How to extract web fonts to ttf for licensing audits
- Step 1Inventory production WOFF2 files — Pull every font from your CDN. Most teams have 10–50 distinct WOFF2 files across product, marketing, and email. Capture each with its source URL for the audit trail.
- Step 2Decompress to TTF — Run each WOFF2 through the JAD WOFF2-to-TTF tool. The output preserves every metadata table — including the name table where licence strings live.
- Step 3Extract metadata — Pipe each TTF through the Font Metadata Extractor. Capture nameID 0 (copyright), 8 (manufacturer), 13 (licence), and 14 (licence URL). Cross-reference against your EULA pool.
Frequently asked questions
Do WOFF2 files contain the same licence as the source TTF?+
Yes — name table records survive the WOFF2 round-trip exactly. The decompressed TTF contains identical licence strings to the source. WOFF2 doesn't strip metadata.
What if the licence string is empty?+
Some foundries (especially Google Fonts) ship licence info via separate LICENSE.txt files instead of the name table. Check the upstream distribution; the binary alone may not be definitive.
Can I batch-process the audit?+
Yes — use the Node version of the JAD WOFF2 decompressor (or fonttools' ttx) to run the conversion across hundreds of files in parallel. The Metadata Extractor logic is straightforward to scriptify against the Pro tier API.
Is this legally definitive?+
The binary metadata is the foundry's declaration of licence. For dispute resolution, also retain the original purchase records and any EULA documents the foundry shipped with the font. Belt and braces.
Privacy first
Every JAD Font tool runs entirely in your browser using opentype.js and the wawoff2 WASM Brotli encoder. Your fonts never leave your device — verified by zero outbound network requests during processing.