You found the perfect font. You’re about to check out — then you hit the license dropdown and freeze. Desktop? Web? Extended? App? They all sound important, and none of them come with a plain-English explanation. This guide fixes that.
Every Artisan Font license covers a specific way of using a typeface. The right license isn’t about how much you’re willing to spend — it’s about where the font will actually appear. Walk through your project and ask: will anyone see this font on a screen inside an app? In print? On a website? In a broadcast? Each medium has its own answer.
Most designers only ever need one of the first four licenses below. The rest exist for specific technical or commercial situations — developers building products, studios handling TV work, agencies representing dozens of brands at once.
The right question isn’t “how much should I spend?” — it’s “where will this font actually appear?”
For graphic designers, freelancers & print shops
For indie authors & publishers
For website owners & developers
For content creators & small brands
For brands filing a logo trademark
For small to medium businesses, single brand
For developers & game studios
For SaaS platforms with user-generated content
For TV, film & commercial production
For large companies & agencies
Still not sure? Here’s how to match the most common project types to the right license:
A logo for a freelance client (print only)→ Desktop
A logo the client wants to trademark → Trademarked Logo
A website for a small business → Web Font
Instagram content & paid ads → Social Media Creator
A self-published ebook on Amazon → E-Pub
A mobile app on the Play Store → App / Game
A design tool where users can pick fonts → Server
A full brand rollout — web, print, social, ads → Extended
A TV commercial or feature film → Broadcast
The Desktop License is for your local machine: InDesign, Illustrator, print exports. The moment the font lives on a server and gets delivered to a browser, you need a Web Font License. These are two separate use cases.
The Desktop License covers one user on up to three devices. If your studio has three designers all working with the same font, each person needs their own license — or the studio should step up to the Extended License, which allows 100 installs.
The Trademarked Logo License covers that specific logo on social media, the web, and ebooks. If the brand also wants to run print campaigns or put the font on packaging, those use cases require a Desktop or Extended License on top of it.
Print and design work → Desktop. Web publishing → Web Font. Social content → Social Media Creator. Publishing → E-Pub. Apps → App/Game. If your project spans multiple mediums, check whether a bundled license like Extended or Corporate covers everything in one purchase — it usually works out cheaper than buying three separate licenses.
And if you’re still unsure after reading this, the right move is to reach out before you buy. A quick question now is a lot easier than sorting out licensing after a project ships.
Browse every Artisan Font license type — or reach out and we’ll point you to the right one.
How to Choose the Right Font for Your Website
Picking the right font for your website is about more than just style. This guide covers brand personality, readability, performance, and includes real font recommendations from ArtisanFont to help you choose with confidence.
