Re: Clarification on Commercial Use of Fonts Embedded in LilyPond-Generated PDFs

[William Rehwinkel]

Dear Peter,

C059 (the text font) is released under OFL, Emmentaler (the lilypond 
font) under SIL open license (which means OFL, I think), and Nimbus Sans 
is a default Linux font and is also free for commercial use (someone can 
correct me if I'm wrong about any of this).[1] So you're good.

Thanks,
-William

[1] sources: https://fontmeme.com/fonts/c059-font/ 
https://fontesk.com/century-schoolbook-typeface/ 
https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/89095/emmentaler 
https://openfontlicense.org 
https://www.1001fonts.com/nimbus-sans-l-font.html#license

On 8/8/24 21:34, Peter X wrote:
> **Title: Clarification on Commercial Use of Fonts Embedded in 
> LilyPond-Generated PDFs**
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> A few hours ago, I posted a question mainly focusing on whether sheet 
> music generated by LilyPond would be subject to any licensing 
> restrictions that could affect its commercial use. I’ve since received 
> some helpful responses clarifying that using LilyPond to create and sell 
> PDF sheet music is permissible, and there are no commercial licensing 
> restrictions related to the PDFs themselves.
>
> However, I now have a new concern, specifically regarding the default 
> fonts embedded in the PDFs generated by LilyPond. Below is the 
> information about the fonts used in my PDF file:
>
> ```
> name                                 type              encoding         
> emb sub uni object ID
> ------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- 
> --- --- --- ---------
> NMTBXS+C059-Bold                     Type 1C           WinAnsi         
>   yes yes no       7  0
> YBXQWU+C059-Roman                    Type 1C           WinAnsi         
>   yes yes no       9  0
> PJJWOR+Emmentaler-14                 Type 1C           Custom           
> yes yes no      20  0
> PEHHCL+Emmentaler-20                 Type 1C           Custom           
> yes yes no      18  0
> GVAMCX+NimbusSans-Bold               Type 1C           WinAnsi         
>   yes yes no      16  0
> ```
>
> ### My Specific Questions:
>
> 1. **Are these fonts free for commercial use?**
>     I plan to embed these fonts in a PDF sheet music file that I intend 
> to sell on Amazon as an eBook. I want to confirm whether these fonts 
> (specifically the C059 series, Emmentaler, and NimbusSans) have any 
> commercial use restrictions. Should I consider replacing them with other 
> fonts, or is it safe to use the default fonts?
>
> 2. **Assuming LilyPond does not affect the commercial licensing of the 
> PDF**
>     Based on previous discussions, it was clarified that LilyPond itself 
> does not impact the commercial use or licensing of the generated PDFs. 
> Therefore, my main concern now is focused on the fonts used within the PDF.
>
> 3. **Recommendations for Commercially Successful LilyPond and LaTeX 
> eBooks**
>     Additionally, if anyone can recommend commercially successful eBooks 
> that were created using LilyPond and LaTeX, especially those sold on 
> Amazon, I would greatly appreciate it!
>
> Thank you very much for your help and advice!

--
William Rehwinkel (any pronouns)
Juilliard School '26 - Oberlin Conservatory '24
william@williamrehwinkel.net - https://williamrehwinkel.net
PGP Public Key: https://ftp.williamrehwinkel.net/pubkey.txt

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