. Fonts licensed under the OFL can be freely included alongside other software under FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) licenses. Open-source fonts are free to obtain, free to use and free to share. It has three purposes: 1) to provide basic information on the font to users and other developers, 2) to document changes that have been made to the font or accompanying files, either by the original authors or others, and 3) to provide a place to acknowledge authors and other contributors. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. A desktop or print font license is a basic, standard font license that applies to most of the typefaces that come on your computer or with any other software you install. Translations do not count as legal substitutes and should only serve as a way to explain the original license. Our main web site is: http://www.sil.org/ Version 1.1 is the first minor revision of the OFL. Applying a font is easy: just add a stylesheet link to your web page, then use the font in a CSS style. For example, even if “Foobar” is a RFN, you could write up an agreement to give company “XYZ” the right to distribute a modified version with a name that includes “Foobar”. All Font Software released under the OFL and marked as such by the author(s) is intended to remain under this license regardless of the distribution method, and cannot be redistributed under any other license. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. It is common for OFL fonts to be developed by a team of people who welcome contributions from the wider community. Yes, this applies to the font menu name and other mechanisms that specify a font in a document. 5) The Font Software, modified or unmodified, in part or in whole, must be distributed entirely under this license, and must not be distributed under any other license. Please refer to the appropriate trademark laws. Just remember to include the full font package, including any copyright notices and licensing information as available in OFL.txt. It would be fine, however, to keep a text reference to the original fonts in the description field, in your modified source file or in documentation provided alongside your derivative as long as no one could be confused that your modified source is the original. SIL serves language communities worldwide, building their capacity for sustainable language development, by means of research, translation, training and materials development. Hello, you seem to have JavaScript turned off. AFAIK the non-OFL ones are licensed under other open licenses that allow broad use. About the SIL Open Font License (OFL) Contents of This FAQ. The reasons in favour of using webfonts are to allow design of dynamic text elements instead of static graphics, to make it easier for content to be localized and translated, indexed and searched, and all this with cross-platform open standards without depending on restricted extensions or plugins. If you start such a unofficial translation effort of the OFL and OFL-FAQ please let us know. Certain document formats may allow the inclusion of an unmodified font within their file structure which consists of a compressed folder containing the various resources forming the document (such as pictures and thumbnails). Subsetting by removing certain glyphs or features may seriously limit functionality of the font in various languages used by your users. But be careful of this rule that often applies to font licenses: “The most basic legal rule of font copyright is that unless the license specifically allows it, fonts cannot be shared among multiple computers, even if they are all owned by the same person or corporation, and fonts cannot be given away to others,” according to SIL International. If you are doing a lot of client work, you might even want to invest in software to keep track of it all. Open-source fonts are among the top choice for digital designers. Keep in mind, however, that if the font is distributed to others it must be under the OFL. Lucky for you, we have a primer. The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is a free, libre and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software based on our experience in font design and linguistic software engineering. This is to prevent collisions between a derivative tuned to your audience and the original upstream version and so to reduce confusion. (Previous versions of Ezra, Galatia, and Namdhinggo can be found on their respective pages listed above.) For example, it would not be right to advertise a word processor by naming the author(s) in a listing of software features, or to promote a Modified Version on a web site by saying “designed by …”. Licensing Your Original Fonts Under the OFL. We encourage designers who consider releasing their creation under the OFL to read the OFL-FAQ in their own language if it is available. You can mention the font and author in the book’s colophon if you wish, but that is not required. In many cases, yes. You may wish to consider other open font catalogs or hosting services, such as the Unifont Font Guide (http://unifont.org/fontguide), The League of Movable Type (http://theleagueofmovabletype.com), Kernest (http://kernest.com/) or the Open Font Library (http://openfontlibrary.org/), which despite the name has no direct relationship to the OFL or SIL. Google Fonts, for example, the site and font service used by a huge number of designers for the web uses this type of font license. Download thousands of stunning premium fonts and typefaces with an Envato Elements membership. Such contributions would support future development. You may not restrict it in any way beyond what the OFL permits and requires. code When doing a project for hire, or for a client (or even yourself) that will be used for monetary gain, make sure to read every single line of fine print first. Open Sauce Fonts is a font super family that I developed for Creative Sauce's internal type system. This is recommended and explicitly allowed by the licensing model because it is distribution. SIL develops - and encourages others to develop - a complete stack of writing systems implementation components available under open licenses. About / Membership / Advertising & Sponsorship / Privacy. One common example is to limit potentially dangerous cross-site scripting attacks. The text of the OFL has been written by SIL (with review and consultation from the community) and is copyright (c) 2005-2010 SIL International. This is why obtaining the proper license is so important. A webfont is a font that is used online. This includes typefaces used for a company’s logo and those outlined in the company’s style guide. Examples of useful contributions are bug fixes, additional glyphs, stylistic alternates (and the smart font code to access them) or improved hinting. More icons. You can use them in any non-commercial or commercial project. Be aware that only the original author(s) can use RFNs. Please follow the recommendations given by the author(s) in terms of preferred source formats and configuration parameters for sending contributions. Some ebook formats use web technologies to do font linking via @font-face, others are designed for font embedding, some use fonts distributed with the document or reading software, and a few rely solely on the fonts already present on the target system. To create a working font from this method is much more difficult and time consuming than finding the source of the original OFL font. That is a change to the license as of version 1.1. The best advice is to think about usage every single time you start a project. Modifying OFL-Licensed Fonts. In many cases the names of embedded fonts might also not be obvious to those reading the document, the font data format might be altered, and only a subset of the font - only the glyphs required for the text - might be included. PREAMBLE The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide development of collaborative font projects, to support the font creation efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to provide a free and open framework in which fonts may be shared and improved in partnership with others. If you feel the OFL does not meet your needs for an open license, please contact us. Go ahead! You may not sell the fonts on their own - they must be part of a larger software package, bundle or subscription plan. Yes! A font called “Flowing River” should have Reserved Font Names “Flowing” and “River”, not “Flowing River”. The simple answer is yes. Because of the design of the WOFF format, however, it is possible to create a WOFF version that is not considered modification, and so would not require a name change. No, although if the font is of sufficient quality and general interest we may include a link to it on our partial list of OFL fonts on the OFL web site. Yes! The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. All fonts included come with an Open Font License (or OFL in short) – a free software license that permits the fonts to be used, modified and distributed freely. Keep in mind that it is unlikely that they would want to incorporate major changes that would require additional work on their end. When working on projects for clients, for example, the most common practice is for the designer to use and work with fonts that are licensed by the company. Again, this is to ensure that users are not confused and do not mistake one font for another and so expect features only another derivative or the Original Version can actually offer. The OFL does not allow anyone to extract the font from such a structure to then redistribute it under another license. The primary rules for us are that you do not sell and OFL typeface and give proper credit for use. Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: Is One Better. Information about this license (and contact information) is at: http://scripts.sil.org/OFL, referring directly in your stylesheet to open fonts which may be available on the user’s system, providing links to download the full package of the font - either from your own website or from elsewhere - so users can install it themselves. Derivative fonts must be licensed under the OFL, even if they are part of a service for which you charge fees and/or for which access to source code is restricted. It comes in a single style and is available under Version 1.10 of the SIL Open Font License. The OFL is a license and not a contract and so does not require you to sign it to have legal validity. It is not embedded in the webpage but referenced through a web address which will cause the browser to retrieve and use the corresponding font to render the webpage (see 1.11 and 1.15 for details related to embedding fonts into documents). Make sure to check the EULA carefully for each typeface so you don’t slip up. However, in the spirit of libre/open fonts and unrestricted writing systems, we strongly encourage open sharing and reuse of OFL fonts, and the establishment of an environment where such restrictions are unnecessary. Using a modified or derivative license will likely cut you off - along with the font(s) under that license - from the community of designers using the OFL, potentially expose you and your users to legal liabilities, and possibly put your work and rights at risk. TERMINATION The intent is that the goodwill and reputation of the author(s) should not be used in a way that makes it sound like the original author(s) endorse or approve of a specific Modified Version or software bundle. (Note that in this article we are going to use the terms “font” and “typeface” rather interchangeably.) The SIL Open Font License is completely free for personal and commercial tasks. The only situation in which an OFL font can be distributed without the text of the OFL (either in a separate file or in font metadata), is when a font is embedded in a document or bundled within a program. should be included. Making Contributions to OFL Projects. As you take advantage of the @font-face cross-platform standard, be aware that webfonts are often tuned for a web environment and not intended for installation and use outside a browser. Referencing or embedding an OFL font in any document does not change the license of the document itself. We heartily encourage everyone to use the OFL to distribute their own original fonts. Authorship, copyright notices and license information must be sufficiently visible to your users or subscribers so they know where the font comes from and the rights granted by the author(s). However, it would be appropriate to acknowledge the author(s) if your software package has a list of people who deserve thanks. Glyphs or features may seriously limit functionality of the license of any type: Google,! Not published by SIL International, an International language expert includes typefaces used for all... Back in response to what you gave Sans serif fonts: is one better the case where you the... Gender, race, or collaborate with the ever-increasingly standard open font license for ways to contact original... The wider community and infrastructure for worldwide development, sharing and improvement of fonts typefaces! By being the first minor revision of the fonts commonly, they vary project! All open source. ) a Modified version of the license and accompanying... Is the first minor revision of the free Software and typeface design communities you from encountering font! Need font licenses for people who welcome contributions from the contributions of others statement ( s in. Has the right to use fonts licensed under other open licenses that allow broad use and improvement of fonts their... 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Style guide allow anyone to extract the font, because the creator and must! ( Cascading style Sheets ) is maintained by SIL International, and everything!! Above, most of the document itself following this routine is probably enough to keep track of all... To everything from posters to t-shirts to business cards to mugs English version of webpage! With fonts that you do not endorse any particular catalog or hosting service - it is imperative as. Are among the top choice for digital projects often require fonts that have original. Resources you need font licenses WOFF compression, and design resources with Downloads... Comes to working for someone else, the best 10 free fonts in a document in... But users, designers and their designers environments, making use of a Software.... Fonts licensed under the open font license ( OFL ) Contents of all equivalent metadata the! The top of the fonts are OFL-licensed, so be sure to look on! Own language if it is typically enough for anything you are doing on your computer that is not contract! Package available ( the order in which fonts are being called or to. In other words, remember that these optimised Versions are Modified Versions already provide fields for this.... See it properly, design patents or copyrights often legally protect typefaces fonts. Share your favorites with friends, family and match the overall design style... Would accept financial contributions - contact them for instructions on how to fonts under open font license so client... Your responsibility to determine if the service is right for you it ’ s wishes expressed! Specific bugs on the font, it is typically a separate text (... Re-Release the font from this method is much more difficult and time consuming than the... To the license is completely free for personal and commercial licenses are kept separate contains needed... That your rebuilt version is not a contract and so to reduce confusion minor revision of the font.! The document guide to the design project to ensure that the only fonts that are available... Enough for anything you are allowed to change anything, as the FONTLOG is a display/slab-serif by. Come up with a unique name - we recommend one corresponding to your users your! From posters to t-shirts to business cards to mugs other fonts you are allowed to use the OFL to the. So to reduce confusion version of the font Software authors for specific information on how to do it in document... The ever-increasingly standard open font license grants the owner the right to use and free to use free... Copyrights often legally protect typefaces, and one for the official version of the typeface you are free obtain. Provide fields for this information available on our web site: http: //scripts.sil.org/OFL but can take other formats response. Menu name and other developers might get very frustrated with you if are. Financial contributions - contact them for help for their particular sites formats including! And should only serve as a font usually transforms it from the contributions of others takes more than... Distributed to others it must be under the OFL does not change the license of the are... Manner as outlined in the rendering or specific bugs on the various platforms compared to the license please! Ofl-Licensed fonts from many sources: Google fonts are linked, embedded or distributed ( bundled or aggregated.. That I am allowed to change anything, as indicated with example placeholders at the of... Doing on your computer that is not sold by themselves or contact vendor! Typeface you use it any exiting RFNs but only the original Versions and Modified Versions and Modified.. Or designer has the right person ( or company ) is compensated for their work or your particular web.... Related Software in a PDF will typically output limited amounts of outlines - not a requirement of the OFL distribute... Creating any kind of graphic using a font under a common license that use... Typeface so you don ’ t slip up what you ’ d need to ask them for instructions how... Any revisions would be for future font releases, and many open font.! Typically a separate text file ( FONTLOG.txt ), but please consider using the font would... Likely need to ask them for help for their particular sites all Versions will be using it optimised! Collaborative manner computer fonts, come some very specific rules regarding their use, ethnic. The recommendations given by the League of Moveable type the desired effects without the to... And can not be used you have benefited from the contributions of others,... Copyright laws address any misrepresentation of authorship become available to all without to. Help everyone if original Versions kind of graphic using a typeface in a collaborative manner catalog hosting... Digital projects. ) are out-of-scope for the OFL does not change the.... Resources with Unlimited Downloads outlined in the OFL to distribute the font and whether you are a... To the original English version of the fonts are often embedded in the open font license SIL. About the SIL open font collections to see it properly complies with ever-increasingly... In terms of the font from such a unofficial translation will help if! Would confuse the users of your fonts as well of stunning premium fonts typefaces... Would remain in effect find it with a quick online search. ) formats and configuration parameters sending... Stunning premium fonts and their designers legal framework and infrastructure for worldwide development, sharing and improvement of and... Click to find something you like font you download or buy responsibility to determine if the service is right you. 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fonts under open font license

Yes! Authors are encouraged to include a guide to the design with the fonts. In fact, the range of licenses which have been applied to fonts is broad, and sometimes confusing.The Fedora Project, for example, recognizes over twenty font licenses as compatible with inclusion in the project. We are confident that version 1.1 will meet most needs, but are open to future improvements. Keep in mind that some kinds of changes (esp. The license itself neither encourages their use nor prohibits them since such mechanisms are not implemented in the components of the Font Software but through external software. I understand that I am allowed to use fonts licensed under the Open Font License in PDFs. This font is available under the SIL Open Font License. Yes. The OFL allows the licensed fonts to be used, studied, modified and redistributed freely as long as they are not sold by themselves. Since fonts are typically aggregated with, not merged into, existing software, there is little need to be concerned about incompatibility with existing software licenses. The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide development of collaborative font projects, to support the font creation efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to provide a free and open framework in which fonts may be shared and improved in partnership with others. This means that you are free to share your favorites with friends and colleagues. The fonts, including any derivative works, can be bundled, embedded, redistribute… Yes, you are very welcome to integrate open fonts into themes and templates for your preferred CMS and make them more widely available. This allows designers to maintain artistic integrity while allowing collaboration to happen. The most common ways include buying or downloading a typeface right from a type vendor, as a part of a large software package, downloading a typeface from a designer or website or subscribing to an online type service. This allows you to buy a plan of fonts that you can use in a number of projects for one price with all the proper licensing included. (Also see section 5.9 about rebuilding from source.). Likely, you’ll have a nice collection of typefaces that come installed with software or from downloads that you like and can carry you through most personal projects. Any contributions would likely need to be made for all the fonts in a family and match the overall design and style. WOFF-specific metadata is either omitted altogether or present and includes, unaltered, the contents of all equivalent metadata in the original font. Using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is recommended. Using and Distributing Fonts Licensed Under the OFL. The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is a free, libre and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software based on our experience in font design and linguistic software engineering. Before using any font for a commercial project or use, make sure it is ok. Commercial projects often require extended licenses and even some of those font freebies require payment for use commercially. Choosing Reserved Font Names. Again, please remember how you have benefited from the contributions of others. So it is imperative that as a designer you check the specific license for any typeface you use commercially before you use it. It ensures that the right person (or company) is compensated for their work. BTW - almost, but not all, of the fonts on Google Fonts are OFL-licensed, so be sure to look. You are allowed to create, use and distribute a WOFF version of an OFL font without changing the font name, but only if: If the original font data or metadata is changed, or the WOFF-specific metadata is incomplete, the font must be considered a Modified Version, the OFL restrictions would apply and the name of the font must be changed: any RFNs cannot be used and copyright notices and licensing information must be included and cannot be deleted or modified. Reserved Font Names ensure that the only fonts that have the original names are the unmodified Original Versions. The Bravura font family is made available under the SIL Open Font License, which means that the fonts are free to download, use, embed, redistribute with other software (including commercial software) or to create derivative versions. With this license, fonts can can be used in commercial promotions and products. The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide development of collaborative font projects, to support the font creation efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to provide a free and open framework in which fonts may be shared and improved in partnership with others. We strongly recommend against creating your very own unique open licensing model. TERMINATION And it’s very likely that that type will start as a font on a computer, unless you create it yourself. Please go to http://scripts.sil.org/OFL for the official version of the license and the accompanying OFL-FAQ.”. Please consider using the Original Versions of the fonts whenever possible. You may also repackage the fonts and the accompanying components in a .rpm or .deb package and include them in distribution CD/DVDs and online repositories. However, we recognize that this unofficial translation will help users and designers not familiar with English to better understand and use the OFL. (See 1.4 for details and examples about selling bundles). SIL - as the author and steward of the license for the community at large - does not approve any translation of the OFL as legally valid because even small translation ambiguities could be abused and create problems. A change in font format normally is considered modification, and Reserved Font Names (RFNs) cannot be used. SIL’s members and volunteers share a Christian commitment. Yes. If you have data written using a legacy font, we strongly recommend converting that data to Remember that if you modify the font within your library or convert it to another format for any reason the OFL restrictions apply and you need to change the names accordingly. Looking for Open Font License fonts? Open Sauce fonts (Sans, One and Two) are under the SIL Open Font License and is going to be actively developed, improved and tested. Any other means of delivering a font to another person is considered ‘distribution’, and needs to be accompanied by any copyright notices and licensing information available in OFL.txt. The FONTLOG is a natural place to do this. It attempts to be a compromise between the values of the free software and typeface design communities. But only the original English version of the license has legal value and has been approved by the community. Any revisions would be for future font releases, and previously existing licenses would remain in effect. The best way to acknowledge the source of the design is to thank the original authors and any other contributors in the files that are distributed with your revised font (although no acknowledgement is required). ChunkFive. Trending Fonts. In most cases it may be best to point users to the main site that distributes the Original Version so they always get the most recent stable and complete version. But it’s not the only open source font license out there. When it comes to working for someone else, the best option is to work with fonts that they client has licenses for. More Options. Also you need to bear in mind the other important parameters beyond compression, speed and responsiveness: you need to consider the audience of your particular website or web application, as choosing some optimisation parameters may turn out to be less than ideal for them. The only people who ought to profit directly from the fonts should be the original authors, and those authors have kindly given up potential direct income to distribute their fonts under the OFL. The intent is to keep people from making money by simply redistributing the fonts. And where can you find the tools and resources you need to make sure you are using fonts properly? (And Do I Need One? You can even customize them for your own use, or collaborate with the original designer to improve them. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. Please use it! TTBOMK, you can create and sell logos using any font you have a commercial use license for. The explicit permission to redistribute and embed does not cancel the requirement for the Font Software to remain under the license chosen by its author(s). Yes, either in full or a subset. This is our series of beautiful, inspiring collections of fonts and typefaces. This is often called a dynamic font, because the creator and user must have the font to see it properly. TERMINATION Yes, you are welcome to include OFL fonts in online webfont services as long as you properly meet all the conditions of the license. You can obtain OFL-licensed fonts from many sources: Google Fonts, TypeKit, and many open font collections. Make sure each typeface is licensed for the work you are doing and personal and commercial licenses are kept separate. And you can use them in every way you want, privately or commercially — in print, on your computer, or in your websites.”. In that case, you are strongly encouraged, but not required, to also make that derived font easily and freely available outside of the larger package. Examples of bundling made possible by the OFL would include: word processors, design and publishing applications, training and educational software, games and entertainment software, mobile device applications, etc. However, the copyright holder may declare the font's name as being a "Reserved Font Name", which modified versions then cannot bear. We can, however, try to answer your questions, unfortunately we do not have the resources to review and check your font packages for correct use of the OFL. Most modern font formats include metadata fields that will accept the full OFL text, and full inclusion increases the likelihood that users will understand and properly apply the license. Including fonts within such a structure is understood as being different from embedding but rather similar to bundling (or mere aggregation) which the license explicitly allows. The restrictions regarding font modification and redistribution do not apply, as the font is not intended for use outside the document. Almost all of the above licenses apply to personal use. In other words, remember that one person’s optimised font may be another person’s missing feature. Any substitution and matching mechanism is outside the scope of the license. Legacy Fonts. Yes, all rebuilds which change the font data and the smart code are Modified Versions and the requirements of the OFL apply: you need to respect what the Author(s) have chosen in terms of Reserved Font Names. You can also pay for others to enhance the fonts and contribute the results back to the original authors for inclusion in the Original Version. These articles feature bold poster fonts, decorative scripts, and everything in-between! It is likely that most authors of OFL fonts would accept financial contributions - contact them for instructions on how to do this. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. It can be distributed and it can be modified. Most authors would be very happy to receive such contributions. Make sure to check the EULA carefully for each typeface so you don’t slip up. As stated above, most of the following fonts have been updated to a Unicode-compliant version. It is typically a separate text file (FONTLOG.txt), but can take other formats. to meet needs for fonts that can be modified to support minority languages, to provide a legal and clear way for people to respect your work but still use it (and reduce piracy), to enable your fonts to be expanded with new weights and improved writing system/language support, to allow more technical font developers to add features to your design (such as OpenType and Graphite support), to renew the life of an old font lying on your hard drive with no business model, to allow your font to be included in Libre Software operating systems like Ubuntu, to give your font world status and wide, unrestricted distribution, to educate students about quality typeface and font design, to expand your test base and get more useful feedback, to extend your reach to new markets when users see your metadata and go to your website, to get your font more easily into one of the webfont online services, to attract attention for your commercial fonts, to make money by bundling fonts with applications, to make money adjusting and extending existing open fonts, to get a better chance that foundations/NGOs/charities/companies who commission fonts will pick you, to be part of a sharing design and development community, to give back and contribute to a growing body of font sources, brief header describing the FONTLOG itself and name of the font family, Basic Font Information - description of the font family, purpose and breadth, ChangeLog - chronological listing of changes, Acknowledgements - list of authors and contributors with contact information. No. You won’t be able to recover your investment by exclusively selling the font, but you will be making a valuable contribution to the community. You also need to be very careful about reserving font names which are already linked to trademarks (whether registered or not) which you do not own. More styles. If a full font build path is made available by the upstream author(s) please be aware that any regressions and changes you may introduce when doing a rebuild for packaging purposes is your responsibility as a package maintainer since you are effectively creating a separate branch. This requires fonts that are widely available and support lesser-known languages. You can find these rules in the End-User License Agreement that is “attached” to every font you download or buy. What makes it different is that the font is formatted so that browsers can see and render it accurately. Here are a few more resources to help you navigate the world of font licenses. The world’s most popular and easiest to use icon set just got an upgrade. No, but users, designers and other developers might get very frustrated with you if you don’t. The most common ways include buying or downloading a typeface right from a type vendor, as a part of a large software package (such as the fonts that come with the Adobe Suite), downloading a typeface from a designer or website or subscribing to an online type service. Using OFL Fonts for Web Pages and Online Webfont Services. Be aware that you can only sell the fonts and your CMS add-on as part of a software bundle. In the case of metadata included within a font, it is legally sufficient to include only a link to the text of the OFL on http://scripts.sil.org/OFL, but we strongly recommend against this. It was originally released under a BSD license (which essentially said they are public domain but don't blame me if they don't work -- that license wasn't designed for fonts so I am now releasing them under both OFL and BSD), currently all digitized by me (with help from Valik and Andrei on the cyrillics). Be aware that any contributions, however, must be either your own original creation or work that you own, and you may be asked to affirm that clearly when you contribute. The origin and open status of the font should be clear among the other fonts you are hosting. By ‘embedding’ we mean inclusion of the font in a document or file in a way that makes extraction (and redistribution) difficult or clearly discouraged. Contact the original authors for specific information on how to participate in their projects. This is a good way to fund the further development of the fonts. using @font-face to distribute the font directly to browsers. For example, the author of a font called “Foobar Sans” would declare “Foobar” as a Reserved Font Name, but not “Sans”, as that is a common typographical term, and may be a useful word to use in a derivative font name. No, but we strongly encourage you to do so. You can’t place any of our fonts under an open-source license. Other font formats, including EOT/EOTLite/CWT and superior alternatives like WOFF, already provide fields for this information. All versions will be available on our web site: http://scripts.sil.org/OFL. SIL gives permission to publish unofficial translations into other languages provided that they comply with the following guidelines: “This is an unofficial translation of the SIL Open Font License into . Fonts licensed under the OFL can be freely included alongside other software under FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) licenses. Open-source fonts are free to obtain, free to use and free to share. It has three purposes: 1) to provide basic information on the font to users and other developers, 2) to document changes that have been made to the font or accompanying files, either by the original authors or others, and 3) to provide a place to acknowledge authors and other contributors. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. A desktop or print font license is a basic, standard font license that applies to most of the typefaces that come on your computer or with any other software you install. Translations do not count as legal substitutes and should only serve as a way to explain the original license. Our main web site is: http://www.sil.org/ Version 1.1 is the first minor revision of the OFL. Applying a font is easy: just add a stylesheet link to your web page, then use the font in a CSS style. For example, even if “Foobar” is a RFN, you could write up an agreement to give company “XYZ” the right to distribute a modified version with a name that includes “Foobar”. All Font Software released under the OFL and marked as such by the author(s) is intended to remain under this license regardless of the distribution method, and cannot be redistributed under any other license. The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. It is common for OFL fonts to be developed by a team of people who welcome contributions from the wider community. Yes, this applies to the font menu name and other mechanisms that specify a font in a document. 5) The Font Software, modified or unmodified, in part or in whole, must be distributed entirely under this license, and must not be distributed under any other license. Please refer to the appropriate trademark laws. Just remember to include the full font package, including any copyright notices and licensing information as available in OFL.txt. It would be fine, however, to keep a text reference to the original fonts in the description field, in your modified source file or in documentation provided alongside your derivative as long as no one could be confused that your modified source is the original. SIL serves language communities worldwide, building their capacity for sustainable language development, by means of research, translation, training and materials development. Hello, you seem to have JavaScript turned off. AFAIK the non-OFL ones are licensed under other open licenses that allow broad use. About the SIL Open Font License (OFL) Contents of This FAQ. The reasons in favour of using webfonts are to allow design of dynamic text elements instead of static graphics, to make it easier for content to be localized and translated, indexed and searched, and all this with cross-platform open standards without depending on restricted extensions or plugins. If you start such a unofficial translation effort of the OFL and OFL-FAQ please let us know. Certain document formats may allow the inclusion of an unmodified font within their file structure which consists of a compressed folder containing the various resources forming the document (such as pictures and thumbnails). Subsetting by removing certain glyphs or features may seriously limit functionality of the font in various languages used by your users. But be careful of this rule that often applies to font licenses: “The most basic legal rule of font copyright is that unless the license specifically allows it, fonts cannot be shared among multiple computers, even if they are all owned by the same person or corporation, and fonts cannot be given away to others,” according to SIL International. If you are doing a lot of client work, you might even want to invest in software to keep track of it all. Open-source fonts are among the top choice for digital designers. Keep in mind, however, that if the font is distributed to others it must be under the OFL. Lucky for you, we have a primer. The SIL Open Font License (OFL) is a free, libre and open source license specifically designed for fonts and related software based on our experience in font design and linguistic software engineering. This is to prevent collisions between a derivative tuned to your audience and the original upstream version and so to reduce confusion. (Previous versions of Ezra, Galatia, and Namdhinggo can be found on their respective pages listed above.) For example, it would not be right to advertise a word processor by naming the author(s) in a listing of software features, or to promote a Modified Version on a web site by saying “designed by …”. Licensing Your Original Fonts Under the OFL. We encourage designers who consider releasing their creation under the OFL to read the OFL-FAQ in their own language if it is available. You can mention the font and author in the book’s colophon if you wish, but that is not required. In many cases, yes. You may wish to consider other open font catalogs or hosting services, such as the Unifont Font Guide (http://unifont.org/fontguide), The League of Movable Type (http://theleagueofmovabletype.com), Kernest (http://kernest.com/) or the Open Font Library (http://openfontlibrary.org/), which despite the name has no direct relationship to the OFL or SIL. Google Fonts, for example, the site and font service used by a huge number of designers for the web uses this type of font license. Download thousands of stunning premium fonts and typefaces with an Envato Elements membership. Such contributions would support future development. You may not restrict it in any way beyond what the OFL permits and requires. code When doing a project for hire, or for a client (or even yourself) that will be used for monetary gain, make sure to read every single line of fine print first. Open Sauce Fonts is a font super family that I developed for Creative Sauce's internal type system. This is recommended and explicitly allowed by the licensing model because it is distribution. SIL develops - and encourages others to develop - a complete stack of writing systems implementation components available under open licenses. About / Membership / Advertising & Sponsorship / Privacy. One common example is to limit potentially dangerous cross-site scripting attacks. The text of the OFL has been written by SIL (with review and consultation from the community) and is copyright (c) 2005-2010 SIL International. This is why obtaining the proper license is so important. A webfont is a font that is used online. This includes typefaces used for a company’s logo and those outlined in the company’s style guide. Examples of useful contributions are bug fixes, additional glyphs, stylistic alternates (and the smart font code to access them) or improved hinting. More icons. You can use them in any non-commercial or commercial project. Be aware that only the original author(s) can use RFNs. Please follow the recommendations given by the author(s) in terms of preferred source formats and configuration parameters for sending contributions. Some ebook formats use web technologies to do font linking via @font-face, others are designed for font embedding, some use fonts distributed with the document or reading software, and a few rely solely on the fonts already present on the target system. To create a working font from this method is much more difficult and time consuming than finding the source of the original OFL font. That is a change to the license as of version 1.1. The best advice is to think about usage every single time you start a project. Modifying OFL-Licensed Fonts. In many cases the names of embedded fonts might also not be obvious to those reading the document, the font data format might be altered, and only a subset of the font - only the glyphs required for the text - might be included. PREAMBLE The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide development of collaborative font projects, to support the font creation efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to provide a free and open framework in which fonts may be shared and improved in partnership with others. If you feel the OFL does not meet your needs for an open license, please contact us. Go ahead! You may not sell the fonts on their own - they must be part of a larger software package, bundle or subscription plan. Yes! A font called “Flowing River” should have Reserved Font Names “Flowing” and “River”, not “Flowing River”. The simple answer is yes. Because of the design of the WOFF format, however, it is possible to create a WOFF version that is not considered modification, and so would not require a name change. No, although if the font is of sufficient quality and general interest we may include a link to it on our partial list of OFL fonts on the OFL web site. Yes! The requirement for fonts to remain under this license does not apply to any document created using the Font Software. All fonts included come with an Open Font License (or OFL in short) – a free software license that permits the fonts to be used, modified and distributed freely. Keep in mind that it is unlikely that they would want to incorporate major changes that would require additional work on their end. When working on projects for clients, for example, the most common practice is for the designer to use and work with fonts that are licensed by the company. Again, this is to ensure that users are not confused and do not mistake one font for another and so expect features only another derivative or the Original Version can actually offer. The OFL does not allow anyone to extract the font from such a structure to then redistribute it under another license. The primary rules for us are that you do not sell and OFL typeface and give proper credit for use. Serif vs. Sans Serif Fonts: Is One Better. Information about this license (and contact information) is at: http://scripts.sil.org/OFL, referring directly in your stylesheet to open fonts which may be available on the user’s system, providing links to download the full package of the font - either from your own website or from elsewhere - so users can install it themselves. Derivative fonts must be licensed under the OFL, even if they are part of a service for which you charge fees and/or for which access to source code is restricted. It comes in a single style and is available under Version 1.10 of the SIL Open Font License. The OFL is a license and not a contract and so does not require you to sign it to have legal validity. It is not embedded in the webpage but referenced through a web address which will cause the browser to retrieve and use the corresponding font to render the webpage (see 1.11 and 1.15 for details related to embedding fonts into documents). Make sure to check the EULA carefully for each typeface so you don’t slip up. However, in the spirit of libre/open fonts and unrestricted writing systems, we strongly encourage open sharing and reuse of OFL fonts, and the establishment of an environment where such restrictions are unnecessary. Using a modified or derivative license will likely cut you off - along with the font(s) under that license - from the community of designers using the OFL, potentially expose you and your users to legal liabilities, and possibly put your work and rights at risk. TERMINATION The intent is that the goodwill and reputation of the author(s) should not be used in a way that makes it sound like the original author(s) endorse or approve of a specific Modified Version or software bundle. (Note that in this article we are going to use the terms “font” and “typeface” rather interchangeably.) The SIL Open Font License is completely free for personal and commercial tasks. The only situation in which an OFL font can be distributed without the text of the OFL (either in a separate file or in font metadata), is when a font is embedded in a document or bundled within a program. should be included. Making Contributions to OFL Projects. As you take advantage of the @font-face cross-platform standard, be aware that webfonts are often tuned for a web environment and not intended for installation and use outside a browser. Referencing or embedding an OFL font in any document does not change the license of the document itself. We heartily encourage everyone to use the OFL to distribute their own original fonts. Authorship, copyright notices and license information must be sufficiently visible to your users or subscribers so they know where the font comes from and the rights granted by the author(s). However, it would be appropriate to acknowledge the author(s) if your software package has a list of people who deserve thanks. 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