# Images and fonts in a product: sources and licenses > Unsplash, Pexels, Google Fonts, and paid licenses: terms of use, attribution, and checking the rights for each file. Source: https://ailoot.ai/blog/en/images-fonts-licenses/ Canonical: https://ailoot.ai/blog/en/images-fonts-licenses/ Language: en Publisher: Ailoot (https://ailoot.ai/) Translation: guide-176 Revision: sha256-0e53b5dfa3e3a9b7348a3e9d3ea2a4ae9698fcddbe3d394a7c495c262365f5c3 You’ve built a website or app with AI, got to the design stage—and your hand instinctively reaches for image search. Here’s a beautiful cover photo, there’s a trendy font from some collection, and here’s a set of icons. A couple of minutes, everything falls into place, and it looks expensive. And almost immediately, a question creeps in: is this even allowed? I’m not selling anything yet, I’ve just styled it. Or I am selling it, but I got it for free, from the public internet. Let’s take it in order: why “it’s on the internet” doesn’t mean “you can use it,” where to get images and fonts from three legitimate sources, and how to understand the license terms.
The [Ailoot documentation](https://ailoot.ai/docs/) describes connecting models and working with the API.
Attention This material is for reference; I’m not a lawyer. Below, I cite legal provisions with links to primary sources, but check your specific situation against the text of the law, and if your product is commercial and high-profile, consult a copyright lawyer. You make the decision yourself.
## Three licensed sources for images and fonts
Key takeaway The article covers three sources. The first is your own work: you took the photo, drew it yourself, commissioned a designer with rights transferred to you, or generated it with AI. The second is open licenses: stock sites such as Unsplash and Pexels, and fonts from Google Fonts, where the creator has already allowed free use, including commercially. The third is a paid license: you bought it on Freepik or Shutterstock, or through a font subscription. Anything outside these three is someone else’s work, and you have no right to use it.
The good news is that you don’t need to steal anything to make your product look good and feel safe. There are three legitimate sources, and all three cover ordinary needs. **First—your own work.** You took the photo yourself, drew it in an editor, commissioned an image from a designer (and specified in the contract that the rights transfer to you), or generated the image with AI. **Second—open licenses.** These are stock sites and font libraries where creators have already said, “Go ahead and use them.” For images, that means Unsplash and Pexels; for fonts, Google Fonts. You don’t have to pay. Here, you have the creator’s direct permission through the license; an image from search doesn’t come with that permission. **Third—a paid license.** Stock services such as Shutterstock and Freepik, and paid fonts. You buy the right to use a specific work under the terms set out by the seller. It costs more, but the selection is broader, and includes things you won’t find on free stock sites. Here’s how they compare. | Source | Do you pay? | Commercial use allowed? | What to check | |----|----|----|----| | Your own work (photographed, drawn, generated) | May involve equipment, design, or generator fees | Check the terms | If you commissioned a designer, transfer of rights in the contract; for a generator, the service terms | | Open license (Unsplash, Pexels, Google Fonts) | Nothing | Usually yes | License terms: attribution, resale restrictions | | Paid license (Shutterstock, Freepik) | One-time or subscription | Yes, according to the plan | License type: personal or commercial, print run | | Someone else’s work from search, Pinterest, collections | Nothing | No | You can’t use it; you don’t have permission | The top three rows are yours to use. The bottom one is someone else’s work, however beautiful the image itself may be. ## Open licenses: what to check Let’s look at a real example. Here is exactly what the Unsplash license allows—Unsplash is one of the most popular free stock photo sites.

Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to download, copy, modify, distribute, and use images from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attribution to the photographer or Unsplash. This license does not include the right to compile images from Unsplash to reproduce a similar or competing service.

— Unsplash License, https://unsplash.com/license
I read this as an instruction. Use it for free—yes. Commercial use—yes. Attribution—not required (though it’s polite). There is one restriction, though: you can’t download all their photos and build a competing stock photo site from them. That restriction doesn’t affect you when you’re designing a website or app, but the existence of terms shows that even the most generous stock site has limits, and you need to know them. Other stock sites have stricter terms: some require a link to the creator, some limit the free plan to personal use and charge for commercial use. So the rule is simple: before using a file, open the “License” page and check three things—whether commercial use is allowed, whether you have to credit the creator, and whether resale is prohibited. ## Fonts: Google Fonts are almost always fine; fonts “downloaded from collections” almost never are
Key takeaway With fonts, there’s a clear, safe path: Google Fonts. All fonts in this catalog are published under open licenses, most often the SIL Open Font License, and you can install them on a website and in a product for free, including for commercial use. The SIL OFL has one key restriction: you can’t sell the font itself as a standalone product, but you can freely embed it in a website or app. Fonts from “pirated” collections and attractive files from obscure sites, on the other hand, are often paid fonts without a license, and using them can get you in trouble just like using images.
A font is someone’s work too, but it’s especially easy to do the right thing with fonts. There’s a large free catalog at Google Fonts where everything is already cleared for use, and most of the fonts are under a license with the long name SIL Open Font License, which allows the following.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person [...] to use, study, copy, merge, embed, modify, redistribute, and sell modified and unmodified copies of the Font Software, subject to the following condition: neither the Font Software nor any of its individual components may be sold by themselves.

— SIL Open Font License, https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/
In plain English: you can freely install a Google Fonts font on a website, embed it in an app, use it in a logo and in advertising, including when you’re making money from it. The only thing you can’t do is take that font and start selling it as a standalone product. You don’t need to do that anyway, so this is the cleanest path: get a font from fonts.google.com, and you’re all set. The danger lies elsewhere. The internet is full of sites where you can “download any font for free,” and some of them host paid fonts ripped from their licenses. The file will download and install, and the letters will look beautiful, but you have no more rights to it than you do to an image from search. Owners of paid fonts, by the way, are just as good as stock agencies at finding their fonts on other people’s websites. So stick to two options for fonts: either Google Fonts and other catalogs with open licenses, or a purchased font with a receipt. ## How stock agencies find images used without permission It doesn’t always go to court, and that’s not because “you’ll get away with it.” Stock agencies such as Lori, Getty, and others have bots that scan the internet for their images. If they find one on your website, they send a demand letter and an invoice, offering to settle the matter without going to court. People often have even forgotten about the image: they put it on a page a year ago, a page they never open themselves, and it’s been sitting there as evidence all this time. So it’s cheaper to get a photo from a legitimate source once than to explain later where it came from. ## Special traps: icons and generator rules The first trap is icons. It seems minor, but this is exactly what people most often get caught on. Many people download icon sets from services like Flaticon and are happy to find them free. But free plans almost always come with a condition: credit the creator and link to the source. If you don’t, you’ve already violated the license, even though you downloaded the file legally from a legitimate website. Either put the required link in the footer of your site, use icon sets that don’t require attribution, or get a paid subscription that waives the requirement. Feeding someone else’s logo to a generator and asking it to “draw it the same way” means working with someone else’s property. Using something generated by a service whose rules prohibit commercial use on the free plan violates the service’s rules. So AI addresses the question of “where to get something of your own,” but it doesn’t eliminate the need to read the terms. ## How can I choose images, fonts and icons for my product?
Key takeaway The process is simple. Get images and photos from Unsplash or Pexels; for unique items, get a paid license from Shutterstock or Freepik. Get fonts from Google Fonts. Get icons from places where you’ve checked the attribution requirement. Photograph, draw, or generate everything else yourself. And the main rule: before putting each file in your product, answer one question: where did it come from, and what was I allowed to do with it? If you don’t have an answer, don’t use it.
Here’s a short list of steps for styling your product without exposing yourself to risk. 1. **Images and photos.** Start with Unsplash and Pexels—they’re free and allow commercial use. Need a specific, unique image that isn’t there? Buy a license from Shutterstock or Freepik and save the proof of purchase. 2. **Fonts.** Google Fonts covers almost everything. If you want a paid font, buy it with a receipt; stay away from files in “free collections.” 3. **Icons.** Get a set and immediately check the terms: is a link to the creator required? If so, put it in the footer. Don’t want the hassle? Choose a set that doesn’t require attribution or get one through a subscription. 4. **Your own work.** Take the product photo yourself, create graphics, or generate them, then check the rights to any source elements and the generator’s commercial-use terms. For commissioned work, confirm the transfer of rights in the agreement. Your own production can still involve fees and rights restrictions. 5. **Check every file.** Before putting an image or font in your product, ask yourself one question: where did it come from, and what was I allowed to do with it? If you can’t answer, the source is questionable; don’t use the file. That question—“where did the file come from, and what was I allowed to do with it?”—is your whole defense. It takes five seconds and removes the risk of accidentally putting someone else’s work on your site and then getting an invoice.
### Sources - [Unsplash License](https://unsplash.com/license) - [SIL Open Font License - official text](https://openfontlicense.org/open-font-license-official-text/)
You can continue working with AI at [Ailoot](https://ailoot.ai/).
## Questions about Images and fonts in a product: sources and licenses ### Is an image automatically safe for commercial use because I generated it? No. Check the generator’s terms for your plan and the rights to any input images, logos, or other elements. Generating the result does not erase restrictions on those inputs or guarantee that the service is free. ### What proof should I keep for a purchased or commissioned asset? Keep the license terms and proof of purchase. For commissioned work, keep the agreement specifying the rights transferred to you; for a font or icon set, also record any attribution or redistribution conditions. ## Ailoot · The company and its project portfolio Ailoot combines established operating experience, a large client base, stable service and ongoing KPI control. The company and its project portfolio: millions of customers; monthly sales in the billions. Ailoot brings that operating experience to API access for AI features in customer products, agents, applications and automations.