with almost no restrictions.

• What “include the original license notice” means in practice: ship the font’s LICENSE file (the “Copyright (c) year author” line plus the full MIT text) unmodified with what you distribute — e.g. in a licenses folder or on an “Open-source licenses” page listing the font name and license link. Don’t alter it. Only needed when distributing the font files themselves, not typeset output.
• No copyleft obligation.

The author waives all copyright, effectively public domain. Use it commercially, modify, embed and redistribute freely, with no attribution required.

• One of the least restrictive licenses — attribution isn’t even required (though crediting the author is still appreciated).

Free to use commercially, modify and redistribute, but you must credit the original author and source.

• What “credit the author and source” means in practice: in a visible spot (site footer, app About screen, video description, document credits) state four things: the font name, the author, the license (CC BY 4.0) and a link to the original source. For example: “Font: Xxx by Author, CC BY 4.0, source: https://…”. If you modified the font, note that it was changed.
• Unlike the others, this attribution applies not only when distributing the font file but is also recommended on the commercial work you make with it.
• CC licenses weren’t originally designed for fonts, but many free-commercial fonts still use them; check the author’s notes before use.