Font Licensing

Sam,

I wish it was possible to give you a simple answer to this. For fonts licensed from Adobe, this is relatively simple, but the two fonts you mention are more problematic.

The TrueType Georgia font family is from Microsoft, designed by Matthew Carter, and distributed with Windows and Microsoft applications. The embedding permissions in the fonts are set to editable which means that the fonts may be embedded in PDF files. Thus, if you create logos, packaging, and collateral sent for printing or display as PDF files, you are not breaking any licensing in that way. You can't send the loose font files out, though. That having been said, what I don't know is whether Microsoft has any restrictions against using the resultant PDF files for commercial purposes and if so, whether Microsoft charges a royalty for such use (especially in a logo).  Since it isn't Adobe's font, I can't assist you with that. You would need to contact someone (I don't know who) in Microsoft.

Gill Sans is another and much more complex matter. There is a family of Gill Sans fonts (Gill Sans MT) that is distributed by Microsoft, sourced from Monotype. Although the embedding permissions are set to editable (like Georgia), without you consulting Microsoft and possibly Monotype, it is impossible to know what is truly allowed by the license for these fonts. To make the matter even more complex, other versions of Gill Sans are available from Adobe (OpenType CFF), Monotype, and others. For each one of these, you would need to consult with the particular vendor to find out exactly what the font license includes and especially, whether there are any royalties for distribution of PDF files (or EPUB) with the font embedded. In the case of the Adobe version of the Gill Sans family (Gill Sans Std), you are permitted to embed the fonts for preview and print in PDF and you can distribute the resultant PDF files and use the printed or displayed content using those fonts commercially without any subsequent royalties. Again, you cannot send loose font files with your logo. You must embed in the PDF file.

Sorry I cannot be more helpful, but every font vendor has different licensing and business models.

          - Dov

Thank you Dov,

This is such a hard one. I suppose the only way to go forward is to purchase perpetual licenses for each font or alternatively, do you know much about Adobe Typekit? Would I be able to use adobe subscription fonts in CorelDraw off Parallels both legally and practically?