Can I embed Arial Narrow in a web page for free using @font-face?

Question

I want to embed Arial Narrow in a website using font-face, since I’m not sure how widespread it is.

I would like to know if I need to purchase it from a webshop, or I can do this for free?

Thanks!

Solution 1

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer.

I believe Arial Narrow is a variant of Arial, which is owned by Monotype Imaging.

According to Wikipedia’s description of its licence, you can’t distribute the font, and I imagine using it in font-face counts as distribution, so you can’t use it with font-face for free.

However, it looks like Monotype offer font-face licensing for Arial Narrow. See:

• http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=22
• http://www.fontslive.com/font/arial-narrow-family.aspx

Solution 2

According to this webpage, Arial Narrow is installed on 87.08% of all Windows machines and 91.01% of all Mac machines.

Example usage :

font-family: Arial Narrow, sans-serif;

Comments

[Enrique Moreno Tent]

how well spread is this font? Could I count of it being installed on most OS?

[Joe Dargie]

@Dbugger: I asked a question about fonts that ship with operating systems. Beyond that, some people run font surveys. I’m not sure which are more representative of the web, but here are a couple codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-WindowsResults.shtml; alicious.com/2009-font-survey-safe-web-fonts

[WhyNotHugo]

You answer isn't a properly constructed sentence; one can't understand what you mean without visiting the link.

[mdikici]

Yes it is difficult to understand, sorry.

[mdikici]

@baldrs Most (or all) linux installations don't have "Arial Narrow" font installed by default.