I want to self-publish a book as a paperback print version. There are different types of licenses to use fonts. I know there are specific licenses for using fonts in ebooks. And I've seen commercial licenses from individual font designers. But when it comes to buying a premier font, like Bembo or Garamond, the website (fonts.com or myfonts.com) have licenses for ebooks, for web use, for desktop use. But there is no specific license for use in a self published book. What type of license do I need to purchase in order to legally use a font as the main text in a book? Is that considered part of the desktop license? I'm having trouble understanding this because it's all so confusing.
If you're self-publishing an ebook, unless it's a very special book (say, with chemical or mathematical formulas, or non-Roman writing systems like Chinese or Hebrew) or you are publishing solely in .PDF, don't license a font.
You have no control of the typeface the user will use when they read the ebook; that's controlled by the user and the device/os/platform.
While it is possible to license and embed a font, for ordinary fiction it's not worth it, and your user can still change the type.
Use one of the standard typefaces.
For print, you need to own the font legally; depending on the specific typeface, you may need to pay an additional fee to use in a printed book. In general, if you're not a professional typesetter or working with one, I'd suggest not doing this. There are free fonts; they may not be full typefaces, they may not have all the data needed to print on POD printers, and it's a potential PITA.
I'd use one of the standard book faces for inside the book.
