in Design
Font licences for print and ebooks, in principle
Buying a font is really buying permission to use it in certain ways. Why print, ebook and web use are often licensed separately.
When a publisher or designer acquires a typeface, they are almost never buying the font outright. They are buying a licence: permission to use the font software under the terms set by the foundry that made it. Those terms vary widely, and they matter more for books than people expect, because a book usually exists in more than one form.
What follows is general and in principle. The only reliable guide to a particular font is its own licence agreement.
What a licence covers in print
A font is software, and its licence, often called an end user licence agreement or EULA, sets out what can be done with it. The usual variables include how many people or computers may install it, whether it can be used for commercial work, whether it may be embedded in documents or files, and whether it may be modified.
The standard type of licence, often called a desktop licence, allows the font to be installed on a set number of computers and used to create documents and images. Most foundries’ desktop licences allow its use in printed products, including books, and permit it to be embedded in PDF files sent to a printer, usually on the condition that the font cannot be extracted and reused.
For a printed book, the typical workflow is covered by a desktop licence. The designer sets the book in layout software, exports a print-ready PDF with the fonts embedded, and sends it to the printer. The printed book contains the letterforms but not the font software.
It is still worth checking. Some licences restrict certain kinds of commercial use, and some limit the number of users. If the designer and the publisher are different parties, it should be clear who holds the licence.
Ebooks, the web and other uses
An ebook is different in kind. In a reflowable ebook format such as EPUB, if the publisher wants a particular font to display, the font file itself is packaged inside the ebook and distributed to every reader who buys it. That is distribution of the font software, not just an image of the letters, and many desktop licences do not permit it.
Foundries deal with this in different ways. Some include ebook embedding in the standard licence, some offer it as a separate licence or extension, and some do not permit it at all. The terms may depend on the number of titles or the number of copies. Many ebook readers also let the reader override the publisher’s fonts, so embedding is not always necessary.
Using a font on a website, in a mobile app, in video, or in a logo are typically licensed separately again. A book’s cover typography may be used on a website, in advertising, or on merchandise, and each use may need its own permission. It is simpler to find out what is needed at the start than to discover a gap later.
Open licences
Some fonts are released under open licences, most commonly the SIL Open Font License. It allows the fonts to be used, embedded, redistributed with software and documents, and used commercially, including in print and ebooks. Its main restrictions are that the fonts may not be sold on their own, and that modified versions may not use certain reserved names. Open fonts can be an excellent choice, but their quality and completeness vary as much as that of commercial fonts.
Keeping track
The practical advice is simple. Before choosing a font for a book, read its licence with every planned format in mind. Keep a record of which licences cover which fonts, who holds them and what they permit. And when a book moves between designers or publishers, check whether the licence moves with it; often it does not.
A typeface can be exactly right for a book and still be the wrong choice if its licence does not fit the way the book will be published.