Comments on: Free Fonts for Personal Use – What About Commercial Use?

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:14:10 +0000

I would love to have this as an option, many of the great fonts out there are for personal use only, and I can see so many aspects for the to be present in!

I totally agree, dafont is a great website for free fonts, but having an option to do this would be awesome!

By: Tara: Freelance Designer

Tara: Freelance Designer — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:56:47 +0000

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

By: homezine

homezine — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:30:38 +0000

These fonts are really helpful to me in designing a professional logo. most of them are unique!

By: Directorybie

Directorybie — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:15:02 +0000

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 .

By: Trevor Collins

Trevor Collins — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:17:43 +0000

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?

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:59:15 +0000

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.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:55:38 +0000

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

By: Martyn

Martyn — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:50:31 +0000

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.

By: Mark from Just Web Designers

Mark from Just Web Designers — Sun, 25 May 2008 07:09:24 +0000

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.

By: LaurenMarie - Creative Curio

LaurenMarie - Creative Curio — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:52:05 +0000

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.