[UPDATE – May 12th 2009]
You may use this font for Font-Face embedding, but only if you put a link to www.exljbris.nl on your page and/or put this notice /* A font by Jos Buivenga (exljbris) -> www.exljbris.nl */ in your CSS file as near as possible to the piece of code that declares the Font-Face embedding of this font.
+++
This regards all my free fonts. Also the free weights of Museo and Museo Sans!
68 Comments
March 19, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Cheers Jos, i was wondering about this yesterday when i made a @font-face example available on Æstheticrew.com and thought about using Museo, but i was too lazy to mail you, so i choosed another one.
March 20, 2008 at 8:19 am
Thought it was better to cover the @font-face thing in my lisence. I hope you appreciate it that it’s allowed under the restrictions I stated.
March 20, 2008 at 10:57 am
Thanks for the clarification — it’s good to see that free-font authors are thinking about it.
March 20, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Am I the only one to think this makes the fonts totally unusable for client work?
The copyrights for the site’s team, design, dev, etc. are usually in a page behind a “credits” link, so I don’t think a single company will allow copyright for a font on every page (like if if one of your fonts is used in the h1 tag).
As a web designer I truely understand why credits are important, but in my opinion this goes a bit too far. As much as I love your fonts, I certainly won’t be able/allowed to use them in an @font-face rule with this restriction.
March 20, 2008 at 1:43 pm
You’re welcome Olly.
@ elv: I can understand that very well. I would think twice myself about it, but you’ll have to consider that the link to the font(s) used is easely ‘distilled’ by viewing the source of a page. That means that the fonts are for grabs so to speak … The fonts are not embedded(!) For this reason I want a link on each page where my font(s) is/are used. Maybe in the future, when things work different I’ll addapt my license.
March 21, 2008 at 4:21 am
I want to say right off the bat that I’m a huge fan of your work. It’s amazing how great your stuff is, truely. And mostly for free, even.
I’m considering using Delicious for my personal log, linking the typeface through @font-face. I’ve already included text in my CSS file and my markup stating that Delicious is your work along with a url to your website. When people sniff around for the font on my site they’re likely to come across the typeface in the CSS file; surrounding it is a big disclaimer. Also on each page’s markup there’s metadata containing a link back to your website. Shouldn’t that suffice?
Otherwise I’ll have to find some way to fit a link to your page in my disclaimer at the bottom of the page. I wasn’t counting on a large disclaimer.
March 21, 2008 at 11:43 am
The link to my site could just be: “Delicious font by exljbris.” Nothing more, nothing less. I wish here were other ways to protect the possibility of a direct download but there isn’t at the moment. Have you seen other @font-face license statements? I wonder how other people ’solve’ this thing.
March 21, 2008 at 2:05 pm
If the link is in the disclaimer at the bottom of the page a person looking to see what typeface you use on your website is just going to go straight to the header of the document, not the footer. Chances are with that method they’re not going to know who created the font or not. They’ll go straight to the CSS and download the font using the link in the CSS file whether there’s a link to someone else’s website or not. The best way IMO to let people know someone else created this font is to put the info in a comment in the CSS near the @font-face declaration hence why I did so before you updated your license. If they want the font that badly that’s where they’ll go. Access to my directory tree through HTTP will not be allowed, so that’s the only way.
There are other ways to protect direct downloading of the font by allowing access only to the font file to documents that use it similar to how streamed movies are done online. I haven’t the slightest clue how to do this with IIS, but it’s fairly easy with Apache. Regardless of this the person viewing the website with a browser capable of understanding @font-face will download the font anyway into its browser’s cache. So even then someone with some knowledge of how their browser works can grab the font straight from their hard drive.
Most free fonts are of questionable quality, so for the most part their creators could care less about @font-face if they even have knowledge of such.
March 21, 2008 at 5:22 pm
As Dustin Wilson suggests, it makes much more sense to insist on attribution in the stylesheet rather than the document to which the stylesheet is attached: if a visitor likes your typeface and is sufficiently technically savvy to attempt to get it for themselves, they’ll know to go to the stylesheet to find out what it’s called–wherein they are guaranteed to the see the attribution.
Besides, it’s the stylesheet making use of the font, not the document: the document is just along for the ride, as is the user’s Web browser, framebuffer and ultimately their monitor. Licensing terms requiring attribution in documents linking to a stylesheet which embeds a font make as much sense, technically, as terms requiring attribution on the monitor bezel.
March 21, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Here’s my thoughts, Jos. I’ve exchanged quite a few e-mails with you about this by now (I believe I was the one that prompted you to update your license? I’m not sure).
So you know the vast majority of my thoughts, but I will summarize them here for other readers.
Instead of requiring a direct link to your site in the footer, I would suggest requiring:
A) attribution anywhere the file is direct-downloadable (Commentary in the CSS file, attribution in the footer of any directory listings containing the fonts, etcetra – all easily do-able)
B) attribution, in a one-jump page from every page on the site. i.e., the page on which your font is attributed, is linked from every page on the site. most sites already have a ‘license’, ‘attribution’, ‘about’, or similar page that is already linked from every other page on the site. This page usually includes copyright information, as well as links to responsible parties – such as wordpress, font authors, php, the designer of the site, etcetra.
This would be much more accessible for the designers likely to want to use your font – most of us have quite a ‘thing’ against stuffing a page with too much extra stuff, and another link in the footer (which I would guess the majority of us love to keep as minimal as absolutely possible) when one with nearly exactly the same purpose is there… just offends our sensibilities. In most cases? Probably even enough to decide to use another font, even if we like yours far more.
As has been explained above by others, and by myself in e-mails to you; there’s little or no way a potential ‘font-pirater’ (I will use the term, even though these particular fonts are free) will notice the footer link; but they will certainly be digging through the CSS source, or directory listings, for these files. You, personally, as the author, are much better off if people using the fonts in this way attribute you in such a way as people that might be grabbing them will see the attribution there.
@ Dustin Wilson – Yes, that’s what I will probably be doing, personally. It’s so much easier to avoid all of this stuff, by just psuedo-embedding the fonts in the site (requiring referrer validation and such) – and it’s the work of a few moments in LightTPD.
March 21, 2008 at 8:20 pm
By the way, I think I may have put together the first-ever page using Jos’s fonts in a @font-face d-: – check this out, if you’re in a browser that supports said feature (at this point in time, I think that’s just Safari 3.1): contact elliottcable
March 22, 2008 at 2:52 am
@elv & Jos: Maybe in such a case you could consider the use of sIFR. I use “Apex Serif Medium” for all my h1, h2 and h3 tags (http://aestheticrew.com), but the apex.swf file (which can be easily downloaded as well) is hardcoded to be only usable on my domain. elv could do the same for his client.
Am i right on this one, Jos?
March 22, 2008 at 3:04 am
@elliotcable: …I may have put together the first-ever page using Jos’s fonts in a @font-face…
Super, but i can not see how that goes well with the license. You only mention Jos in your css.
@Jos: Now that i think about it, you could be a bit more specific in your article text above (so it is clear to everyone at the first second). It just says “Not Museo!”, nothing more. Why not state how Museo is licensed regarding of @font-face usage.
March 22, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Jos, I’m thinking about using Fontin Sans with @font-face after reading the license allowing it, didn’t knew it could be done. However, I’m facing a trouble with the slash / Is it possible to edit the font (I use FontForge) to create a smaller slash inline with x-height? Thank you very much.
March 23, 2008 at 9:11 am
Thanks all very much for commenting! I have some easter familily obligations so I won’t be able to reply until tomorrow …
March 24, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I exchanged e-mails with Elliott on this matter so I asked him if he would join this post. Elliott tried to convince me of most of the things you’ve came up with. I felt reluctant to give up the “copyright notice” because site traffic is very important to me. That’s why I decided to adapt my license the way I did.
But … reading all your comment made me change my mind. If there is a proper disclaimer in the CSS *and* a proper credit in an about (or similar) page, it’s ok with me.
I’ll make a change to my lisence probably this week.
Thank you all for your valuable input!
+++
@ aestheticrew: sIFR makes use of an embedded font file. That was already allowed. So you are right
About Museo: The free weights are offered at MyFonts. My contract doesn’t allow distributing the font files myself, so they can’t be used for the @font-face thing.
@ Reiem: Modification of my fonts is allowed but *only* for personal use. Not for the @font-face use. Changes of many different versions of my fonts swirling the web would be too great.
March 25, 2008 at 12:35 am
Well we were just looking out for your best interests. They’re just more likely to visit your site from the CSS. Thanks for the license change. I’ve told just about everyone I know about your site, so don’t feel like you’re missing some traffic
.
March 25, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Jos, thanks for replying. The license change is welcome, it will be less troublesome to some clients if the disclaimer is in the css. Besides, if someone wants to find out about the font being used, it will read the css. Maybe even the disclaimer could be above the @font-face line if many fonts are used.
I understand and respect your terms about font modifying.
Thanks again Jos for the wonderful work you share!
March 26, 2008 at 5:46 pm
@ Dustin: Thanks for spreading the news
@ Reiem: Great idea. To avoid misunderstandings and confusions and so on … and a few kb’s extra won’t hurt the internet.
So what do you think of this as “disclaimer”?
*edit* Damn … code samples look terrible. Take a look at the image in the openings post.
Inplemented on *every(!)* font face thing it should look like this:
@font-face {
font-family: 'FontName_1';
src: url(http://yoursite/FontName_1.otf) format('opentype'); }
*** My piece of code ***
@font-face {
font-family: 'FontName_2';
src: url(http://yoursite/FontName_2.otf) format('opentype'); }
*** My piece of code ***
Let me know...
March 31, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Whoops, i somehow missed Elliots long reply. Nevermind my comment Elliot, didn’t know you were already talking to Jos.
Crediting in the CSS is very welcome indeed, although i think this can be only possible if we have to “deal” with such generous guys like you, Jos.
And i second Elliot, i don’t like the cluttered footer idea either. I hope some new techniques to include something script’ish in the otf or CSS will emerge. No clue though how and what could be done.
March 31, 2008 at 6:52 pm
@Elliot: I think i still don’t get something here. How is it ok, to use Museo as a web font for your contact page? Or just being lazy?
April 6, 2008 at 9:32 pm
“But … reading all your comment made me change my mind. If there is a proper disclaimer in the CSS *and* a proper credit in an about (or similar) page, it’s ok with me.”
@ exljbris: that’s great news! It seems to me it’s a far more flexible solution. By the way, you could add it as a PS/update in the original post. Or maybe in a License update strikes again -the revenge- III
April 8, 2008 at 11:49 am
Thanks. I’ll update this post and the license info on my site this weekend.
April 8, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Jos,
I just found MUSEO in the MyFonts newsletter and started browsing your site. And I have to say: Pure beauty!
I like all of your fonts and downloaded them, which made me then send you a donation, as well. Rrreally nice work! I’ll step by pretty soon again, I’m sure.
Thanks and best wishes,
Mateo
April 9, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thank you Mateo!
April 9, 2008 at 12:50 pm
BTW … For anyone who hasn’t read it …
here’s the link to the MyFonts newsletter:
http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/rs/200804.html
April 14, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Hello Jos,
I sent you an e-mail about using your font (Diavlo) in a video game.
Could you answer it please?
I sent it with the e-mail associated to this post.
Thank you
David.
April 19, 2008 at 10:29 am
Hi there!
First of all, you rule.
I don’t get something about the @font-face thing: should we host the fonts or is there a specific url to point our css to?
I’d say it is the first.. but hey you never know
April 19, 2008 at 4:00 pm
@jos: I read your interview on iLoveTypography and I found you extremely inspiring! The fact that you do not consider yourself a type designer, you self-taught yourself, you do such great typefaces and you are in tune with the most recent developments (the @font-face thingie) are reasons for me to congratulate you.
@fluffless: I think that a specific url would be cool for font designers, that can host the files and retain control over their property. What do you guys think about this? It would be achievable… not too much on bandwidth, I suppose.
April 19, 2008 at 8:56 pm
[...] the Mac and Windows versions and it looks really amazing. I was reading Jos’s approach on licensing fonts for use with @font-face. He asks that a link to his website should be put in the css, next to the [...]
April 19, 2008 at 9:02 pm
@everyone: The discussion behind distributing web fonts, licenses and stuff really made me think.
I’ve tried a server-side approach to font distribution and I wanted to point it out. Well, just follow the trackback above.
I’m really curious to find out what you think about an approach like this.
April 19, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Well, relying on a solution like this leads to a couple of issues:
1. When the “font server” is down, no cookie for you
2. When the “font server” is up, but for some reason it is lagging (massive load, problems on the network, etc), your css will take forever to load (and if you tried to use @font-face already you have noticed there’s already a small delay in loading the text using the imported font … delay + delay = unhappy visitor)
3. If for some reason the server outputs something different from what you are expecting, you’ll end up with an unexpected result
Plus, you should sanitize your $_GET before using it
May 28, 2008 at 6:33 pm
[...] excellent fonts by Jos Buivenga of Exljbris. These fonts have a licence which specifically permits use in @font-face declarations and are free to download. We’re using the font in our new logo and in the CleVR Stitcher, as [...]
September 30, 2008 at 3:41 pm
exljbris thanks for the high quality free fonts you offer. I really appreciated the fact that you’re also offering a font embedding license so I went and purchased some Museo Sans that I’m planning to use on a web site (www.ogigia.com) with proper credit of course.
Regards,
Nikos
October 4, 2008 at 11:21 am
Hi Nikos, the font embedding, with the @font-face tag is only allowed for certain free fonts*. Museo, Museo Sans and Anivers have a diferent license. Their free (and paid) weights/styles cannot be used for font-face embedding.
* Delicious, Diavlo, Fontin, Fontin Sans, Fertigo Pro and Tallys.
January 12, 2009 at 12:12 am
Hello,
your license still states your “old” information:
Using this font for a @font-face decleration is allowed, but only if a
readable link to my homepage is put on every page where this font is used. This link may be the size of a regular copyright notice.
I love your fonts and it’s nice that they are free to use and embed!
Thank you!
January 13, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Thanks for pointing that out, Johannes. You’re absolutely right. I need to update the info real soon … And I will
January 15, 2009 at 2:21 pm
I’m confused. The license on MyFonts says “You may use this font for Font-Face embedding, but only if you put a link to http://www.exljbris.nl on your page and/or put this notice /* A font by Jos Buivenga (exljbris) -> http://www.exljbris.nl */ in your CSS file as near as possible to the piece of code that declares the Font-Face embedding of this font. ” This doesn’t include @font-face? What about sIFR? (don’t shoot me, I’m a newbie to using real fonts on the web.)
January 15, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Also,
I was hoping to release a wordpress theme that would include a graphical logo using the Museo font. There would be an editable PSD in the download, and instructions on registering at MyFonts and downloading the free weights. Is this allowable?
January 16, 2009 at 9:26 am
@font-face = Font-Face. sIFR in allowed but *ONLY* for Fertigo Pro. The excerpt from the MyFonts license in your post is from the Fertigo Pro font. Museo, Museo Sans and Anivers have a different license and can *NOT* be used for @font-face.
About the PSD: Yup that’s allowed.
January 16, 2009 at 7:34 pm
But I clicked on the license from the museo page.
January 20, 2009 at 11:24 am
Tammy, I checked and checked again, but Museo can only be downloaded with the “exljbris Standard License Agreement”. Fertigo Pro comes with the “exljbris Free Font License Agreement” and that one covers the @font-face thing.
January 21, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Hi, Jos –
Is there a central location where we can see those two license agreements and the fonts to which they apply? Your main site lists all your fonts under the heading “Free Fonts,” but not all of them have license information on their main pages. Clicking on the license link under the “buy” tab at MyFonts brings up the license for those fonts, but it took me a while to figure out where that information was located.
Museo’s license for the free weights (300, 500, 700) allows @font-face (with attribution), which is different from the paid weight (900) and the family bundle, which is probably what Tammy is referring to.
January 22, 2009 at 9:03 am
Ah! Now I understand (sorry, Tammy). Thanks for pointing this out. I only looked at the 100 weight license, because that used to be the same for all weights. The only explanation I can offer for this is that MyFonts changed it without me knowing it. I’ll have to think about it … but I’m willing to leave it like this.
You’ve made a good point about the license agreements. I’ll have a thorough look at it.
January 22, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I knew I wasn’t losing my mind.
January 22, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I’m glad to hear it, Jos. For my part, I think that’s a good strategy. Having your fonts available for @font-face, even if only some weights, just adds power to your marketing, and (as with Cory Doctorow’s freely downloadable books) increases people’s motivation to buy the fully featured version of your product.
January 22, 2009 at 5:35 pm
(Sorry, that’s Cory Doctorow.)
January 27, 2009 at 9:03 am
Thanks for clarification on the Museo license. Glad to hear it *is* available for font-face linking in the free weights, as I’ve just told the world all about Museo’s success and how you cleverly acknowledge and allow font-face linking for this and your other free fonts.
I’ve had my readers say that they would pay money to be allowed to host the paid weights for font-face linking too. Servers can be configured to prevent hotlinking (from another domain) and direct downloading. With those barriers in place, would you consider a paid font-face license for your non-free weights?
January 27, 2009 at 9:38 pm
I’m one of the “readers” Richard is referring to – I took a closer look at your fonts after Richard’s post about Museo on Clagnut.
As has been pointed out, there seems to be conflicting licensing info posted in different places.
My problem is that attribution on every page is out of the question.
Within the CSS, no problem.
My confusion lies here: what if I buy Fontin? All weights available. Can I use it with @font-face or not?
And, if not, what about if I only wanted to use it in Internet Explorer’s EOT format which offers copy protection from the casual downloader?
Hoping to hear…
January 28, 2009 at 6:53 am
I don’t know how you do it, Jos — first of all you manage to produce such a prolific number of beautiful fonts in such spaces of time, then you give them away for free, and then we have the decency to come and tell you THEY’RE NOT FREE ENOUGH. Your patience in having the decency to reply to these demands and treat them as perfectly reasonable is absolutely admirable.
The particular crime I was about to commit upon you was the conversion of Museo (or indeed any of your fonts for the sake of argument) from Open- to TrueType. Does this count as modification?
February 2, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Richard (Rutter)
I’m not ready for paid @font-face licensing (yet).
Richard (Fink)
Fontin can’t be paid for, because it’s free. You can use it for @font-face embedding if you mention it in your CSS. I’ll change the license text on my site soon. I’m not familiar with EOT. If it’s a sIFR like thing, no crediting is necessary. If it relies also on CSS mentioning it there should be enough.
Barney
That’s very kind of you. I like having you all over at this place. I owe a lot to all the people who like what I do and who spread “the word”. Fonts are made to be used and fontmakers should have an open mind to things that change like the embedding of fonts on the internet.
Converting Museo *is* a modification. If you want to do so you will need the “Foundry’s prior written consent” as my license states. The fonts which you can download directly from my site (like Fontin) are allowed to be modified.
May 12, 2009 at 1:54 am
[...] exljbris :: Free Quality Font Foundry All the exljbris free fonts (except Museo) are licensed for embedding. This includes popular fonts like: Anivers, Delicious,Fertigo Pro, Fontin, etc. See licensing and [...]
May 12, 2009 at 2:10 am
Very nice fonts and thanks for the update on @font-face licensing.
I’ve added a link to your site (and this post) to my post about finding free embeddable @font-face fonts.
Embedding Web Fonts: 5 Free @font-face Resources
Thanks again for creating so many great fonts.
May 12, 2009 at 8:13 am
Thanks Shawn. I updated this post. The *free* weights & styles Museo and Museo Sans can also be used for the @font-face declaration.
May 12, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Thanks for the update, Jos. I adjusted my post to reflect the change.
May 12, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Thank you for allowing use of your fonts. I just set up my site to use @font-face with Fontin
June 27, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Hi Jos,
I was just wondering whether the free weights of Museo can be used for cufon. I noticed you’re using cufon already so I won’t bother explaining how it works, but it’s a great typeface that I would love to use cross-browser!
July 13, 2009 at 11:33 am
No prob, Evan.
July 20, 2009 at 1:41 am
Awesome, this was my precise question. I just put Museo to work on my personal business cards and site redesign.
Thank you for allowing such usage! I know I and many others will continue supporting you and your work because of it!
And now I’m thinking I might just have to put Museo Sans to work for the body copy using @font-face…
July 9, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Hi Jos,
Nice work.
Above, David brought up the topic of licensing your font for use in commerical software.
Please email me.
July 13, 2009 at 11:37 am
YGM
July 9, 2009 at 7:50 pm
I would also like to know if it’s fair to use Museo (free faces) with Cufon.
July 13, 2009 at 11:37 am
Sure!
July 14, 2009 at 7:58 pm
that is so great. Thank you!!
July 14, 2009 at 9:49 am
Hi there,
I really like your fonts and I’d like to use some of them for a music video that is set to appear on Israeli cable television (and would probably be online as well). Do I have your permission to use them for the titles and credits?
July 14, 2009 at 9:14 pm
No problem, Dovi.
July 18, 2009 at 10:04 am
“and/or” is not really unambiguous… do you mean “or”, so that the notice in the CSS is sufficient, with an optional “and” as in “it would be nice if you put up a link to my web site, but it’s not strictly required”?
July 18, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Exactly! Just what I meant. Please explain to me how it can be interpreted any other way…