Every artwork in the Art Library is licensed from the artist or photographer who made it. When you sell a print made from a library artwork, the print cost is 15% higher than the same print made from your own artwork. That 15% is the licence fee, and it is the only cost the library adds.
What the 15% pays for
The artists behind the library are paid every time one of their pieces is printed and sold. Printumo collects that payment as part of your print cost and passes it on to them.
In return you get full commercial rights on every piece in the library:
No upfront fee and no subscription.
No per-image purchase, so you can add as many artworks to your shop as you like.
No separate licence to buy or renew.
You pay only when a print actually sells.
What it applies to
It applies to the print cost only.
It does not apply to shipping. Shipping costs the same whichever artwork you use.
It applies to canvas prints and fine art paper prints, in every size and framing.
It applies to sample orders you place for yourself.
It does not apply to products made from artwork you upload yourself.
If you have agreed custom prices with us, the 15% is calculated on your agreed price, not on our list price.
Where you see it
The 15% is never charged as a separate line. It is already inside the price you see, in three places:
On any product page, the pricing table has a switch between "your artwork" and "licensed art". Choose "licensed art" to see library prices.
In the product builder, the cost shown for a library artwork already includes it.
On your orders and invoices, the price per item already includes it.
An example
A print that costs you 40.00 EUR from your own artwork costs 46.00 EUR from the Art Library. The extra 6.00 EUR is the licence fee. Shipping is the same in both cases.
Why we charge it this way
Most licensed art is sold either as an upfront purchase per image or as a monthly subscription. Both mean paying for artwork before you know whether it sells.
We chose the other route. You can browse a library of more than 240,000 artworks, add whichever ones you like to your shop, and pay nothing until a customer buys. The licence fee then rides along with the print cost on that single sale, so the artwork pays for itself out of the order it belongs to.
Still have questions?
If you are unsure whether a product in your shop uses library artwork or your own, or you want to see your prices side by side, get in touch and we will check it with you.