Font Licensing for Video: Can You Use Any Font?

No — you cannot safely use any font in a video. Most commercial fonts are licensed for print or web, and using one in a moving image can breach the license. The safe path is a font whose license clearly permits video: an SIL Open Font License (OFL) family, which grants use, embedding, and commercial use with one simple rule.

Why can't you just use any font in a video?

A font is software, and it ships with a license (an EULA) that sets exactly what you may do with it. "I bought it" or "it was already on my machine" does not translate to "I can put it in a video." Many commercial licenses treat video and broadcast as a separate, paid tier that has nothing to do with the desktop file you installed.

Font licenses gate video by tier and by use. Mojomox is a clear example. Its Web License states the "Font cannot be used for videos, moving ads, or digital images," so that tier is off-limits for a video no matter what you paid. Its Desktop License is more generous — it says "Social media graphics and videos are included for normal brand use, including posts, reels, stories, and short-form content" — but even then a "Broadcast License is required for television, film, or streaming platform use" and high-production advertising. So the same font can be cleared for a Short and still barred from a TV spot.

That is the trap inside "just use any font": the file installs fine, the video renders fine, and nothing on screen warns you that the license was written for a different medium.

What does the SIL Open Font License actually permit?

The OFL is the license most open fonts use — Wikipedia notes that "most open-source fonts utilize the Open Font License." Its grant is unusually clear. The official license text reads: "Permission is hereby granted, free of charge... to use, study, copy, merge, embed, modify, redistribute, and sell modified and unmodified copies of the Font Software."

Embedding and commercial use are named directly. The OFL FAQ also confirms that putting a font into a document or graphic does not change the license of that work, and that acknowledging the font designer is appreciated but not required.

There is essentially one rule to respect. The license text says: "Neither the Font Software nor any of its individual components, in Original or Modified Versions, may be sold by itself." You cannot resell the font file as a standalone product. Using it in your captioned video, and selling that video or the service around it, is covered by the grant above.

OFL vs. a typical commercial font license

Question	SIL Open Font License	Typical commercial EULA
Cost	Free	Paid, often per-seat
Commercial use	Allowed	Usually allowed, check the tier
Use in video / broadcast	Allowed	Often a separate paid license
Attribution required	No	Varies by foundry
Modify the letterforms	Allowed	Often forbidden
The one hard rule	Don't sell the font file alone	Read every clause

The choosealicense summary lists OFL permissions as commercial use, distribution, modification, and private use, with the conditions being a license-and-copyright notice and keeping derivatives under the same license. Compare that to a commercial EULA where video is a line item you may have skimmed past.

What happens if a font's license doesn't cover video?

Using a font in a video its tier does not cover is a breach of the agreement you accepted when you installed it. With Mojomox, the Web License excludes video outright, while the Desktop License clears ordinary social and short-form video but still requires a separate Broadcast License for television, film, streaming, or high-production advertising. Publish a high-production spot on a Desktop License alone and you have stepped past the terms. Foundries license by use, and the heavier the production, the more likely video sits behind an extra fee.

The exposure grows with the audience. A Short, a paid ad, a client deliverable — the more people who see it, the more likely the wrong license eventually surfaces. Picking a font that plainly permits video removes that question before you ever hit render.

How do I check if a font is safe for my video?

Run this quick checklist before a font ever touches a timeline:

• Find the actual license file or EULA that came with the font, not a blog's summary of it.
• Confirm it names an open license (OFL, Apache) or explicitly permits video, motion, or broadcast use.
• If it's a commercial EULA, search it for the words "video," "broadcast," "motion," or "moving image."
• Check whether a separate broadcast or video tier is required for what you're making.
• Keep a copy of the license alongside your project files.
• If you cannot confirm it permits video, do not use it.

If that reads like homework you would rather not repeat per clip, that is exactly the gap a curated set closes.

How does Everpop handle fonts so I don't have to?

Everpop's word-by-word burned captions ship with six curated OFL (SIL Open Font License) fonts, free on every plan. Because they are OFL, embedding them in your rendered video and using that video commercially is covered by the license grant above — no per-clip EULA reading, no broadcast-tier surprise.

If you have your own brand font and already hold the rights to use it in video, upload-your-own is available on Scale. You bring the file, and the licensing responsibility stays where it belongs — with the font you already licensed.

For example, a podcaster who paid for a brand typeface can upload it on Scale for on-brand captions, while a creator who just wants clean, legal captions today picks one of the six OFL fonts and ships. Either way, when you export to Premiere, DaVinci, or Final Cut via FCPXML, EDL, or SRT, the caption text travels as data, so there is no font-file lock-in.

Plan details, including where upload-your-own sits, are on the pricing page.

The honest bottom line

"Any font" is a licensing question wearing a design costume. Free to download does not mean free to use in video, and a font you paid for may still need a broadcast license before it moves. OFL fonts remove that question: use, embed, and commercial use are granted in writing, with one rule about not reselling the file. That is why Everpop's captions default to them, and why upload-your-own stays opt-in for teams that already hold the rights.