All new fonts submitted to MyFonts will be reviewed for technical quality and completeness before acceptance. This is to ensure all new submissions will work well for customers. We consider several factors when reviewing new submissions, such as the name of the font, digitization quality, character set completeness, and marketing images. MyFonts does not make judgements about the style of fonts. We are focused on evaluating the technical components of fonts to ensure a good customer experience.
In order to reduce the chance of your fonts being rejected, take time to review this list below, double check your font files, and make any last-minute corrections before submitting them to the Monotype Foundry Platform. If your submission is rejected, we will outline the reasons why. If you take time to address these reasons, we encourage you to resubmit your font. Your updated fonts will be reviewed, and if the revised files show improvement, your font will most likely be accepted.
The following categories and points are considered during the review and are reasons why a font may be rejected:
Character Set
We recommend that your fonts meet our minimum required character set. This includes characters to support most Latin-based languages, currency symbols for common currencies, and the most needed characters. Customers on MyFonts expect fonts they purchase to be complete and contain the characters to meet their needs. Exceptions include dingbat or icon fonts, and some highly decorative display fonts. Fonts that support other languages besides English appeal to a broader range of customers. If a large number of characters are missing, your font will be rejected. If your font contains most characters but is also missing some of the basic characters (like the comma, for example) your font will be rejected. Please also ensure that characters are designed correctly - for example, symbols are not drawn backwards, all punctuation and symbols are consistent in weight and style with the other glyphs in the font, and that your diacritics are placed on letters properly.
Font Naming
We closely review font names to avoid any conflicts with font names currently existing on MyFonts, and check if names might be trademarked or copyrighted. Our research shows that customers are more likely to purchase fonts with names that are easy to remember, spell, and pronounce. The font name is part of the overall marketing of your font, so it’s most effective if you can connect the name of the font to the themes in your images and description. Please also make sure the name you select is exactly the same throughout your submission process. This includes the family name, the name of each weight, the font files, and the text used in the description and sample images.
We cannot accept new fonts with names that match exactly to fonts that are currently on MyFonts. We will also reject names that are too similar to existing fonts on MyFonts; for example - similar sounding words that are different spellings (such as “Madeline” and “Madelyn”), or names that contain additional non-specific words (such as “the”) used to differentiate it from others. Font names that appear to be misspellings of common words, places, people, or locations will be rejected, as this is confusing for customers and looks like an error. Font names that are comprised only with words related to font and typography terminology (such as: Font, Mono, ™, Unavailable, Standard) will be rejected.
Font names which are based on established businesses, persons (celebrities, politicians), movies, or musical groups will be rejected as they could conflict with trademarks or copyrights. If you select a name and have specific legal rights already to name please highlight this by leaving a note for foundry support in your Foundry Platform new font submission in order to avoid rejection.
Read our article about font naming best practices here.
Overall Design
We check the construction of glyphs and the overall quality of design of your font. We also consider aspects that are specific to each category of fonts. Glyphs that are designed correctly are constructed with as few points as possible, curves that are smooth, and straight lines that are truly straight.
Fonts that contain glyphs with un-removed overlaps or inverted characters will be rejected. Font spacing is important. Glyphs in upright fonts should be roughly centered in glyph boxes; fonts with glyphs aligned completely to the left or right of the glyph box will be rejected. Sans or Serif fonts that are only single weights will generally be rejected, as customers today expect sans and serif fonts to include multiple weights so they are useful for different designs and applications. For Script fonts, we check to ensure that connections between letters are smooth and complete, since customers expect these connections to be rendered properly. We will reject fonts that look obviously "auto-traced" with lumpy curves, a mix of inconsistent point connections, and inconsistent design elements.
Marketing Images
Marketing images are a very important part of your font submission - they help potential customers see what they can do with your fonts! Thus we also review images when evaluating new font submissions, and font submission can be rejected based on the images.
Good images are not pixelated or stretched. They have a consistent color theme, look like they all coordinate as a set, are not too busy visually, and convey information to the customer.
Great images show how your font can be used in real world cases - for example, in mockup logos, on products, or in example layouts. Images that show OpenType features, alternates, ligatures, and swashes are particularly helpful for customers. Consider incorporating photography into your marketing images too!
Take extra time to ensure all written text contains words and phrases with correct spelling and grammar. We will not accept any images contain political, racist, sexist, or religious content which could be considered offensive. We also do not accept images that contain the price or discount price of your font.
When in doubt, keep your images simple! Pick a few colors and use them consistently throughout the images. Your 5+ images should look like a complete set that coordinate together.
Plagiarism
We will not accept and sell fonts that we believe to be plagiarized. This includes modified copies of existing fonts, designs that are identical or nearly identical to existing fonts, or fonts that contain other technical features which are derived directly from other fonts. Guiding our approach is the assumption that MyFonts designers have good intentions, the expectation the MyFonts partners act ethically, and the mandate that foundries only submit fonts they may rightfully sell.
If you have specific permission or rights to produce fonts based specifically on another font, please leave a note for foundry support in your Foundry Platform new font submission in order to avoid rejection.
You can find our official policy on plagiarism here.
Free Fonts
MyFonts is not a free font site, so we don't accept fonts that are priced at $0. Additionally, we do not sell fonts on MyFonts that are offered for free elsewhere. When reviewing fonts, we'll check to see if they're available for free elsewhere.
You are welcome to offer a demo version of your font for free elsewhere and offer your font on MyFonts for a price, however this demo version must be a modified version of the typeface. This demo typeface may have fewer characters, or modified in other ways that would make it non-usable in a production situation. For example, you could include a “not def” or “tofu” symbol in the space glyph, removing the dots above the i and j, only offering uppercase and lowercase letters with no punctuation, etc. Demo fonts are intended to provide a customer a version of the font with enough information for them to make the decision whether they will use it in the project, and then license (and pay for!) the full version. If you are offering a free demo font on other sites, we recommend and prefer this free demo version to be included on MyFonts in the family page as well.
For promotional purposes, some foundries will offer demo fonts, or one or two styles out of a large family for free as a marketing tactic; this is totally fine, and often a very effective strategy.
Read our policy on free fonts here.