What Is a Font License Checker?
A font license checker scans websites to identify which typefaces are loaded, where they come from, and whether they may require a commercial license. It goes beyond "what font is this?" tools that only analyze visible text on a single page.
Must-Have Features
1. Full-Site Crawling
Your homepage might use Inter, but your checkout page could load Gotham from an old A/B test. A real audit covers every URL, not just one page.
2. Font Source Detection
The tool should distinguish:
- Google Fonts CDN
- Adobe Fonts / Typekit
- Self-hosted
.woff2files - Data-URI embedded fonts
- System font fallbacks
Source tells you which license agreement applies.
3. Commercial Font Database
Generic scanners list font names. A license-focused tool matches against known commercial families — Helvetica, Proxima Nova, Gotham, Avenir, and hundreds more.
4. Per-Page Reporting
Compliance teams need to know which page uses which font. Aggregate counts are not enough for remediation.
5. PDF and Embedded Asset Detection
Fonts also appear in downloadable PDFs, press kits, and investor decks linked from your site. Advanced scanners extract fonts from PDFs too.
Nice-to-Have Features
- Icon font detection (Font Awesome Pro vs free)
- Adobe kit resolution — identify specific typefaces behind Typekit kit IDs
- Purchase links for flagged commercial fonts
- Public shareable reports for agency client handoffs
- WAF / bot documentation for sites that block scanners
What Font Checkers Cannot Do
No tool can prove you own a license. They detect what is deployed and flag known commercial fonts — you still verify purchase receipts and EULAs.
Also, font identification from screenshots is a separate use case (visual matching), not a substitute for a deployment audit.
How FontScanner Compares
FontScanner is built specifically for license compliance, not general typography curiosity:
- Crawl entire domains with configurable depth
- Match fonts against a curated commercial font catalog
- Report per-page with source, format, and licensing hints
- Detect Adobe Fonts, Google Fonts, self-hosted, and PDF fonts
- Offer a free scan credit to get started
When to Run a Check
- Before launching a new site or redesign
- After an agency handoff
- Quarterly as part of compliance hygiene
- When cancelling Adobe Creative Cloud (fonts may still be live)
- After receiving a licensing inquiry letter
Conclusion
Choose a font license checker that crawls your full site, identifies sources, and flags commercial fonts — not just one that reads your homepage CSS.