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timboagogo
Participant
July 2, 2014
Question

can we charge a customer for buying and using their brand fonts?

  • July 2, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 210 views

my clients brand requires we purchase a font, so we can design their application. We dont own the font. Can we charge the customer for the purchase given they need us to use it for their brand design?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Dov Isaacs
    Legend
    July 2, 2014

    This is not really a technical question, but a business question.

    If a client requires use of a font that you do not currently have a license for (with very rare exceptions, you don't purchase fonts but rather purchase licenses to use fonts), purchasing such a font license is a legitimate business expense. Whether you choose to charge them for the cost of licensing the font really depends on (1) whether you think that billing the client for a relatively low cost item is prudent, (2) whether you expect a long term relationship with the client in which case it might be prudent to simply “eat the cost” of licensing their corporate logo font, and/or (3) whether the font in question is fairly generic and might be useful for use in other clients' work (although preferably not as part of a logo). For either (2) or (3) you would consider the cost of the font license as a longer term investment.

              - Dov

    - Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)