Font Licence Compliance Checklist: Tick Before You Ship
Turn font licensing from superstition into a checklist. This article offers a printable 14-item review table you can pin to your team playbook - file provenance, licence source text, scenario mapping, evidence archiving - each with the risk behind it, plus a notify-remove-replace emergency path.
1. Provenance: where did this file come from
The first four items are about provenance. 1) Channel: only the rights holder's official site, official GitHub Releases or the official font platform; every third-party portal, file share or 'font mega pack' counts as a risk, because even open fonts can be repacked or bundled with junk. 2) Licence text in the package: legitimate fonts ship a LICENSE - none means no basis for use. 3) Version freshness: changeable corporate declarations (PuHuiTi, HarmonyOS) follow the current official text; do not rely on last year's screenshot. 4) Plausible size/hash: large files get re-wrapped; an anomalous size means walk away. If any of these fails, fall back to 'when in doubt, leave it out'.
2. Source text: cite a first-hand licence
The middle five items demand first-hand, citable licence language. 5) Licence type identified: OFL/Apache means the repository LICENSE; corporate fonts mean the official declaration and FAQ; ZCOOL and free series mean the official campaign page. 6) Commercial scope stated: whether ads, packaging, film and trademarks are allowed - anything not written is unavailable. 7) Additional restrictions logged: no standalone sale, no reserved-name reuse in derivatives, no unlawful content - put each into the project licence summary. 8) Embedding allowed: apps, the web and distributed documents, a common trap for 'free download' fonts. 9) Tiers distinguished: commercial vs education/personal editions, and which pool you fall into. If middle items all pass, archive the summary together with the source link.
3. Scenario mapping and evidence archiving
The final five are execution. 10) Map every real scenario to the clauses - marketplace heroes, detail pages, social posters, video captions, physical materials - a list, not vibes. 11) Freeze evidence: full licence-page screenshot with address bar and date, the download source page, a file-property snapshot, named 'font+date' in the project folder; the OFL file itself goes into the font archive. 12) Sync the team: write a banned-list plus approved-summary into the design guidelines so new hires check before downloading. 13) Set a review alarm: re-read corporate declarations quarterly to every six months; re-compare third-party 'free commercial' badges against the official text twice a year. 14) Keep audit trails: note licence anchors in the asset archive for fast proof should a dispute arise. Tick all fourteen and only then call the commercial risk assessment done.
4. If you're caught: notify, remove, replace
Even with rigorous checks, a claim or takedown notice can arrive. The correct sequence: 1) stop using and remove the material immediately - the damage-stopping move; 2) match the notice's font and scenario against your licence summary and screenshots to determine mis-strike or real breach; 3) if a mis-strike, reply politely with your evidence; if a real breach, delete or replace before answering, never making textual promises pre-removal; 4) sweep the same font across all other projects and fix them too; 5) review the source, add the font to the banned list and update the design guidelines. The confidence for the whole flow rests on how solidly you built that 14-item checklist and its archive beforehand.
This site is an index of publicly available information. It does not host, mirror or distribute any font file and does not warrant any licence. Rights holders may change terms, split free and paid editions, or withdraw a permission at any time. Before commercial use, verify the licence on the official page and keep a dated screenshot as evidence. For trademarks, overseas publication and large-scale embedding, consult an IP professional.