All fonts are subject to a license of some sort; even ‘free’ fonts.

If you are using the fonts on your brand new computer for ‘personal use’ then you need not worry about font licences. If you are using a second-hand computer (not brand new) then you should check that the fonts you are using were installed by the manufacturer. Your use of any font, installed subsequent to the purchase of the computer, brand new, might be in breach of that font’s licence. If you use a font for commercial purpose then you need to be aware of the licence terms.

It is probably not an exaggeration to say that most people use the fonts on their computer without bothering about the licence. So why should you bother?

Say, you have written a novel to self-publish: a commercial activity. You used Garamond for the body text in your paperback edition. Garamond was installed when you bought your Mac laptop, brand new. An app called Font Book on your Mac has information about the licence of each font installed with the Mac operating system. The license agreement for Garamond in Font Book includes the words; “This typeface is the property of Monotype…your use of this software is limited to your workstation for your own publishing use.”

PCs and Linux have similar ‘font books’.

Your novel is a best seller and you are now a well known author. Monotype will now have heard of you. So, were you entitled to use Garamond in your novel without fear of hearing from Monotype or their lawyers. The answer is ‘yes’ if you used the computer on which the Monotype version of Garamond was installed by the manufacturer; but not if you transfer the font to another computer (“your use of this software is limited to your workstation”). Also, the owner of the computer is the only person licensed to use the Garamond font (“for your own publishing use”).

You will note that Monotype refers to its Garamond font as software. Software is protected by copyright and so using a font without permission is an infringement of the owner’s copyright in it.

Above, I refer to a print book, not to an ebook. The Monotype licence also says; “This font may be embedded in documents and temporarily loaded on the remote system.” Note the word temporarily. This word means that you would not be licensed to install or embed the Monotype Garamond font in your ebook. There are several fonts which include Garamond in their name, each being slightly different and owned by various licence holders. My favourite font, and the one I use most for body text in print books, is called EB Garamond. It is the copyright of Georg A. Duffner, and licensed under the SIL Open Font License, and free to use for commercial purposes.

As you might have gleaned, font licensing is so complicated that it could be described as a ‘labyrinthine nightmare’.