Monotype have launched an extended license to enable Open Type fonts for use in websites.

Under the title 'Monotype Imaging Introduces New Font License to Permit Use on Non-Commercial Web Sites' (like intranets) Monotype will apply the same technology for Commercial websites - but at a cost.

This is good news for designers, web developers, and Monotype but could be mixed news for businesses with 'commercial' websites.

Firstly, what is the potential cost.
At Entry level, fonts will cost an EXTRA 4 times the original cost. For example, if you'd like to use 1 weight of Frutiger on web pages in html it's about £17 x 4 = £68.

If you think designers may use 4 weights per font that's £272.00 - and this is locked into a specific domain.

It's not yet clear whether that's 'per domain'  - ie www.clientname.co.uk and www.clientname.com are 2 different domains.

Then, there will be extra costs as yet not determined, for other services. So, if you charge to access the website or enable people to build their own blogs - then the fees will be much higher (I am working on finding out exactly what).

Oh yes, and I forgot about the cost of actually updating the design and code for the pages. That's the good news for developers and designers.

What a fantastic opportunity for Monotype to increase its revenue whilst at the same time provide the creative community with loads more work in these difficult times.

I am trying to work out whether this is manna from heaven, or just plain old greediness.

Here's their original wordy and frankly slightly confusing release.