Can you embed MegaFont fonts into ebooks?

[steve-perkins]

The licensing information on the MegaFont website clearly calls out owners being licensed to use the fonts for commercial purpose, and to embed the fonts in PDF files.

Is this specific ONLY to PDF files, though? Are owners licensed to embed these fonts in EPUB files, for ebooks that are sold commercially?

[SuperTech]

Yes, you are right. That's specific to PDFs only, and there is no ePUB license in MegaFont.

If you have any questions, please contact us at sales[at]softmaker.com.

[Woody44]

Yes, you are right. That's specific to PDFs only, and there is no ePUB license in MegaFont.

SoftMaker needs to make this clear to users -- it is currently not clear. In fact, there is no license at all in MegaFont NOW.

I have commented in previous posts/threads that the "licensing" information pertaining to your monthly free fonts conveys no licensing or terms of use information whatsoever. Now it appears that the licensing information for MegaFont NOW is equally deficient. When I purchased MegaFont NOW, it was with the understanding that the license allows "all" commercial uses -- and nothing in any of the documentation that I have read says that this excludes e-books.

As I have commented in the other discussions: e-books are not the wave of the future, they are the wave of what's happening right now, today. Selling (or giving away) fonts that you claim may be used for all commercial purposes and then informing purchasers after the fact that, oh, by the way that doesn't include e-books is not fair. In fact, I would even say it is misleading to the point of being deceptive.

Respectfully, SoftMaker NEEDS to reexamine its license, because e-books are what people are buying today, and e-books are what authors are creating. I am a member of multiple Internet forums for writers and self-publishers. A great many authors today don't even bother to do print versions of their books. All their sales are e-books, often exclusively sold on Amazon. If you don't allow your fonts to be used in e-books, TELL US THAT UP FRONT. But then don't be surprised if your sales of MegaFont NOW and your other font collections fall precipitously because, as I have said, e-books are where the action is today.

Since you allow fonts to be embedded in PDFs, why NOT allow them to be embedded in e-books?

I have the MegaFont NOW collection on CD. I just checked. There is no licensing or terms of use document included in the files on the CD, nor is there any paper document in the package conveying licensing information. The ONLY license-related information is on the back cover, where it says the following:

1. All fonts may be used for design, printing, PDFs and as webfonts with unlimited pageviews.
2. All fonts can be used immediately and permanently -- no subscription.
3. Commercial Use: You may use MegaFont NOW on one PC or Mac.

That's the extent of the information relating to license or terms of use. I am not a lawyer, but I have served as an expert witness in a number of cases involving disputes about contract language, and I am a published author. When I read this, it tells me that I am allowed to use these fonts for any commercial purpose. As an author, selling e-books is a commercial purpose. Any author today who is NOT selling e-books is a dinosaur -- much more of a dinosaur than I am. So when you tell me that I may use your fonts for "commercial purposes" and you do NOT clearly and explicitly exclude e-books -- I'm going to interpret that to mean that I can use the fonts for any and all commercial purposes, and that includes e-books.

Before you send your lawyers after me, I have not used any of your fonts in an e-book. When I write a book, I first write and format the printed version, then I make a copy of the manuscript and strip out all formatting (and custom fonts) to create a "clean" copy for upload as the Kindle and ePUB versions. I do that because -- so far -- my e-books have been set up as reactive or adaptive, whatever the term is for e-books for which the font and font size size can be changed in the reader and the text automatically reflows to fit the display. If I were to do a fixed-format e-book, it would not be reflowable and it would require embedding the fonts. Childrens' books and cookbooks are two examples of e-books that typically are done as fixed-format rather than reflowable. So, I have not violated your secret terms of use -- but only due to accident, not because your license is clear.

Once again, Softmaker needs to address this. It is obviously a problem area, and so far you have not addressed it even though I first raised the issue with regard to the free fonts several months ago.

[SuperTech]

Thanks for your suggestion. I have forwarded this improvement suggestion to our product management...

[Woody44]

Thanks for your suggestion. I have forwarded this improvement suggestion to our product management...

Thank you, but that's exactly what you said eight months ago: https://forum.softmaker.com/viewtopic.php?f=264&t=21079

Currently, it's not possible, but I have forwarded this request to our product management...

Why isn't product management doing something about the problem? I don't see this as a "product" issue at all. Rather than referring the issue to product management, you should refer it to your lawyers. I'm sure they will agree that the information to which you refer as "licensing information" is not complete licensing information. The text I quoted from the outside cover of the MegaFont NOW package does specify that for commercial use the owner may only install the font package on one computer, but that's ALL it says. The part about the fonts being embedded in PDFs is not presented as part of a licensing document; it is listed as a "feature":

https://www.softmaker.com/en/megafont

Then you need to refer the issue to your marketing team. They need to look into some Internet forums dedicated to independent authors, and self-publishers. I think they will find that what I stated above is accurate: there are a great many "indie" authors today who don't even bother to publish printed books; they only publish e-books.

[Maureene Coots]

Before embedding custom fonts, make sure you have obtained the necessary font-license.

Once obtained, go to Purchase > Download > Locate in your computer to find font files you wish to embed.
Step 1: Open your eBook in Sigil or similar software.
Step 2: In Sigil, right click “Fonts” folder present on the left side menu and select “Add Existing Files”. Select font files to be embedded. It is recommended to add TrueType Fonts for universal support.
Step 3: To check font type, locate the font file. Right click and select “Preview” or “Open“. You should see a window similar to below screenshot which will let you know the font type (TrueType/OpenType).
Step 4: Open content.opf file from Sigil. Add the following code to change href and id properties of <item> tag.
Step 5: Go to “Styles” folder present on left side menu and select the stylesheet. Add the following code and change the values as per your selected font file. Define @font-face for each file you are adding to Fonts folder.
Step 6: Now simply use the declaration of font-family, font-weight and font-style in whichever class you wish to embed fonts.
Step 7: Save your file to see custom fonts in your eBook.

[Woody44]

Before embedding custom fonts, make sure you have obtained the necessary font-license.

But that's the problem. SoftMaker sells fonts, which they advertise as being "for all commercial purposes," but through this forum (but NOT anywhere in what they call the licensing information) they then tell us that we are NOT allowed to embed their fonts in e-books.

[pedrober]

Fontspring sells ebooks license only for the Softmaker fonts available in that website (less than 15 euros).

[Woody44]

Fontspring sells ebooks license only for the Softmaker fonts available in that website (less than 15 euros).

That's interestingm but it doesn't address the fact that SoftMaker's "license" for Megafont NOW is not in any way a license statement, and their marketing of Megafont NOW ("for all commercial purposes") is misleading and possibly fraudulent. No, I have no intention of suing SoftMaker for fraud -- I like the company and I (for the most part) like their software -- but this so-called license is a joke, and they don't seem to be interested in fixing it.