I want to make a poster for my middle school yearbook, but I don't know if I can put them up due to font copyright.
On befonts.com, the Product Sans font is marked for "personal and commercial use". Can I use the font for the posters if the school is selling them for $30?
Google does not permit any kind of use of Product Sans for any third parties.
Here is the license of the font:
Google offers many fonts under open source licenses. This is not one of them. Please see fonts.google.com for options you can use.
As you can see, it doesn't explicitly grant any permission to use the font. When thinking with a strictly legal mindset, you can't just assume that you're allowed to use the font simply because the license doesn't prohibit it, or because “others use it too”.
Here's a statement from a Google employee who works in the Material Design team:
Unfortunately Google Sans is not a font we license to developers. It's based off our logo and is used to express our branding in particular.
Furthermore, I sent an email to Google's design team about the license. Their reply is very concise and should not leave anything to debate about.
So, to rephrase:
Product Sans and Google Sans are not licensed to third parties for any kind of use.
It would seem that Scott's answer is not correct, and the font was uploaded to befonts.com without permission and with a wrong license, by someone who used “google” as their username.
Yes.
"Commercial Use" means you are granted a license to use the item in products you sell.
(Note this is based solely upon that one line of text. There does not appear to be any further details on the license specifically. Even downloading and checking the result does not offer any further explanation or statutes to the license.)
https://fonts.google.com/license/productsans
As you can see here is not allowed to use for any kind of purpose.
Don't take the risk. Use a different font that looks similar, but which is 100% legal.
Glacial Indifference - is an Open SIL font, and can be used for anything you want
From the OFL-FAQ
Question: 1.1 Can I use the fonts for a book or other print publication, to create logos or other graphics or even to manufacture objects based on their outlines?
Answer: Yes. You are very welcome to do so. Authors of fonts released under the OFL allow you to use their font software as such for any kind of design work. No additional license or permission is required, unlike with some other licenses. Some examples of these uses are: logos, posters, business cards, stationery, video titling, signage, t-shirts, personalised fabric, 3D-printed/laser-cut shapes, sculptures, rubber stamps, cookie cutters and lead type.
While I am not a lawyer and the legal aspect is more appropriate for law.SE than here, generally at least in the United States, copyright on a font only covers the "computer software" aspect of a font (the representation of the font as instructions/curve data/bitmap data/whatever used to generate the output) and not the typeface itself or documents/designs incorporating the typeface. You need a commercial license when you will be distributing the font file, or a derived/subset font file, such as for web fonts, for including the font file with a piece of software or video game, etc. You do not need it in order to sell a book or a poster containing text using the font.
While I didn't specifically use it in preparing this answer, a source which supports my answer (and which appeared first to me Googling for "copyright and fonts") is: https://www.lawyers.com/legal-info/intellectual-property/intellectual-property-licensing/company-sues-over-unauthorized-use-of-its-fonts.html
No the picture is old. Now it states that "free for personal use". They have changed it on my order. Link is same as in the question.
Have a check. I think this answers all the questions: https://fonts.google.com/license/productsans
