There are loads of free fonts out there, I sometimes use them in my work especially for headings though generally steer clear of them for body copy as they don’t always have a full character set or kern very well. Dafont is one of my favourite free font sites.
I was looking at Smashing magazine’s article on their free fonts of the month and really like one of the fonts which is available for personal use only. While I appreciate that these fonts have been made for free, I have come across the license “for personal use only” when I was looking for fonts before and have always wondered why they didn’t offer (or openly offer) a paid commercial use. I would be happy to pay a few pounds to use some of these fonts commercially if I wanted them for a job.
What are your thoughts on this?
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15 Comments
I agree, & on sites like DaFont you can’t always get in touch with the creator.
Last time I was in that situation I took to Google & managed to track down the guy who made the font I was using. Couple of quick emails later & he had given me permission to use his font at no charge.
Good question. If sites like dafont offer creators the chance to present a ‘free for personal use’ and a paid version for commercial purposes, some people are missing a trick.
I completely agree! I’ve had that exact same thing happen a number of times. These people could be making some money if they just made it easier to actually give it to them!
It’s possible that I’m showing some ignorance here, but would “personal use only” include self-promotional items? I would be happy to pay the font creator a fee for client use, but what exactly does personal use cover?
Dan Peterson, I think the issue is much more than making money. The issue is making it simpler to stay legal and polite.
Free for Personal Use is interesting, lets you try out the font. But tying to that font directly the procedure for getting a commercial license, with whatever fees and restrictions, makes that free font much more valuable.
I know I pass over some ‘free’ fonts specifically because I don’t have time or patience to run down the commercial license picture.
DaFont is definitely popular, I am always hearing about designers using their stuff.
One thing that I always caution against is using a free font that is made to look like a standard. Dipping into the serif and sans serif categories on DaFont is dangerous. Keep it to the more creative faces, and as you mentioned, use these only for titles and headings, not body.
Good points made above. I was thinking that it would be nice for the type designers to give an explanation of what exactly they mean by “free for personal use” (I think it can mean different things to different people, like Leandra mentioned) and then to give a way to contact them if we want to use it for commercial purposes. I’m always a little leary about using “free” stuff for paid work; I know how important protecting intellectual propery is and I don’t want to violate anyone’s copyright inadvertantly.
Agree wholeheartedly with LaurenMarie above – clarification of what ‘for personal use’ actually means would be very useful.
I’ve always assumed that I can use the font myself for whatever projects I’m working on but can’t resell the font itself. From reading here, I guess that isn’t what it means, though.
This is something that also always annoys me, it’s great that people allow these fonts to be used anyway but if you would like to use them commercially it would be helpful for them to allow the option to pay.
This is a great topic!
My question would be, what if you did use these fonts for commercial use and the designer of the font found out? What legal action could they possibly take if no contact or pricing information is given?
Regards,
Bryan
A found a funky font once and really wanted to use it for promoting my business. I used the internet and tracked down the creator. He gave me permission to use his creation for free. What a great guy.
I think the easiest think to do is say nothing and if you get pulled up for it apologize and pay the fee. After all what exactly does free for personal use mean terms of the law?
Yes Bryan they can take legal action until and unless your country has copy rights protections available .
Thanks Michael for a good example & thanks Tara for a wonderful articles .
These fonts are really helpful to me in designing a professional logo. most of them are unique!
Hi Homezine,
I am glad you found it useful.. Make sure you check its free for commercial use before using in a logo though.
Tara