Font metadata viewer: what a font file says about its licence and makers
Every TrueType and OpenType font carries a name table with its family, style, version, designer, manufacturer, copyright, licence text and licence URL, plus an OS/2 field (fsType) that states the embedding rights its maker chose. This font metadata viewer reads all of it in your browser — every name record in every language, not just the English ones — and puts the answers to the practical questions first: which licence does the file name, is commercial use likely allowed, and may the font be embedded in PDFs and apps?
Drop a single font or a whole folder of TTF, OTF, WOFF and WOFF2 files and you get a licence audit table you can download as CSV — useful before handing a project to a client, publishing an app, or cleaning up the fonts a design team has collected over the years.
Fonts are read on your device and never uploaded.
How to use the Font Metadata Viewer
- Drop one or more font files on the box (TTC collections list each face), or press Try a sample font.
- Read the Licence audit table: licence named in the file, commercial-use hint and the embedding permission for each font.
- Click a row to open its details: the licence box with the full licence text, copyright and any Reserved Font Name, then Identity (designer, manufacturer, vendor ID, version, creation date) and Technical details.
- Check the variable axes, named instances and OpenType scripts and features, then open Every name record or Tables in the file for the raw data.
- Press Download audit (CSV) for the whole batch, or Download this font’s metadata (JSON) for one font.
Font Metadata Viewer features
Licence classifier
Recognises the SIL Open Font License, Apache 2.0, Ubuntu Font Licence, MIT, GUST, Bitstream Vera, IPA, GPL (with or without font exception), Creative Commons, public domain and “personal use only” wording, and flags everything else as a proprietary EULA to read.
Embedding rights decoded
The OS/2 fsType value is decoded bit by bit as the OpenType 1.9.1 specification defines it: installable, restricted, preview & print, editable, no subsetting and bitmap-only.
Batch audit with CSV
Many fonts at once, one row each, exported with family, version, designer, vendor ID, licence, commercial-use hint and embedding — ready for a spreadsheet.
Every name record
All platforms (Windows, Mac, Unicode) and languages, including localised family names and font-specific names for axes and instances.
Checksum check
For TTF and OTF files the table checksums and the head checksum adjustment are recomputed, revealing files that were edited by hand or damaged in transfer.
Technical summary
Weight and width class, style flags, italic angle, hhea/typo/win vertical metrics, x-height, cap height, code pages, axes, instances, GSUB/GPOS scripts and features, and every table with its size.
Can I use this font commercially? Reading the answer correctly
The font file can only tell you what its maker wrote into it. Open-source fonts usually say so clearly: name ID 13 holds a sentence such as “This Font Software is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1” and ID 14 the licence URL. The OFL allows commercial use, logos, apps and web embedding; it forbids selling the font file on its own, and modified versions — which, according to the OFL FAQ (sections 2.2 and 2.6), include subsets and format conversions — must stay under the OFL and drop any Reserved Font Name.
Commercial fonts often leave these fields empty or point to an EULA, and “free” fonts downloaded from aggregator sites are frequently personal-use-only demos. When the viewer says check the licence or no licence information, find the licence file or the foundry’s page before using the font in paid work. This page is informational and not legal advice.
| fsType value | Meaning (OpenType 1.9.1) |
|---|---|
| 0 | Installable embedding: may be embedded and installed on the reader’s system. |
| 2 | Restricted licence embedding: must not be modified, embedded or exchanged without the owner’s permission. |
| 4 | Preview & print: may be embedded for viewing and printing; documents open read-only. |
| 8 | Editable: may be embedded and the document edited and saved. |
| +256 (bit 8) | No subsetting before embedding. |
| +512 (bit 9) | Bitmap embedding only — outlines may not be embedded. |
Where the information comes from
Identity fields come from the name table (IDs 0–25 plus font-specific IDs from 256), the vendor ID from OS/2 achVendID, the revision and creation/modification dates from the head table (seconds since 1904), metrics from hhea, OS/2 and post, axes and instances from fvar, and scripts and features from GSUB and GPOS. WOFF and WOFF2 files are unpacked first, so their on-disk table checksums are not compared. To see the glyphs themselves use the font viewer; to test a variable font live, the variable font tester; to change formats, the font converter.
Font Metadata Viewer FAQ
How do I check a font’s licence?
Drop the file into this font metadata viewer. The licence box shows the licence text and URL stored in the font, a classification such as “SIL Open Font License 1.1”, and the embedding permission. Confirm it against the licence file that came with the font.
How do I find out who designed a font?
Open the Identity section: Designer (name ID 9), Manufacturer (ID 8), the designer and vendor URLs, and the four-letter vendor ID from the OS/2 table.
What does “Restricted licence embedding” mean?
The font’s fsType is 2: applications should not embed it in PDFs or documents without the owner’s permission. Many PDF tools will refuse to embed it.
Is a font with no licence text free to use?
Not necessarily. Missing metadata only means the maker did not write it into the file. Look for a licence file or the original download page.
Can I check many fonts at once?
Yes. Drop a whole selection or folder of fonts; each appears as a row of the audit table, and Download audit (CSV) exports them all.
Why is the table checksum check “not checked” for WOFF2?
WOFF and WOFF2 files store tables compressed (WOFF2 even transforms them), so the viewer rebuilds a TTF/OTF while unpacking; the original on-disk checksums are only meaningful for plain TTF and OTF files.