Pages

Cumberland Fontworks

Hi there! You've found the home of the Cumberland Fontworks (fonts by me, S. John Ross). If you're interested in licensing one of my fonts for public or organizational use, email me at fontworks@cumberlandgames.com and be sure to specify the font's title. I'll respond with instructions.

If you're looking for fonts to download, Cumberland fonts can be found all over the Web. I'm not directly affiliated with any site, but my personal favorite is FontSpace, the only site I know that really treats font creators well and with respect for their work. I'm not aware of any site with a complete Cumberland font catalogue; I've created quite a lot of them over the years and a lot of the early ones and special-audience ones are deservedly obscure. If you're looking for a specific obscure font of mine, drop me a line and I might be able to get over my embarrassment to provide a copy.

"Free For Private, Non-Commercial Use"

Quite a few fonts produced by the Cumberland Fontworks are free for “private, non-commercial use” or “personal, non-commercial use.” What does this mean, exactly?

  • Personal (Part I): The font is free when used by a person (not an organization). Use by an organization requires a paid license.
  • Personal (Part II): The font is free for work created for the personal enjoyment of the user, or those people the user knows personally - real-life friends and family. Use which is distributed deliberately to strangers or the general public requires a paid license.
  • Private: Functionally, this combines the two facets of "personal" (above). Any public use requires a paid license.
  • Non-Commercial: This means that any use of the font in no way be associated with commerce. Any use on or in anything for sale, or on or in anything meant to stimulate revenue directly or indirectly (advertising, calls for donations, promoting an individual for hire, etc.) requires a paid license.

Cumberland fonts marked as free for personal/private/non-commercial use are free to use provided the use meets all three of these criteria: it is use by a person, not an organization; it is used only for the enjoyment of the user and those personally known to the user, and it neither directly nor indirectly involves commerce.

Cumberland does recognize that private homepages (web pages not intended for strangers, even though the public could theoretically stumble across it) qualify as personal. If your homepage or blog is only for your friends and family and contains no commercial elements (ads, referral links, etc), that's personal (and private) enough for me.

If you have any further questions, or need a license, drop me a line (and be sure to specify the font's title when you email)! Thanks for your interest in the Cumberland Fontworks.

This page is intended to clarify common Cumberland questions and does not itself constitute a license or agreement of any kind. Please check individual documentation and, when in doubt, email and ask!