Beware Free Fonts & Stock Material

Published April 07, 2017
Tags: stock typography design

We’ve all heard the popular meme at some point in the past few years: ‘If it’s on the internet, it must be true.‘ It’s funny to laugh at, funny to attribute it to [insert historical pre-internet figure here], funny as a conversation quip. However, I find it funny how often people fall for the stigma.

Overly cheesy introductions aside, the internet is a wide world of anonymous opportunity--an excellent source of both shady and legitimate content. Whether you’re new to the wonderful world of graphic design or just like building hobby projects, there are a few important guidelines you should make sure you abide by:

Never trust the word free.

Don’t get me wrong; there are legitimate sources of excellent free content on the internet. However, the anonymous denizens of the interwebs take the legitimate content and all too willingly distribute it illegitimately. Even worse, they’ll sell someone else’s licensed product at a lower rate and pocket the funds themselves.

Be sure that you are receiving your product from a legitimate source. If an author or creator isn’t credited, it likely isn’t legitimate. If an author is credited, don’t hesitate to ask them where to purchase the product. Keep in mind that most font foundries or stock sites don’t have malicious intent. Most of these sites aggregate content provided by the public at large, who can be very difficult to monitor and police.

Whether you paid or not, read the product license.

It can be very hard to tell the difference between a pirated file and a legitimately sourced one. The best and most reliable way to ensure that the fonts or stock imagery are legitimate is to read the Terms of Use on the product website or the product license included with the file.

While reading, be sure to denote any limitations--i.e., some stock photos require that a designer credit is included within view of the image. Some fonts will allow commercial use, but prohibit sharing the files with a third party designer or differentiate between online and print usage. The best policy I’ve found is simple: If the content doesn’t have a license with it, I don’t use it. No exceptions. I also try to avoid keeping any fonts that have a ‘Personal Use Only’ limitation included because it’s far too easy to just pick the best font in InDesign or Photoshop and forget to check the license.

Never assume you won’t get caught.

Just don’t. A font or a picture may seem like a petty thing, but people spend time and sweat to create a quality product, and they deserve recognition or compensation if they choose to ask for it. If your client brings the files to you, question them on the source. Just because they ask you to build something with the product doesn’t mean you aren’t liable. If you aren’t certain that they produced the content themselves, ask them about their sources and see if they have proper license to use the content.

So what CAN I use?

There are certainly options out there. I personally tend toward sites like Creative Fabrica and Behance, where fonts come directly from the creators—which means they get to pocket the funds. Materials on these sites frequently go for cheap on sales and in bundles as well, meaning they aren't going to break the bank. Freebies float through both of these mediums frequently, as well.

Keep in mind, most of these freebies are partial fonts (like uppercase only), Single styles in a family, or plain fonts. Don't expect to get all 11 styles in a family or all the swashes/ ligatures/ alternates that the designer created for it. In my opinion, you should pay for those anyway.

If you really can't afford to just buy the font (greed is not a justification here), your best bet is to look for materials produced under the Creative Commons (CC0) license. As long as you see that disclaimer, whatever font or photo you're looking at are free game. Sites like Pexels and Subtle Patterns fall under this category, though it's important to note that there are caveats. In example, Pexels has "Sponsored Content" at the bottom of every search page that is not free, and Subtle Patterns requires you to link back to their site and to their license wherever you use their content.

In addition to CC0, you may also see fonts fall under what is referred to as the Open Font License (OFL). It's essentially the same license, but refers to fonts specifically and strongly encourages sharing your own contributions. Sites like The League of Moveable Type, Google Fonts, and The Font Library fall under this category. All of these options are generally safe for your use, but make sure you check the license anyway. Seriously. It's boring, but this stuff matters.