Font licenses, in plain English
Every font on this site shows its license up front. Here is what each one actually lets you do - no legalese.
OFL SIL Open Font License 1.1
Free for personal and commercial use - use it, modify it and redistribute it; the only thing you can't do is sell the font files by themselves.
- Commercial use
- Modify and make derivatives
- Redistribute and embed
- Sell the font files on their own
- No attribution required
Who it's for: almost everyone. The default license of the open-font world - safe for websites, apps, logos, print and client work.
Read the full license text →Apache 2.0 Apache License 2.0
Free for any use, commercial included - use, modify, embed and redistribute it, keeping the license notice with the files.
- Commercial use
- Modify and make derivatives
- Redistribute and embed
- Sell products that include it
- Keep the license notice with the files
Who it's for: developers bundling fonts inside apps, games and devices - the most permissive of the common font licenses.
Read the full license text →MIT MIT License
Free for any use with almost no conditions - use, modify, embed and redistribute it, keeping the copyright notice.
- Commercial use
- Modify and make derivatives
- Redistribute and embed
- Sell products that include it
- Keep the copyright notice
Who it's for: anyone - a short, simple license best known from software, occasionally used for fonts and icon sets.
Read the full license text →CC0 CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
Public domain - no rights reserved; use it for anything, with no attribution and no restrictions.
- Commercial use
- Modify and make derivatives
- Redistribute and embed
- Sell products that include it
- No attribution required
Who it's for: everyone - the designer waived all rights, so there is literally nothing to comply with.
Read the full license text →Personal use Free for personal use only
Free for private, non-commercial projects only - school work, hobby designs, personal invitations. Anything that earns money needs the designer's permission or a paid commercial license.
- Commercial use
- Modify and make derivatives
- Redistribute and embed
- Sell products that include it
- Personal, non-commercial projects
Who it's for: hobbyists. For commercial rights, contact the designer - the readme in the download says how. When in doubt, pick an OFL font instead.
Not legal advice - just the practical summary. The license file bundled in every download is the authoritative text. Browse fonts