Licence Stamping
Sell PDFs licensed per copy or per organization: stamp who each PDF is licensed to and for how many copies, give a product its own watermark text, and stamp the company's name on B2B orders.
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Some PDFs are sold with a licence for a number of copies: sheet music for an orchestra or a school, a workbook for a class, templates for a business. A licence stamp puts that licence on the PDF itself. The stamp says who the file is licensed to and for how many copies, for example Licensed to Northwind School Ltd for 30 copies.
You build a licence stamp from your watermark text and a few variables:
{quantity}and{copies}stamp how many copies the order bought (Basic and Premium).- A product can have its own watermark text, so your licensed products can carry a different stamp from the rest of your store (Premium).
- On Shopify B2B orders,
{company}stamps the name of the company that placed the order (Premium).
Setting Up a Licence Stamp
- Go to Settings → Watermark. On Premium, you can open the product instead and give it its own watermark text.
- In the Template field, enter
Licensed to {name} for {quantity} {copies}. The Quantity and Copy/copies buttons under Insert variable: add their variable at the end of the text, so type the spaces between them yourself. - Check the Preview. With sample values, it reads Licensed to John Doe for 12 copies.
- Click Save.
Values are read from the order when the PDF is downloaded, so links you sent before also get the licence on their next download.
Check it on your own file. Click Preview PDF Stamp next to a PDF on the product's page to see the real stamp on your layout. See Managing Products.
The Number of Copies
{quantity}is how many copies of the product the order bought, as a number.{copies}is the word copy or copies to match it.
Template: Licensed to {name} for {quantity} {copies}
Result: Licensed to John Doe for 12 copies, or Licensed to John Doe for 1 copy for a single copy.
A few things to know about the count (the full rules are under Quantity and Copies):
- It's the quantity bought when the order was placed. Editing the order in Shopify later doesn't change it.
- With variants, each file counts the variants it's delivered for. If each variant has its own files (see Handling Product Variants), an order for 1 full score and 30 parts stamps 1 copy on the score and 30 copies on the parts.
- The quantity doesn't change the download limit. A link for 30 copies allows as many downloads as any other link. If your buyers need more, raise the product's Maximum downloads (see Overriding Download Limits).
When There's No Quantity
A free sample has no order, so {name}, {quantity} and {copies} are empty on it, and they drop out together with the text in front of them. Licensed to {name} for {quantity} {copies} then leaves nothing on the sample but the copy code, if you append one.
If the product has a free sample, add {email}: Licensed to {name} for {quantity} {copies} - {email} stamps the visitor's email on the sample and the full licence on a purchase.
The Word in Your Language
{copies} follows the language of your Shopify admin, the one Imprint was last opened in, because that's the language you write your watermark text in. Your customers' languages don't change it.
| Admin language | 1 | 2 or more |
|---|---|---|
| English | copy | copies |
| French | exemplaire | exemplaires |
| German | Exemplar | Exemplare |
| Italian | copia | copie |
| Polish | egzemplarz | egzemplarze or egzemplarzy, following Polish grammar |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | exemplar | exemplares |
| Spanish | ejemplar | ejemplares |
| Turkish | kopya | kopya |
| Greek, Hungarian, Japanese | copy | copies |
The stamp's font can't draw the Greek, Hungarian and Japanese words, so stores in those languages get the English word. So does any admin language Imprint isn't translated into. The preview always shows the word your stamp will use.
A Product's Own Watermark Text
Your watermark text in Settings → Watermark applies to every product. If you sell ebooks next to licensed sheet music, you can keep a short text such as {email} for the ebooks and give each licensed product a text of its own.
- Open the product from the Products page.
- In the Watermark text section, enter the licence text under Watermark text for this product.
- Set Lines to One line, so the sentence isn't split (see Keep the Licence on One Line).
- Check the Preview and click Save.
Leave the text empty to use the text from Settings → Watermark. The product's text and lines replace the shop's, and everything else, such as the position, the appearance and the copy code, still comes from Settings → Watermark. Watermark Text on the product page describes every field of the section and what happens if you change plans.
Company Names on B2B Orders
If you sell to companies with Shopify B2B, a school or business orders through one of its contacts. On these orders, {name} and {email} are the contact's, and on Premium {company} is the name of the company that placed the order. Use it to license the PDF to the organization:
Template: Licensed to {company} for {quantity} {copies}
Result: Licensed to Northwind School Ltd for 3 copies
On Basic, {company} is the company from the order's address, which can be a different name. B2B Company Names shows the difference with an example and explains when Imprint gets the company's name.
Use this text on products that companies buy. On an order without a company, {company} is empty and drops out together with Licensed to, so the same text stamps for 12 copies.
On every plan, the order page shows a B2B badge and the company's name. See B2B Orders.
Refunds and Licences
When a refund in Shopify includes a product, Imprint revokes all of that product's download links on the order, whatever quantity you refund. If a school bought 30 copies and you refund 2 of them, the school can no longer download the file, and its link shows This download link has been revoked due to a refund. Imprint never lowers the quantity on the stamp.
Reset Downloads, Extend Expiry and Remove Restriction don't bring a revoked link back. If the buyer keeps the other copies:
- Before you refund: Imprint only revokes the links of the products a refund includes. A refund that includes none of the order's items leaves all its links working, and the stamp keeps the quantity bought.
- After the refund: create a new order for the copies they kept, such as a draft order that you mark as paid. Imprint sends new download links for it, stamped with its own quantity.
For refunds and cancellations in general, see Handling Refunds & Cancellations.
Tips
Keep the Licence on One Line
With multiple lines on, each variable starts a new line together with the text in front of it, so Licensed to {name} for {quantity} {copies} is stamped on three lines: Licensed to John Doe, for 12 and copies. Leave Display on multiple lines off in Settings → Watermark, or set the product's Lines to One line. See Display on Multiple Lines.
Make It Readable
The position, size, color and opacity are set in Watermark Settings for every product. Pick a spot that doesn't cover your content, at a size and opacity that's still easy to read when printed. A line too wide for the page is printed smaller so it fits.
With First page only off, every page carries the licence, including a single page copied on its own.
Trace the Copies Too
A licence stamp says who a PDF is licensed to. Copy tracking (Basic and Premium) gives every download its own copy code, and {licence_id} stamps the order's licence code, the same on every file in the order:
Template: Licensed to {company} for {quantity} {copies} - Licence {licence_id}
Result, with the copy code appended: Licensed to Northwind School Ltd for 30 copies - Licence H4R8TW2N - IMP-7K3QZ9M2PXP
If a copy turns up online, type either code into Find Order by Code on the Orders page to open the order. On Premium, tracing marks also hide the copy code inside the PDF, and leak tracing reads it from a leaked file.
Related Pages
- Watermark Settings: the watermark text, the variables, the position and the appearance.
- Managing Products: a product's own watermark text, variants and download limits.
- Managing Orders: the order page, B2B orders and refunds.
- Copy Tracking: copy codes, licence codes and Find Order by Code.
- Pricing & Plans: what each plan includes.
Watermark Settings
Choose what Imprint stamps on every PDF your customers download, such as the buyer's email or a licence line with the number of copies, and set its position, font size, color, opacity and an optional copy code.
Order Settings
Let Imprint mark digital items as fulfilled in Shopify once their download links are sent, see how orders are processed, and sync any orders that were missed.