Small Business Tips: The Best Websites to Get Free Fonts for Commercial Use
Updated on May 8, 2024
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These websites offer free fonts for commercial use that you can use for your business.
If you have a small business, you’ll need fonts to use for your logo, branding, marketing, products, website, freebies, advertising, social media, and more. Choosing the right fonts contributes to the look and feel of your business, helping to make a lasting impression on customers and setting your business apart from your competitors, with the goal of helping customers determine that your business is the best choice for them.
Did you know that you can’t just use any fonts for your business? Even if you download a “free font,” that doesn’t mean you can necessarily use it for free. Fonts have licenses that state what they can be used for, starting with if you’re allowed to use them for personal use, commercial use, or both.
Examples of personal use of fonts are:
- Designing your own wedding invitations, birthday invitations, or similar invitations being sent to your friends and family
- Making yourself a scrapbook
- Printing labels to organize your closet
- Writing a report for school
- Designing a poster to hang in your room
Examples of commercial use of fonts are:
- Designing and selling products (that use fonts on them) — such as selling wedding invitations or personalized drink tumblers in an Etsy shop
- Designing a poster for a client, or selling a poster to anyone (that uses fonts on the poster)
- Your business logo (your business name written with a font)
- Advertisements (any fonts used in the ad)
- Graphics for your business (that use fonts)
- Videos for/about your business (any font used in the video, such as displaying the video title or other information)
If you use a font for your business that’s licensed for “personal use only,” even if it was a “free” font, you can get sued by the font designer. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you find free fonts for commercial use, and not just free fonts.
Additionally, some licenses are more specific to allow for certain commercial uses of the font, but not others. For example, a font may allow for commercial desktop use for documents and PDFs, but not for embedding in websites or applications.
It’s a good idea to read the license of every font if you want to use it commercially, even if it’s found on one of the free commercial font websites listed below.
So, you’re probably wondering, why can’t you just use the fonts that came with your computer? Well, each font still has its own license and restrictions. The fonts that come on your computer are safe to use for personal use, but not necessarily commercial use. If you want to use a font that came on your computer for commercial purposes, you’ll have to look up the license for the font. But even if you can use a font that came on your computer, you probably won’t want to. These fonts are so generic and overused, with anyone who has a computer using these same fonts. Do you want your business to look like something everyone’s seen a million times?
If you want to stand out, you’re going to want to find different fonts that everyone else isn’t already using. Everyone has access to the fonts that come standard on computers, and you probably don’t want your business to be standard, you want it to be a standout. You can find a large selection of fonts with our suggestions below for the best websites with free fonts for commercial use.
However, keep in mind that a lot of other businesses are also using free fonts for commercial use, so if you really want to stand out from your competition and support other small businesses in the process, there are a lot of great, inexpensive fonts you can purchase. Especially if you’re selling products with words, quotes, or other writing on them, you don’t want to look the same as your competition, and if investing a small amount of money will make your products stand out that much more, you’ll likely see larger returns, and then your font has essentially paid for itself.
Free fonts for commercial use can also be useful for teachers looking for fun free fonts for their classroom signage and lessons. And of course, any font that is free for commercial use can also be used for personal use for your own projects, as well.
These are the best websites where you can download free fonts for commercial use for your small business or for your personal use.
The Best Websites to Download Free Fonts for Commercial Use
Font Squirrel
Font Squirrel has done the hard work of gathering high-quality free fonts for commercial use from around the web. Every font on their website is verified by them to be free for commercial use, but they recommend reading the license of each font before using it to check for your specific usage, as the commercial allowances vary. They also try to make it easy to see the allowed font usage by using symbols to label what the fonts can be used for, such as commercial desktop use, @font-face embedding, ebooks and PDFs, and applications.
The League of Movable Type
The website of The League of Movable Type says they are “the original, the first, the open-source font foundry” and they aim to raise the design standards of the web. They have a catalogue of free fonts for commercial use (and personal use) available for download. Open-source fonts means that you can download and install the fonts for free, and use it for personal and commercial work, including selling products that use these fonts, as long as you don’t sell the fonts themselves.
If you’ll need to register a domain name for your new website, I recommend using NameSilo, which is cheap & easy!
Google Fonts
Google Fonts is a large collection of free fonts for commercial use (and personal use). They have a great “type tester” tool so you can preview the fonts with any words and in any size or weight. The fonts can be used commercially, including on any products that are sold commercially. You can also use their free fonts for your business logo. Additionally, you can embed the fonts on your website using the Google Fonts CSS API. If you’re interested in finding fonts in other languages, by using the “language” filter you can find fonts in more than 1,000 languages and over 150 writing systems.
MyFonts
Although most of the fonts on MyFonts are for purchasing, they also have a decent amount of free fonts for commercial use. To find these free fonts, click the drop-down in the search bar to change “all fonts” to “free fonts,” then hit “search,” and a list of fonts will appear. When you click into each font family you’ll be able to see which weights of the font are free by clicking the “individual styles” tab. From there, you can add the free fonts to your cart, where you can review the font licenses and complete your free purchase.
Font Bundles
Font Bundles has a section on their website of free fonts for commercial use, with a license for one person per download. This license is linked to from every font page, and explains that you can use the fonts for making and selling products, making and selling digital designs, on a website (with restrictions), and in broadcasting/videos/streaming (with restrictions). It is recommended to read the license for the full usage allowances. Their script fonts and handwritten fonts seem to be the most popular options.
The Velvetyne Type Foundry
The Velvetyne Type Foundry has been offering unique free fonts for commercial use since 2010. Using an SIL open source license, you’re allowed to use, modify, and redistribute the fonts. The only condition in the license is, “you must credit the name of the type designer and of our foundry whenever you use one of our fonts.” They also accept submissions for free typefaces if you have one that you’d like to contribute. The Velvetyne Type Foundry is a nonprofit organization and accepts donations if you enjoy their fonts and would like a way to say thank you.
FontSpace
FontSpace has a large amount of free fonts for commercial use. Each font is submitted by the creator, and they all have different licenses, so look closely if you’re interested in a font. Some fonts are listed as being in the public domain, some are listed as freeware, and some are other licenses. There are a lot of display fonts that probably should only be used in very specific instances, but you might find just the thing you’re looking for. FontSpace also has a nice option where you can make a donation of your choice to the font designer to thank them for allowing you to use their font for free.
See more of our small business tips here.
Save This List of Free Commercial Fonts
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Now you know all about the best websites where you can find free fonts to download for commercial and personal use.
Choosing the correct free fonts for commercial use for your business will not only keep you out of legal trouble, it will also help your business to stand out, look more professional, and have cohesive branding for your business. With so many free fonts for commercial use available to download, we’re certain you’ll be able to find something that matches your brand’s aesthetic.
Whether you’re looking free fonts for commercial use in order to create a business logo, social media posts, physical products to sell in a store, or invitations to sell in an Etsy shop, we hope you’ve found helpful new resources with our list of free fonts for commercial use.
Do you have any favorite websites where you can download free commercial use fonts? Let us know in the comments.
