Understanding SIL Open Fonts and Commercial Use
SIL Open Fonts and Their Usage
SIL Open Fonts are fonts that are 100% free for personal and commercial use. Sites such as Font Squirrel and Google Fonts are examples of SIL Open Fonts. Any font from these sites can be used commercially at no charge.
Identifying Free Commercial Use Fonts
How do I know if a font is free for commercial use? Respected free font sites like FontSquirrel and DaFont include licenses. Look for licenses when downloading fonts. If no license is included, that is a red flag. Using copyrighted fonts commercially without a license can result in legal issues.
Copyright and Font Software
Traced typefaces can legally be used as original artwork. However, font software is protected by copyright. Purchasing an appropriate license is necessary even for some open-source fonts used commercially.
If you distribute the actual font with your work, you could be held civilly responsible and get sued by the copyright owner, putting your client at risk as well.
Fonts are a set of characters in a particular size and style used to display text. Fonts are actually software, and unless they are free for commercial use, you must purchase a license to use font software.
Font Size and Readability
16px is an ideal font size for body text. Arial and Century-related fonts are easily readable for legal documents.
Verdana is a safe, simple font created specifically for easy screen readability.
Free vs Paid Fonts
Choosing the right font for your project can be tricky. Most of the free fonts available on the web come with limited licenses, which means you can only use them with personal projects. However, there are sites that offer free fonts with commercial licenses. Always check the license for each font you download before using them with your projects.
Can fonts have viruses? Yes, it’s important to be cautious and ensure you are downloading from reputable sources to avoid malware.
‘Free for personal use’ means that it can’t be used for any commercial purpose. Quality fonts from large font foundries such as Adobe have been open sourced. Used for commercial use fonts from origastock can also use the arabic fonts and english fonts and our website has both serif.