MyFonts is a commercial font marketplace. As a result, there are specific guidelines around offering free fonts, demo fonts, and personal use licenses. This article explains what is allowed and how to approach free offerings while selling on MyFonts.
Can I offer free fonts?
No. MyFonts is not a free font website, so font families that are entirely free are not accepted. We also do not sell fonts that are offered for free elsewhere. As part of the submission review process, we check whether fonts are available for free on other platforms.
What about demo fonts?
You may offer a demo version of your font for free elsewhere while selling the full version on MyFonts. However, the demo font must be a modified version of the typeface and should not be suitable for production use.
Examples of acceptable demo font modifications include:
- Fewer characters
- Removed or altered glyphs, such as replacing the space glyph with a “notdef” or tofu symbol
- Removing dots from the i and j
- Offering only uppercase and lowercase letters with no punctuation
Demo fonts are intended to help customers evaluate whether the font works for their project before purchasing the full version.
If you are offering a free demo font download on other sites, we recommend including that same demo version on the family page on MyFonts as well.
What about personal use licenses?
MyFonts does not offer personal use licenses. Only commercial licenses are supported on the platform.
You may offer a personal use license for your complete font for free elsewhere while also selling the font on MyFonts. However, the personal use version must be distributed through a system where users explicitly agree to a personal use license. Fonts should not be available as unrestricted or open downloads.
What about free fonts for marketing purposes?
For promotional reasons, some foundries include free demo fonts within a family. Others choose to price one or two styles in a larger family at zero cost as a marketing strategy.
This approach is allowed and can be an effective way to introduce customers to your work and encourage purchases of additional styles.
If you have questions about free fonts or want guidance on structuring demos or pricing, you can contact Foundry Support at foundrysupport@monotype.com.