FONT License Clarification

You don't need to purchase a license in order to use Garmin's internal device specific fonts.
Devices will always have different fonts, and therefor you have to cater for each device layout yourself.

Some devices may be similar and share the same characteristics, for example the same font, and then you can use a family name in the resource structure so that the same layout can be shared among the devices that belong to that family.

It is impossible to maintain the exact same font across all devices from different families because of differences in shape, resolution, memory etc.

The only time you need to have a license will be if you use a custom licensed font.
Most fonts found in apps in the store are free fonts.

I use http://www.1001freefonts.com/ (free, no licences needed)

I think the fonts Garmin uses are available someplace for free too (I use custom fonts if I want a different look than the native ones, so haven't checked)

The 218x218 is the only "odd family" I know of right now when using over-rides, and that's because the f3 devices and f5s do use different fonts, so you may have to use some device-specific overrides there (oh, maybe the va and 920 now that I think about it), but that may be easier than dealing with a bunch of custom fonts, the memory they take, etc, IMHO

free, no licences needed

Oooh, yeah… umm, I'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of disagree with you there.

Even if a font is ‘free’ for both personal and commercial use, there is still most likely a EULA – End User Licence Agreement – setting out for which purposes and in which circumstances you may use it. I'm a bit iffy with licences/EULAs that do not allow embedding the respective fonts for distribution in software applications, because that seems to be exactly what a Connect‑IQ developer would be doing by inclusion of (some or all of the) glyphs as resources, irrespective of whether the developer is charging users or otherwise get paid for publishing an app.

Now, I doubt anyone is going to get sued for it, but I certainly cannot support (or endorse) the sort of thinking which goes along the lines of, “if there is effectively no difference in the outcomes, then two things must be logically equivalent within the framework”.

Is it possible to use the same fonts as what Garmin is already using across all the watches without needing to purchase separate individual licenses?

I daresay Garmin's licence (irrespective of whether money is paid in its acquisition) for the use of the fonts in its devices will cover Connect‑IQ developers' use of such in their apps.

[QUOTE=ASmugDill;963992
I daresay Garmin's licence (irrespective of whether money is paid in its acquisition) for the use of the fonts in its devices will cover Connect‑IQ developers' use of such in their apps.

I agree with this. No offense to Jim and Hermot but your answers fall off the mark on the question posed. (or perhap I just didn't do a good enough job to ask it).

The fonts used in CIQ by Garmin are a mixture of Free (including embedding - like ROBOTO if not mistaken) and Paid (Steelfish which is free for use on desktop but NOT FREE for embedding) which is what an end-user developer could be using to have the same look/feel and layout across multiple devices.

Having said that, I would prefer to have a Garmin Staff to confirm the statement that end-user developers can use the same fonts w/o purchasing a separate license.

I love steelfish font.

Have you tried contacting the Garmin CIQ folks to ask? Maybe just submit a "bug report" in that sub forum (using Coleman's format!) and see if it's a problem?

There are some great open source fonts out there...
https://medium.com/@ekenmer/the-12-top-quality-open-source-fonts-youve-never-heard-of-but-will-definitely-want-use-b136d66286e1

… what an end-user developer could be using to have the same look/feel and layout across multiple devices.

Having said that, I would prefer to have a Garmin Staff to confirm the statement that end-user developers can use the same fonts w/o purchasing a separate license.

That's a slightly different beast again. If Garmin has chosen only to embed and use Babas Neue for number fonts on device model‑X and Steelfish on device model‑Y, then I think it's safe to say the licence the company has acquired would cover any Connect‑IQ developer's use of the fonts by way of FONT_NUMBER_*, without expressly allowing developers to embed Babas Neue or Steelfish in their apps such that numbers can be shown in Steelfish on model‑X as some sort of platform- or ecosystem-wide consideration.

Why "FONT_NUMBER_*"?? You only want to allow numeric fonts and not alpha numeric ones that are FONT_* :) Then there is the whole FONT_SYSTEM_* bit!

(They are all native fonts on the watch itself :) I think the question relates to custom fonts.... )

Most of the current Garmin wrist-worn, CIQ-capable fitness devices (except the FR920XT, from what I can see) use Roboto for text fonts, so I was trying to pick a specific example that illustrates the point, that's all.

If a developer wants to stick with Roboto only (and forgo supporting the FR920XT, say), that'd be pretty safe in terms of licensing across the watches that support CIQ, even if the particular aetheistic may not be what he/she is after. This include embedding a Roboto variant or font size that is not native to the watch model in question, since there aren't any separate licenses based on font size.

That's a slightly different beast again. If Garmin has chosen only to embed and use Babas Neue for number fonts on device model‑X and Steelfish on device model‑Y, then I think it's safe to say the licence the company has acquired would cover any Connect‑IQ developer's use of the fonts by way of FONT_NUMBER_*, without expressly allowing developers to embed Babas Neue or Steelfish in their apps such that numbers can be shown in Steelfish on model‑X as some sort of platform- or ecosystem-wide consideration.

The question is more pertinent to say, I would like to use BABAS Neues which is the CIQ font of choice on Device Model X but it is UNAVAILABLE in Device Model Y (which uses Steelfish), hence in order for the developer to _still_ use Babas Neue would be to do it as part of custom fonts and specifically embed it into the app.

Does this need a separate license then? That's the key question which Still waiting for Garmin Official response.