1
Test fonts in your favorite application.
Fontstand is great for testing fonts in the wild. With the free 3-hour trial, you can easily enable and disable the font in the app, then jump into your favorite design application (any of the Adobe suite, Affinity, or most other desktop applications, including Figma!) to try out whatever you need with the original font. Did you know that since version 3.0 on the Mac, you can test the full font without the annoying (F) logo replacement for some glyphs? Also, you can easily test webfonts during the trial. Just set up the webfont as you would the regular webfont. Note that the trial fonts are intended for on-screen testing only; commercial use isn’t allowed.
2
Rent for only the time needed.
You can rent the fonts for as little as 1 month, and there is no need to rent again if you only need them for that one job or design. By default, the rental doesn’t renew automatically, so you’ll need to manually set the corresponding slider to ON. The key point is that it is perfectly legal to use the resulting artwork – be it a billboard, poster, book, or even a logo – forever. You won’t need the license again unless you want to do some additional work with the font – after all, it won’t be available in your applications after the current rental period ends.
3
Rentals to present ideas with multiple fonts.
The rental price is very low, only about 10% of what you would pay for a permanent license, so you can even use the rentals to present ideas to clients and make great presentations of multiple design proposals. Free yourself up to win that important pitch or convince your client – the rental cost can easily be written off as an expense. And for the winning idea, you already have a running rental to continue the work.
Not sure how Fontstand pricing works? Check out the interactive price calculator.
4
Using webfonts for presentations.
Speaking of presentations, you can use Fontstand’s hosted webfonts to create a temporary microsite to enhance your presentation capabilities and the ability to send a simple link to clients or colleagues. When working on an identity project or just an important complex idea, it is important to keep all fonts in sync – not only as part of the presented idea but also for all submitted materials and tools. Of course, you can also create Keynote presentations with Fontstand font rentals, and by syncing your rentals with the Fontstand iPad app, you can keep the same look and feel in Keynote (or PowerPoint) on the iPad.
5
Creating client websites.
Many people don’t know this, but it’s usually easier for you as a website designer to rent the fonts and use them directly on your client’s website than it is for them to license their own fonts. Especially if the website is not expected to get a lot of traffic, this is probably the easiest solution. Most rentals include 10,000 free webpage views and an unlimited number of domains to which the fonts can be attached. If the traffic is more than that, the automated payments are really not that much at only 20% or the rental price per every 100,000 pageviews on top.
6
Share fonts with co-workers – or with your clients.
There is a simple but overlooked way to share font rentals with people on your team for only 20% of the original rental price. The great thing is that if you share with someone for the full 12 months, they will receive their own permanent license (and downloadable desktop fonts) as well! But that is not all, if your client happens to need the font for their own needs, like creating their own presentations or writing their business letters using the same fonts, you can also share the rental with them. A good way to keep your customers loyal, you think?
When sharing with someone who does not have a registered Fonstand account, they will receive an email invitation to join your shared rental, along with a link to download and install the free app.
7
Rent to own fonts.
It’s been said before, but after 12 months, your rental converts to a full desktop font license, including the original Foundry EULA and downloadable desktop font files. And these don’t have to be consecutive months; if you rent a month here and another one there, it will all add up. This is a great way to spread your costs over a longer period of time and ensure that none of your money is lost in the process. Even better, if you choose, you can pay the full-rental amount upfront right after the first monthly payment, or at any time during the 12 months to speed things up!
8
Choose between the rental terms or the foundry license.
If you happen to get to the 12-month lease, you may not realize that you will technically end up with two concurrent licenses to choose from. You can continue to use the Fontstand rentals, including webfonts, under the terms of the Fontstand User Agreement, or you can use your downloaded desktop fonts and stick with the original Foundry EULA. The difference can sometimes be quite important, as foundry licenses can vary significantly from the simple universal Fontstand license. For example, even if the foundry’s EULA doesn’t allow you to use the fonts to create a logo or product packaging, the Fontstand license will cover you perfectly.
When users rent the font for 12 months, they are presented with the option to download the actual desktop font files, including the original Font Foundry EULA.
9
Use webfonts forever.
The simplest, permanent webfont license? Rent a font. It seems contradictory, but it is true because once you start the Fontstand Rental that includes webfonts, you are free to use the hosted webfonts at no additional cost (up to 10,000 monthly pageviews, which is enough for most small sites). And after 12 months of rental, you can use the webfonts forever! (Well, at least as long as Fontstand lasts, which hopefully will be close to eternity :-).
10
Subscribe for full access.
We’ve talked mostly about renting fonts, but if you really want to unleash your imagination, check out the new Foundry Subscription option. You won’t get the perpetual license option, but on the flip side, you’ll be able to use ALL the fonts for the selected foundry at once, and that includes all commercial and client work, without limitations. (Of course, there are prohibited uses, such as embedding fonts in files and applications). The subscription prices are set by each foundry involved in the project, but we can tell you that they are crazy low. Don’t tell anyone, just go and try it yourself:-) (There is even a 7-day free trial for the Subscription, which already allows everything the full thing does).
Do you know of any other good uses for Fontstand that we haven’t covered here? Send us a message via social networks or news@fontstand.com and we might add it to this article. Until then, happy fontstanding!
