font.io Freeware License (Personal Use)

Version 1.0 · Published by font.io · All font.io licenses

A short, plain-language license for designers who give their fonts away for personal use and license commercial use case by case. It is modeled on the one-page freeware licenses designers actually adopt, and written for how freeware really circulates: it lets archives pass the font on, lets users repair the broken character maps and embedding settings that old fonts so often ship with, and keeps the author's name and copyright intact throughout.

font.io Freeware License (Personal Use) summary card: what you can and cannot do

You can

  • Use it free for personal projects: school, hobbies, crafts, prints for friends and family
  • Church, club, and charity materials given away free
  • Fix errors (character map, name tables, metrics) and add missing characters
  • Fix embedding bits that wrongly block PDFs, to match this license
  • Convert between formats (TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2)
  • Embed it in personal PDFs, sites, apps, and games
  • Pass the original package on, free and unchanged

You cannot

  • Use it commercially without the author's written permission (logos, business, ads, anything that earns money)
  • Sell the font or the package, alone or bundled
  • Redesign it into a different font without permission
  • Pass off a changed copy as the author's original
  • Use the author's name to endorse your work

That summary is a guide. The license below is the agreement.

The license

1. What you get

You may install and use this font on your own computers and devices under the terms of this license. The license is free, non-exclusive, and revocable as described in clause 8. Copyright and all ownership stay with the author. This license grants no rights in the author's name, the font's name, or any trademark.

2. Personal use is free

Personal use means any use that does not generate income, directly or indirectly, and is not done for a business, a client, an employer, or an organization. Personal use includes: nothing;

  • school, hobby, and craft projects, including scrapbooking;
  • invitations, letters, and prints made for friends and family;
  • a personal website, blog, or social media account that earns
  • materials for a church, club, or charity, given away free.

3. Commercial use needs written permission first

Commercial use is any use connected with income or business, including: earns money, including from advertising; carry advertising; For any commercial use, get the author's written permission before you start. If you are not sure whether a use is commercial, treat it as commercial and ask.

  • logos, branding, and business stationery;
  • business websites, and any website, channel, or account that
  • apps, games, books, video, and other media that are sold or
  • products or merchandise offered for sale;
  • work done for a client or an employer, paid or not.

4. Fixing and extending the font

You may repair this font and extend it without asking. That covers fixing errors in its character map, name tables, embedding settings, metrics, or glyphs, and adding characters it is missing, in keeping with its existing design. Correcting the embedding settings is expressly allowed where they contradict this license: many older fonts carry bits that forbid embedding in documents such as PDFs even though the author released the font as freeware, and setting those bits to allow the embedding this license grants is a repair, not a new right. The bits may be set to match this license, never to claim more than this license gives. You may use a repaired or extended version under this same license, and you may pass it on, free of charge and under this license, if you mark it clearly: include a note in the package stating that this copy was repaired or extended, what was changed, and who changed it, and keep the author's name and copyright in place. What you may not do without the author's written permission is redesign this font into a different font, or present any changed version as the author's own original work. Format conversion (clause 5) and subsetting for embedding (clause 6) are not changes under this clause.

5. Format conversion is allowed

You may convert this font between formats (including TTF, OTF, WOFF, WOFF2, SVG, and EOT) for your own use under this same license, provided the glyphs and data are otherwise unchanged and a copy of this license stays with the converted file.

6. Embedding

You may embed this font in documents, such as PDFs, and in personal websites, apps, and games, subsetted where your tools allow, so long as the embedding does not let recipients extract or install the font as a standalone file, and the document, site, app, or game is itself personal use under clause 2. Embedding in anything commercial needs the permission described in clause 3.

7. Passing it on

You may give the original, unmodified package (the font files together with this license and any readme the author included) to another person free of charge, and font archives and websites may redistribute that same unmodified package free of charge. Do not sell this font or the package, alone or bundled with other goods, and do not distribute a modified or converted copy as a release.

8. If you break these terms

Your rights under this license end automatically if you break any of its terms. Delete your copies of the font if that happens.

9. No warranty

This font is provided "as is", without any warranty, express or implied, including any warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. To the maximum extent the law allows, the author is not liable for any claim or damages arising from the use of this font. font.io publishes the text of this license but is not a party to it and grants no rights in any font.

10. Versions

This is version 1.0 of this license. font.io may publish newer versions at the same address. A font released under this version stays under this version unless the author re-releases it under a newer one. The text that counts is the copy included with the font or cited in its readme.

Use this license for your own font

Any designer may release a font under this license, free of charge and with no registration. Put this line in the font's readme file and keep a copy of the license text with the font:

License: font.io Freeware License (Personal Use), version 1.0
https://font.io/licenses/freeware-personal

You may also use the badge on the font's page, linked to the address above:

font.io Freeware License (Personal Use) badge, version 1.0

Releasing fonts commercially instead? See the font.io Freeware License (Commercial Use). How font licenses work in general is covered in our guide to font licensing.