Author Topic: Confused about font use (Read 4900 times)

morning.light · « **on:** October 04, 2012, 11:12 »

Hello!

I just got into microstock recently, but I'm confused about copyright laws and other rules. For example, I have a picture of a pretty road sign and I modified it in photoshop. I erased the original text and wrote some interesting text on the sign that might make it sell. Then I realized I'm confused about 2 things:

1. Can pictures like these get accepted? It's not a vector, it's just a modified picture with text on it.
2. I shouldn't be able to sell it if the font is not mine and can't find any way to buy it right? What do people who use fonts in their works usually do?

Sorry for the newbie questions >.<

Perry · « **Reply #1 on:** October 05, 2012, 09:13 »

Quote from: morning.light on October 04, 2012, 11:12

1. Can pictures like these get accepted? It's not a vector, it's just a modified picture with text on it.

If there is no specific graphics (only the sign and perhaps a generic border) and the idea and execution are good enough, why not?

Quote from: morning.light on October 04, 2012, 11:12

2. I shouldn't be able to sell it if the font is not mine and can't find any way to buy it right? What do people who use fonts in their works usually do?

You should own a commercial license for the font. Fonts can be bought for example at http://www.myfonts.com/ and paid with a credit card.
There are a lot of free fonts too, but it's very difficult to find out the licences and/or if the material is really pirated (also 95% of free fonts are crap)

What font did you use for this project?

morning.light · « **Reply #2 on:** October 05, 2012, 14:10 »

Thank you for the answer!

I used the Midnight font (downloaded from fontspace.com )

They say "Personal use only, no commercial use."

And I'm still a bit confused. Let's say I buy some font. If I sell an image with that font in it, will the buyer have to pay for the font as well?

Amanda_K · « **Reply #3 on:** October 05, 2012, 15:00 »

Generally a proper commercial license for a font would include uses like this and the end user would not have to license the font since they don't have access to the actual usable font file, just the flat image file with the words you've added.

In a non vector file there shouldn't be any issue with this unless for example you wrote out the entire alphabet or set of numbers (which no respectable stock library would take anyway!) so you should be fine in the instance you describe.

Starzipan · « **Reply #4 on:** October 05, 2012, 15:13 »

I'd stay away from personal use only fonts since the creator most likely wouldn't want to find their fonts being used in projects that you're selling for commercial use.

My favorite free front site is www.fontsquirrel.com since they put in a little extra effort in making sure their fonts are free for commercial use. Takes a lot of the headache out of it for me though I do check the readme files that come with them just in case.

ShadySue · « **Reply #5 on:** October 05, 2012, 20:32 »

Perry · « **Reply #6 on:** October 06, 2012, 16:54 »

Quote from: morning.light on October 05, 2012, 14:10

And I'm still a bit confused. Let's say I buy some font. If I sell an image with that font in it, will the buyer have to pay for the font as well?

If the font is a part of a design and the font is converted to outlines/paths it should be OK.

I would still stay away from fonts made by P22, they seem to be a bunch of greedy a*holes http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/nbc-universal-accused-million-dollar-209599

trek · « **Reply #7 on:** October 06, 2012, 17:08 »

What about the fonts that come with photoshop? Aren't they generally usable or are there restrictions?

Perry · « **Reply #8 on:** October 06, 2012, 17:29 »

Quote from: trek on October 06, 2012, 17:08

What about the fonts that come with photoshop? Aren't they generally usable or are there restrictions?

If you have bought your Photoshop I'm 99.99999% sure there is a commercial license for the fonts included.

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Author Topic: Confused about font use (Read 4900 times)

morning.light

Perry

morning.light

Amanda_K

Starzipan

ShadySue

Perry

trek

Perry

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