Typeface and fonts designers are protected by trademarks and design patents. It is crucial to understand the licensing for fonts you intend to use for your interior format as well as the cover. Fonts have rules similar to software. They are the creator's intellectual property.
Some fonts are free for personal use, even commercial use. Many fonts can be used for personal projects only: letters, blog posts, scrapbooking, etc. Others require a license for use on the web, in print, and on items that are sold. Others require you to purchase a license to use it for print ads, covers, marketing materials, etc.
The rules apply to the fonts you use on the cover as well as the book's interior. It is best to stick with simple fonts for e-books such as Times New Roman or Arial. Each e-book publishing platform has limitations to the fonts they will accept. E-readers allow the user to choose a font style and size. Specialized fonts would have to be embedded as images to translate.
To read more about licensing basics, view:
1. Font Licensing 101
2. Introduction to Licensing and Usage
When you download a font, there is usually a text document outlining the End User License Agreement (EULA) that comes with it.
If you are still not sure what the rights are, you can usually find it by searching for "XYZ Font license agreement" in your web search engine. Distributors and sellers of fonts often share that information under product details.
When in doubt, don't use it.
Once you dive into the world of font designs, the search easily turns into a passion. There are many resources for downloading fonts and most have useful articles on font licensing.
2. Design Roast
3. Design Shack
4. Fonts.com
5. Font Spring
6. Font Space
7. My Fonts
There are even online sites with tools to design your own fonts.
1. Caligraphr
2. Fontself
3. Fontstruct
4. Prototypo
5. Your Fonts
Typography is an art unto itself. There is no way to cover all of the intricacies in a blog post. At the very least, font choices should reflect the tone and genre of the book. It helps to understand blocking, contrast, color, size, and placement. Poor font selection can turn great artwork into a dud cover design.
Here are a couple of articles explaining the importance of good placement.
1. Typography Mistakes
2. Typeface Fonts
3. How To Design Book Covers
4. Top 10 Fonts for Book Covers
5. Book Cover Typography
6. The Complete Guide to Choosing Your Book Cover Font With Examples
7. How to Create a Standout Book Cover
When creating a book interior, it is important to embed the fonts in the document. You can choose to embed only the characters you used, for chapter headers etc., or the entire set. The entire set increases file size.
You can learn more about how to embed fonts from these sources:
1. Creating a PDF with Embedded Fonts for MS Word (PDF)
2. How to embed all the fonts in a PDF file (PDF)
3. How to embed fonts in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
4. How to embed all the fonts in a PDF file
5. How to determine if fonts are embedded in a PDF file
6. Font embedding and substitution
Some font files on your system, or that you have downloaded for "free," have embedding permissions in them that may prevent you from using them. Unless you have purchased a license, it is best to substitute the font for another open use font.
As with any intellectual property, it is courtesy to offer a mention in the credits for the creator of your fonts. This can be done in a colophon section in the front matter on the page after the title page where you find the copyright information. It can also be located in the back matter after the author biography.
Crediting a type font
The same applies to images utilized in the interior or on the cover.
This book is set using (font) designed by (designer) of (page or website).
The cover was designed by (artist) of (page or website).
Image used on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website).
Illustration on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website)
If you use multiple specialty fonts, list each on a separate line.
Next week, we discuss book cover video tutorials.
3. How to embed fonts in Adobe Acrobat (PDF)
4. How to embed all the fonts in a PDF file
5. How to determine if fonts are embedded in a PDF file
6. Font embedding and substitution
Some font files on your system, or that you have downloaded for "free," have embedding permissions in them that may prevent you from using them. Unless you have purchased a license, it is best to substitute the font for another open use font.
As with any intellectual property, it is courtesy to offer a mention in the credits for the creator of your fonts. This can be done in a colophon section in the front matter on the page after the title page where you find the copyright information. It can also be located in the back matter after the author biography.
Crediting a type font
The same applies to images utilized in the interior or on the cover.
This book is set using (font) designed by (designer) of (page or website).
The cover was designed by (artist) of (page or website).
Image used on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website).
Illustration on page (#) was created by (artist) of (page or website)
If you use multiple specialty fonts, list each on a separate line.
Next week, we discuss book cover video tutorials.
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