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For the document use case, most document formats do not embed the font, so in that case, you are fine. The license includes an explicit call out for embedding i
by jsmith45 2y ago
For the document use case, most document formats do not embed the font, so in that case, you are fine. The license includes an explicit call out for embedding into a pdf: "Embedding of the Font Software is permitted for Portable Document Files (PDF), but only in such a way that the recipient cannot edit or extract the Font Software from the document".
It is not especially clear what that means, but my assumption would be that if you use subset embedding feature when creating the PDF you are fine, as that means even if somebody tries to extract the font, they would typically get a not terribly useful result, as unused glyphs, substitution tables, etc. would have been stripped.
And yes, as a general rule you cannot usually embed or otherwise distribute font files except as permitted by the font license.
On the other hand, at least in the US, you generally can distribute rasterized output of a font, because past court cases have clearly established that typefaces are not subject to copyright, but rather only the computer programs that procedurally generate typefaces from parameters is subject to copyright (e.g. font files). So, it is the vector data and stuff like the hinting mini-programs in the font file which are subject to copyright, not the resulting images it generates. Of course, you must still follow the license for the font software while using it to create a rasterized output.