Everything you need to know about font licenses, web typography, and the legal and financial risks of using unlicensed fonts.
A clean audit in March does not cover the npm install in June. New packages, plugins, and campaigns ship font files you never chose — and foundries still treat that as your use.
A three-page font check can look clean while checkout, the blog, or a campaign landing still ships a commercial family. Foundries crawl the whole public site. So should you.
You do not buy a typeface the way you buy a stock photo. Here is how to pick a font for a site, how web licenses are actually priced (not per click), and how Helvetica is purchased.
A company typeface is not decoration. It is how the brand looks when nobody is in the room — on the website, in a PDF, in a slide deck, and in the product UI.
Start a website, PDF, or image scan with an API key. Poll for JSON or register a webhook — and fail the build when an unlicensed commercial font shows up.
A toolbar click can list the fonts on the page you already have open. Here is what those extensions usually do — and when you still want a FontScanner license check.
No account, no credit. Paste a URL and FontScanner checks the homepage — fonts, sources, and commercial flags — up to twice a day per IP.
Drop a screenshot, logo, or mockup. FontScanner matches visible type against the catalog and flags commercial licensing risk — no scan credit required.
Avenir ships on Apple devices, so teams assume it is free for the web. It is not. Here is how Linotype/Monotype licensing works — and how to match an Avenir grant to a live scan.
Gotham looks like a default startup sans. It is not. Hoefler’s geometric family needs a proper web license — and a scan that can match that license to the live files.
Embedding Helvetica, Gotham, or Avenir without a web grant is copyright infringement. Here is the typical legal path — and why you must know both the live fonts and the license you actually hold.
Register the licenses you already own. The next time a scan finds Gotham, Helvetica, or Avenir, FontScanner matches that detection to your inventory — Verified, Missing, or Domain not covered.
After a FontScanner crawl, commercial fonts show Verified, Domain not covered, Missing, or Unknown. Here is what each badge means — and what to do next.
Agencies and brands still track Helvetica, Gotham, and Inter in shared sheets. Here is why that breaks — and how a license inventory next to live scans actually holds up.
Finding Gotham on a site is not compliance. Here’s how to register the licenses you own, match them to live detections, and prove coverage for each domain.
AI can help generate letterforms — but the legal questions don’t disappear. Here’s a practical 2026 checklist for shipping AI-generated fonts safely on commercial websites.
FOUT is fine. Layout shift is not. Here’s a 2026 playbook for font fallbacks using font-display, size-adjust, and metrics overrides to keep pages stable.
COLRv1 brings high-quality, vector color typography to the web. Here’s what works in 2026, where it breaks, and how to ship it with safe fallbacks.
The most popular commercial typefaces teams still ship on the web in 2026 — plus open-source alternatives and a licensing checklist to avoid infringement.
A curated list of modern, production-ready free fonts for 2026 — plus the licensing and delivery checklist that keeps "free" from turning into a legal problem.
"Free font download" sites often redistribute commercial typefaces illegally. Learn how to spot piracy sources, why free is not lawful, and where to get safe fonts instead.
System font stacks avoid licensing drama and load instantly — but brand control is limited. Compare system fonts vs custom web fonts for law, UX, and performance.
Website builders make typography easy — and licensing easy to misunderstand. Learn what Wix and Squarespace cover, and when custom uploaded fonts need their own license.
Figma can show fonts the website is not allowed to ship. Learn how to run a design-to-development handoff that keeps web font licensing clean.
Web font licenses range from free (OFL) to thousands of dollars per year. Learn typical price ranges, what drives cost, and when open-source alternatives make more sense.
Icon fonts are still fonts — and Font Awesome Pro is not free to embed without a plan. Learn Free vs Pro rules, CDN pitfalls, and how to stay compliant.
Variable fonts can replace multiple weight files with one flexible file — but licensing and file size still matter. Learn when to use them and what to check before shipping.
Proxima Nova is one of the most commonly unlicensed commercial fonts on the web. Learn what a legal web license requires and which free alternatives look similar.
Loading Google Fonts from Google's CDN can transfer visitor IPs to the US — and German courts have treated that as a GDPR issue. Learn the risk and how self-hosting helps.
Desktop, web, app, and PDF embedding are different license buckets. Learn how website scans and PDF audits complement each other for full typography compliance.
Buying a font for design work does not license it for your website. Learn how desktop and web font licenses differ — and why mixing them up is a common compliance failure.
Helvetica is everywhere — but most website uses are unlicensed. Learn when you can legally use Helvetica on the web and what alternatives exist.
A practical pre-launch checklist to ensure every font on your new website is properly licensed — before go-live, not after a legal letter.
A font licensing cease-and-desist letter is stressful but manageable. Follow these steps to respond correctly and minimize exposure.
Hosting .woff2 files on your own server gives you control — but not automatic licensing rights. Learn the legal and technical requirements.
Saw a typeface in a screenshot, ad, or competitor site and need a name? Learn visual font identification and when you still need a license audit.
Agencies are often the last line of defense before unlicensed fonts go live. Here is how to audit client sites and protect your reputation.
Premium WordPress themes often ship with beautiful typography — and serious font licensing gaps. Learn what to check before going live.
Shopify themes, apps, and custom CSS can load commercial fonts without valid web licenses. Here is how store owners stay compliant.
Embedding a commercial font in a PDF is not the same as using it on a website — and a web license may not cover it. Here are the risks agencies and brands miss.
Not every font scanner is built for compliance. Here is what a proper font license checker should detect, report, and flag.
Need to know which fonts a website is loading? Learn manual inspection methods and when to use an automated font license checker instead.
Certain commercial fonts appear on websites without valid licenses more often than any others. Here are the 10 most frequently misused typefaces and free alternatives for each.
Font subsetting reduces file size and speeds up your website — but it can also affect your license compliance. Learn how to subset fonts safely and legally.
Font subscriptions end. Perpetual licenses have limits. Learn what happens when a font license expires and how to avoid serving unlicensed fonts on your live website.
The SIL Open Font License powers most free web fonts. Understand exactly what the OFL permits, what it prohibits, and how to stay compliant when using open-source typefaces.
E-commerce sites face heightened font licensing scrutiny due to high traffic and commercial use. Learn the specific requirements online retailers must meet.
Adobe Fonts (Typekit) makes thousands of typefaces available via subscription — but the license has strict rules. Learn what is covered, what is not, and what happens when you cancel.
WOFF2, WOFF, TTF, OTF — web font formats can be confusing. Learn which formats to use, how they affect performance, and what licensing implications each carries.
Google Fonts hosts hundreds of open-source typefaces, but 'free' does not mean 'no rules.' Learn what the SIL Open Font License allows and what restrictions still apply.