A Font on a Client's Website Nearly Cost Them a Lawsuit

A client received an email from a type foundry. A font on their website was being used without a licence. They had three days to respond or face legal action.

Their first assumption was a scam. It was real.

What had happened

The client did not build the site. A previous designer did, using fonts available inside Canva.

Canva is a good tool, and plenty of professionals use it. The catch is that some fonts in Canva are licensed for use inside Canva only. Using them on a website is a separate licence the platform does not grant.

The typeface in this case was drawn in 1923 and is still in copyright, owned by a foundry in Paris. Age does not put a typeface in the public domain.

Nobody cut a corner here. This is an ordinary oversight, and it happens constantly when a project passes through several hands.

Why it surfaced after a year

The site had been live for over a year with no complaint. The reason is uncomfortable: Google had never indexed it.

I came in to improve the site. Part of my standard process is to fix the technical setup and submit the site for indexing. That made it visible to search engines, and to the automated crawlers foundries run to find unlicensed use of their fonts.

The site was never hidden. It was just invisible. The moment it became visible, it was flagged.

That is worth sitting with. Basic SEO work can expose problems that were always there.

Four things about fonts that surprise business owners

• Fonts are licensed like software. You do not own them, you license them for specific uses.
• Free does not mean free for commercial use.
• A font inside a design tool can be licensed for use inside that tool only.
• The website owner is responsible for what is on the website, even when somebody else built it.

That last point is the one that costs money. The designer who chose the font is not the party receiving the notice.

How we fixed it

We confirmed the licence did not cover the site, then replaced the typeface with a close match that is free for commercial use. The design was unchanged to anyone looking at it.

Three sources worth knowing:

• Google Fonts. Free for commercial use, including on websites.
• Font Library. A large collection of open-licensed typefaces.
• DaFont. A huge selection, but check each listing. Use only fonts marked public domain or 100% free, and read the licence line on the download page.

The wider point

Font licensing is one of several things sitting under a website that nobody checks. Image rights are another. So are the technical settings that decide whether Google can see you at all.

If your site was built a while ago, or by someone you no longer work with, those details are worth an hour of somebody's attention.

I run that audit. It is quick and there is no pressure attached. Email jon@delcaromedia.com.