How to Avoid Font Copyright Infringement: Legal Tips and Practical Tools

Recently, the term "ronggeng" (mixing plots) went viral due to the movie "Better Days," highlighting how the novel’s classic scenes borrowed from works by Keigo Higashino, sparking discussions about originality and copyright awareness among the public.

In the current climate of frequent infringement cases, falling into a font copyright trap can waste time and damage personal or corporate reputation, especially for designers who constantly produce creative work and thus face high copyright risks.

Chinese Copyright Law Article 22 states that using a paid font for commercial purposes without purchasing a license, even with minimal alteration, constitutes infringement.

1. Verify Font Copyright

Check font licenses by contacting the font vendor or searching online. Useful tools include:

360 Font Checker – detects which fonts on your computer require commercial licensing and searches for font usage rights.

Website: https://fonts.safe.360.cn

Other resources:

Zi You – offers fonts that can be used without installation and indicates commercial/free status.

Download: http://www.hellofont.cn/

2. Non‑Infringing Uses

Using fonts for non‑commercial purposes such as personal showcases or non‑profit competitions is generally not pursued by font companies, but any use beyond the granted license may still be liable for infringement.

Pay special attention to each font vendor’s licensing terms, for example:

Founder: Prohibits embedding fonts in portable files (PDF, Word) or using them on the web without written permission.

HanYi: Disallows embedding fonts in software, games, or digital publications.

Example: Using Microsoft Office’s default “Microsoft YaHei” font is safe because the vendor has granted Office a commercial license; however, printing documents created with that font for commercial purposes may still infringe.

3. Creating New Fonts for Commercial Use

Chinese law considers a similarity over 50% as infringement; simple transformations like stretching or outlining are insufficient. A recommended method using Photoshop includes:

Select two fonts with similar styles.

Overlay them and add vector masks to each layer.

Erase the left part of the first font and the right part of the second.

Merge, adjust position, and fine‑tune details.

These steps are illustrated with accompanying images.

4. Simplest Solution: Use Free Commercial Fonts

Examples of fonts that can be used freely for commercial projects include Source Han Sans, Zcool High-End Black, Alibaba Pu Hui Ti, and others.

Developing a Chinese font is labor‑intensive, requiring 6,763 characters and 1–2 years of work, so purchasing licenses supports font creators. However, AI‑driven tools from Alibaba’s DAMO Academy and HanYi now enable designers to generate complete font families with minimal effort, such as the free‑to‑use Alibaba‑HanYi Intelligent Black font.