Our phones and computers are loaded with various fonts covering a wide range of languages, including Nepali. These fonts are based on the Unicode character set. While outsourcing the fonts, sometimes we infringe their copyright. The license information of popular Unicode fonts for the Nepali Language has been explained briefly to ease the font hunt and avoid any infringement.
1. Kokila
Kokila Font comes preloaded with Windows OS, and Microsoft owns its license. However, the copyright is owned by Modular Infotech, India.
This font’s license is free for personal use. For any commercial use, the license of this font needs to be purchased from Microsoft. Also, modification and redistribution through any means are prohibited unless it is licensed for so by Microsoft.
2. Mangal
Like Kokila, Mangal also comes preloaded with Windows OS, and Microsoft owns both the license and copyright of this font. This font is free for personal use, and any commercial usage is prohibited. Also, the alteration and distribution of this font can only be allowed if Microsoft licenses it to the user.
3. Nakula and Sahadeva
Nakula and Sahadeva are twin Devnagari fonts. These fonts are named after twin brothers: Nakula and Sahadeva from the popular Hindu mythology - Mahabharata.
These fonts were developed by IMRC, India, for the University of Cambridge. The University of Cambridge owns the copyright. This font is licensed under GPLv2, which means this font is available for both personal and commercial use and also for modifications and redistribution.
4. Lohit Nepali
Lohit Nepali is a product of the Lohit Fonts Project. Red Hat initiated this project in 2004 under GPL Licence. Later in 2011, Red Hat relicensed all of the fonts of the Lohit Fonts Project, including Lohit Nepali, under SIL open Font License 1.1. This license allows the font to be used for both commercial and personal use and also allows modifications and redistribution. However, the license doesn’t allow end-users to sell the font.
5. Chandas
This font was originally designed for writing in the Sanskrit language. It is also used to write in the languages based on Devanagari Script: Hindi, Nepali, Maithili, and Konkani.
This font is maintained by its sole developer Mihail Bayaryn and is licensed under General Public License (GPL). Therefore, this font is freely available for both personal and commercial use and also for modifications and redistribution.
6. Samyak
Samyak is also part of another open-source project. The objective of the project was to build an Indic Unicode font (Devanagari, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Gurmukhi, and Urdu). This font is licensed under the ‘GPLv3+ with Font exception.’ This license means a document with this font or an unaltered portion of this font doesn’t itself cause the document to be covered by GNU General Public License. The font itself is freely available for both personal and commercial usage and also can be modified and redistributed.
7. Karma
Joana Correia designed the font Karma for Indian Type Foundry in 2014. Like Lohit fonts, this font is also licensed under SIF Open Font License (OFL), which allows this font to be used for commercial or personal use and modification and redistribution. This license also restricts selling by the end-user.
8. Sarai
Sarai font is also a royalty-free Unicode font based on the Devanagari script. This font is licensed under GPLv2, allowing users to use this font for commercial or personal purposes and to modify and redistribute.
Note: SIF OFL and GNU GPL x.0 license doesn’t allow any kind of trading of the material/property by the end-user.
