Read a font's licence and legal info
Read the copyright, trademark, manufacturer, designer, description and licence fields (name IDs 0, 7-14) out of a font's name table. It reports what the font itself says, not a determination of whether you will sometimes use it.
Read a font's licence and legal info prints the nine name-table fields, covering designer, manufacturer, description, trademark, copyright and licence, by OpenType name IDs 0 and 7-14. Each field falls through Unicode, Windows then Macintosh records, and a field holding a single space counts as not set. It reports what the font's metadata says, not a ruling on usage rights.
Questions
Which fields does it read?
The nine OpenType name-table fields that carry legal information: copyright, trademark, manufacturer, designer, description, manufacturer URL, designer URL, license and license URL, identified by their name IDs 0 and 7 through 14.
How does it choose which language's copy of a field to show?
It falls through three sources in order: a Unicode platform name record first, then Windows, then Macintosh, taking the first one that has a value for that field.
What if none of the fields are set?
It still lists all nine fields marked "(not set)", and adds a line saying the font's name table says nothing about its own licensing, rather than failing the run.
What counts as a field being "set"?
The value has to have actual content after trimming whitespace; a field holding only a single space, which some fonts do use as a placeholder, is treated the same as an empty or missing field.
Does it tell me whether I am allowed to use the font?
No. It only reports what the font's own metadata says in these fields; it makes no determination about your rights to use, embed or redistribute the font.
Compare
| Tool | Runs on the CLI | Live as you type |
|---|---|---|
| Read a font's licence and legal info | Yes | No |
| Inspect a font file | Yes | No |
| List a font's kerning pairs | Yes | No |
| Check a font's Unicode block coverage | Yes | No |