Font Redistribution FAQ

The fonts are governed by the same restrictions as the products they are supplied with. You are not allowed to copy, redistribute or reverse engineer the font files. For full details see the license agreement supplied with the product.

Some fonts may be embedded within document files. Embedding allows fonts to travel with documents. Embedded fonts can only be used to print, preview and, in some cases, edit the document in which they are embedded. Please see the Embedding TrueType page and the TrueType font embedding FAQ for details.

Microsoft licenses existing fonts from various font vendors, but also commissions original fonts. If you are looking to license a particular font, you should contact the vendor directly. The vendor will be listed in the font's copyright or trademark entry. Use our free Font properties extension to access this information.

Until recently, most fonts that include a Microsoft copyright or trademark notice have only been available as part of Microsoft products. Although some fonts remain Microsoft-exclusive, a number of Microsoft fonts are now available to end users, ISVs and OEMs under license from Ascender Corporation. These include 'Verdana', 'Georgia', 'Comic Sans MS', 'Microsoft Sans Serif', 'Nina', 'Tahoma', 'Wingdings', 'Webdings' and 'Trebuchet MS'.

If you are using Windows 95 or later, download Microsoft's free Font properties extension. This extension will let you view the copyright and trademark information of any TrueType or OpenType font you have access to. If you don't have the extension, double-clicking on a font file in Windows will load it into the Windows font viewer, where copyright information will also be shown.

Be wary if you can't find any copyright or trademark information. Even public domain, freeware, or custom fonts should contain at least the designer's name.

If you think a font may be public domain, freeware or shareware, look for an accompanying 'Readme' file that will explain how to register the font, and any restrictions in using it. For example, many freeware fonts are only for non-commercial use.

Some originate in another font format and have been converted by a utility that strips out the copyright information. In most cases, although these converted fonts can be legally used by the original font buyer, their redistribution is usually forbidden.

The copyright information can also be deliberately removed by a malicious person trying to avoid the authorities.

Contact the font supplier and ask for an explanation. If you've lost track of where the font came from, it's probably best to remove the font from your system. You can also replace it with a legitimate version from a different supplier, if available.

No. Macromedia are the current suppliers of Fontographer, a type design application formerly supplied by Altsys. If a designer creates a font with Fontographer and doesn't change the default settings, the font will be attributed to Macromedia or Altsys.

Usually, when a designer creates a font from scratch, they encode their name or foundry name in the font. If you acquire a font attributed to Altsys or Macromedia, you should be suspicious of its origins.