How does Emigre license its fonts?

Each Emigre Font purchase is automatically licensed for use at one location with a maximum of five devices. If you wish to use the Emigre Fonts on more than five devices, or at more than one location, you must purchase a license upgrade. The Emigre Font Software may not be shared between locations or business entities. Each location and/or entity must purchase a separate license, starting with the first device.

 
What is a device?

A device may be, but is not limited to, a printer, rasterizer, video display terminal, CPU, workstation or any device where the font software is rasterized or display of the Emigre Font is generated, or anything that allows a user to edit or compose text. A display terminal, for instance, shall be considered a device if the Emigre Font outline is embedded or otherwise included for viewing by end users in a multimedia CD, video game, tablet computer, smart phone, or other similar display devices.

 
Does Emigre offer site licensing for an unlimited number of output devices/CPUs at one location?

Our Site License allows the installation and use of the fonts on an unlimited number of CPUs and printers at one physical address of a corporation or other legal entity.

 
Does Emigre offer licensing for large organizations with multiple locations?

Our World-Wide License allows the installation and use of the fonts at an unlimited number of locations of one corporation or other legal entity, limited to the number of CPUs.

 
What if the user controls and stores all their fonts from a central file server?

Regardless of where the fonts are stored the license is based on the number of output devices/CPUs that the fonts will be used on. In this case the user must have something in place to monitor usage, so that the license will not be violated.

You may not place the Emigre Font Software on a server, unless all devices that have access to the server have a license.

The Basic License does not cover web fonts, video games, on-line applications, or the use of the Emigre Font Software in on-line templates or other applications where an unlicensed user can edit or compose text. These require a special license and are quoted separately. Please send an email to: sales@emigre.com

We define users as people who select a font and then enter or edit text using that font. So in the case of a greeting card or business card website, users of that site would be considered to be using the fonts. As a normal EULA is limited to users within the organization licensing the font(s), such use would not be permitted.

 
How far can I extend my font license?

Multi-device licenses can be extended to any number of machines which are operated by the licensee at one location; in accordance with Emigre's License Upgrade Formula. Other parties, including affiliates, agents, subsidiaries, clients or advertisers, will require their own licenses.

 
Can I embed fonts into digital documents?

Web sites and CD-ROM titles may feature bitmap images made using our fonts, but the fonts themselves may not be distributed. Embeddable font formats require the duplication of the fonts and thus seriously compromise the security of typefaces. The Emigre license excludes font embedding, except as described in the Embedding License Addendum. This addendum allows restricted distribution of portable digital documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format under specific circumstances.

Distributing copies of a printed document is not the same as distributing copies of a digital document with embedded fonts. The latter also distributes live fonts, which add value to the digital document by making it more useful, flexible, and cheaper to distribute than a traditional printed document.

Unfortunately, currently available embedding technologies, which incorporate live fonts into web pages and digital documents, do so by jeopardizing the security of the fonts. Before allowing such usage of their fonts, font developers want to be certain that encryption of the embedded fonts is secure enough to prevent unauthorized access or use.

 
Does Emigre Allow Web Fonts Usage?

Our Basic License does not permit Web Fonts. Web font embedding technologies are currently in their first stages of development, and much remains unresolved. Different browsers support different methods of font embedding, which results in different performance, or no performance at all. The quality of the rendered font display varies among browsers as well, which can make the fonts more difficult to read (and down right unattractive) in some browser/OS situations than others.

There are also unresolved issues of securely protecting the font data. For this reason, our current license prohibits any kind of web font embedding.

These inconsistencies of support, rendering quality and protection need to be resolved before we can offer a stable web font product to our customers.

 
What about sending files to a pre-press or printing service?

Acrobat PDF format is the preferred method of sending files for output at a pre-press or printing service, as long as the specific requirements of our Embedding License Addendum are met. This addendum allows a licensed font user to send a PDF file to an unlicensed third party, such as a pre-press or printing service, subject to three conditions: 1.) One copy of any PDF file may be sent for the purpose of digital output by a pre-press or printing service, or for the purpose of proofing by a client or proofreader. Under no circumstances shall anyone be allowed to further distribute, duplicate or make additional copies of the PDF. 2.) Subsetting must be used for any font embedding. 3.) The PDF must have security set to allow only printing and viewing; it must prohibit changing, selecting, or adding.

Another acceptable solution when outputting files at a pre-press or printing service is to create PostScript files, also known as "print to disk" files. The pre-press or printing service need not have a copy of the fonts in order to print PostScript files. In addition they accelerate typesetting, and help prevent errors. Your pre-press or printing service can assist you in the particularities of creating PostScript files from your application.

If it becomes necessary for your pre-press or printing service to install a copy of the fonts on their equipment, they do need to purchase their own copy. As an alternative, Emigre offers the Service Bureau License whereby the user may purchase a license extension for use at a pre-press or printing service for half of the price of the font. (That's about $19.50 per single font or style.) In this case, the pre-press or printing service license is purchased as an extension of an existing customer's license, and is therefore valid only for output of that customer's jobs.

 

For more information, see: Various License Options