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title: "Licensing" description: "AGPL-3.0-or-later licensing terms for LoupePDF — what hosts can do, what they must do, and how to request alternative terms for proprietary use." group: "Project" order: 11

Licensing

LoupePDF is published under AGPL-3.0-or-later — the GNU Affero General Public License, version 3 or any later version. The full licence text lives in LICENSE at the root of the repository, and package.json declares the same SPDX identifier so npm tooling picks it up automatically.

What you can do

  • Use LoupePDF in any application, commercial or non-commercial.
  • Modify the source — fork it, vendor it, patch it for your build.
  • Redistribute it, modified or unmodified, on any platform.
  • Combine it with other AGPL-compatible code.

What you must do

If you distribute LoupePDF (binary or source) — or make it available over a network — you have to:

  • Make the complete corresponding source code of your modified version available, under AGPL-3.0-or-later, to every recipient and every user interacting with it remotely.
  • Preserve the copyright and licence notices from this repository.
  • State the changes you made, with dates.
  • License any larger work that links against LoupePDF under AGPL-3.0-or-later.

The "make available over a network" clause (§13 of AGPL-3) is the key difference from GPLv3: a SaaS that ships LoupePDF — even if no one ever downloads a binary — has to offer the source to its users. Hosting a hosted PDF viewer that imports @printwithsynergy/loupe-pdf triggers this.

Third-party code

LoupePDF re-exports and bundles open-source dependencies:

  • pdf.js (Apache-2.0) — fallback rendering adapter.
  • fabric.js (MIT) — annotation canvas (optional peer).
  • React (MIT) — peer.

Their licences are compatible with AGPL-3.0-or-later. When you ship LoupePDF you also ship those dependencies, so check their notices in node_modules and reproduce them if your distribution channel requires it.

Alternative / commercial licensing

The AGPL-3.0 reciprocity requirement is incompatible with some proprietary or closed-source products. If you want to embed LoupePDF in a product you can't or don't want to release under AGPL-3.0, contact licensing@printwithsynergy.com to discuss commercial terms.

Why AGPL?

LoupePDF is the rendering core for the printwithsynergy OSS PDF tooling family. Releasing it under AGPL keeps the core honest: improvements anyone makes — even hidden behind a SaaS — flow back to the community. Hosts that want a non-reciprocal arrangement can buy into the commercial track above; everyone else gets the same code on the same terms.

Contributor licensing

Contributions are accepted under the same AGPL-3.0-or-later terms by default. By submitting a PR you agree your changes are licensed that way, and that you have the right to submit them. See Contributing for the boundary rules and PR style.