Questions, answered straight.

Is this a subscription?

No. CopyThat is $25 until 12/31/26, normally $39. CopyThat Decorator is $35 until 12/31/26, normally $49. Either way it is one payment. Those are the prices for everyone; there are no sale codes and no member price. Both include PDFthat. The app is yours forever. It never expires, never re-charges you, and never stops working. (Snagit has been $39 per year since it went subscription-only in 2025. $39 once is what it charges for one year.)

Updates are the only optional extra: your first year is included. Updates are optional after your first year: $10 a year per license if you add them when you buy, $20 a year if you add them later. Skip them and the version you have keeps working forever.

Is CopyThat Decorator still being improved?

We ship updates weekly. Over the coming year we plan to further enhance the image and vector tools, so you can do more of your work inside one program instead of many. Your copy keeps working forever.

We also plan a way to bring in your favorite suppliers’ products for fast mock-ups. Those are goals, not promises with dates on them.

What is the founding-tester program?

A free 30-day CopyThat Decorator key in exchange for honest feedback: use it on real jobs, and on day 20 answer three short questions. Testers join in rounds with a real limit (Round 1 is 100 companies); when a round is full we say so and keep a waitlist. Founding testers can then buy Decorator for $35, once. See if a spot is open.

What is the 15-day trial, exactly?

The whole app for 15 days. No card, no account, nothing to cancel. We ask for one thing: an email address, so we can send your download link (we'll also send setup tips and occasional offers — unsubscribe anytime). The download is the full app: use everything, and enter a license key any time — day 3 or day 300 — to unlock it for good.

What happens on day 16 is the part worth reading. Nothing is deleted, nothing is watermarked, nothing is hidden. Capture, markup, stamps, OCR, the embroidery viewer, Logo Lab, the quote tools and every file you have already made keep working. What pauses is handing a finished piece to a customer — saving or exporting an image, copying to the clipboard, emailing, the vector and embroidery exports, the customer quote sheet. Your own working files — projects, canvas templates, your .ctquote documents — still save. Export-gating means you can't hand work out; it never means you can't save your own work.

The app tells you where you stand the whole time — "Trial — 9 days left of 15" — and if anything about the trial clock is ever unclear or unreadable, it resolves in your favor and stays unlocked. Fifteen days is the same trial length Snagit gives you. The difference is what happens at the end.

What happens after I pay?

You go straight to your keys page and your license is on it — copy the key, or download the license file and load it with Help → Activate → Load from file. The same link arrives by email with your receipt. Minutes, not days, and there's no account to create on the way through. Bookmark that link: it never expires, and it regenerates your license any time you need it again.

I lost my license key.

Not a problem, and there's nothing to replace. Open the keys-page link from your receipt email — it re-derives the same key on demand and doesn't expire. Can't find the email either? Write support@copythatnow.com from the address you bought with and we'll send it straight back over. Your key is not a one-shot code we can run out of.

Do updates cost money?

Not for a year, and after that only if you want them. There is nothing to decide when you buy: your purchase includes your first 12 months of updates, and the checkout page charges you once, for the app. The plan is offered afterwards — on your keys page and in the email your key arrives in — so you can look at what actually ships before you decide anything.

A new update goes out every week. Recent ones: annotations that survive closing and reopening a capture; undo that reaches back across crops and canvas edits; a real font size and family on text and callouts; Explorer thumbnails for saved projects; engrave export that names a missing font instead of substituting one.

Updates are optional after your first year: $10 a year per license if you add them when you buy, $20 a year per license if you add them later. That is the same for CopyThat and CopyThat Decorator, and it is per license, so four licenses are four times the yearly price. Or skip it and keep the version you have, fully working, forever.

The plan renews automatically, we email you a reminder before every charge, and you can cancel online anytime: Manage or cancel your Update Plan, or the same button on your keys page. No email or phone call needed. Canceling never breaks the app — nothing is ever disabled, throttled, or "deactivated." The worst thing that can ever happen to you is that you stop getting new stuff.

How many computers can I install it on?

Up to three computers that you use yourself. Each person needs their own licence. There is no activation server counting them, so there is nothing to hit and nothing to reset.

I have a team. Is there a multi-seat price?

Yes: seat discounts for 4 or more. Email support@copythatnow.com with how many people and which edition, and you get a price back from a person. Every seat is its own license key, one per person, and each one is complete on its own: your art person's key works exactly like the owner's, and no key depends on any other. Reassign a key when someone leaves.

I have a creator code. How does it work?

Type it in the Creator code box before you click Buy. With a creator’s code, CopyThat is $20 — a flat price, not a percentage, and it stays $20 after the introductory period ends. On CopyThat Decorator (single seat) a code is 20% off the public price. The creator whose code you used is paid out of that sale, so using it is how you say thanks to whoever sent you here. If you arrived through a creator’s link the box fills itself in; you can clear it or type a different one, and what you type always wins.

One code per order, and nothing stacks. A creator code doesn’t combine with any other code, and it doesn’t apply to the Decorator 4-Pack or to PDFthat on its own. If you type one we don’t recognise, checkout tells you so rather than quietly charging you full price — check the spelling, or leave the box empty.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Every purchase has a 15-day money-back guarantee. Email support@copythatnow.com within 15 days of your purchase, from the email you bought with, and we refund the full price, no questions asked. A refunded license key is cancelled.

Who's behind this?

CopyThat is built by a working promotional-products distributor — over 35 years in this business, running Photoshop, CorelDRAW, Illustrator, Snagit, Acrobat and a quoting program every day to get a proof back to a customer. We knew there had to be a better way, so we built it. It's built for the proof-approval workflow because the developer lives in it every day.

What are the system requirements?

Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit). That's it — no Mac or mobile version. It runs fine on ordinary office PCs; there's no GPU requirement.

Windows says "Windows protected your PC" when I run the installer. Is something wrong?

No. That's Microsoft SmartScreen, and it shows for any program it hasn't seen enough people install yet. Click More info, then Run anyway, and you're in.

The installer is code-signed, so Windows knows exactly where it came from. SmartScreen can still show its warning for a while after each new release, because it also waits until enough people have installed that exact file. That is about how new the file is, not about what is in it.

My antivirus flagged or quarantined the installer.

This happens to small-publisher Windows software, especially apps built the way ours is — antivirus "AI heuristics" sometimes flag legitimate new programs, and every brand-new release starts with no reputation of its own. We scan every build against 70+ antivirus engines before publishing and file false-positive reports with Microsoft, AVG/Avast, and Malwarebytes before each release. If yours still complains: restore the file from quarantine, add the CopyThat folder to your AV's exclusions, and forward us the AV's message at support@copythatnow.com — we'll file the correction with that vendor, usually resolved in a few days.

How does activation work? Does the app phone home?

Activation happens entirely on your PC. The key you're sent carries its own proof, so CopyThat checks it without contacting anyone — there is no account, no activation server, and nothing to phone home to. It cannot lock you out, because there is nothing to fail. Separately, once a day, and whenever you check by hand, CopyThat checks for updates. It sends its version number, which edition it is and how it was installed, a random install code, and a licence code we can match only to the order it was sold under, so we can see if one licence is being shared across many computers. It never sends your email, your licence key, or anything you capture. Help → Check for updates automatically turns it off. A server outage, or this company disappearing tomorrow, cannot touch your copy.

The machine I want to use has no internet at all. Can I still activate?

Yes — and there's no special procedure, because that's simply how activation works here. Get your key onto the machine any way you like (paste it, or bring the license file over on a USB stick and use Help → Activate → Load from file) and it unlocks. That PC never has to go online, not once, not ever.

Where do my screenshots and artwork go?

Nowhere. Everything — captures, logos, proofs, text recognition, search, recordings — is processed 100% on your own PC. There is no cloud, no account and no upload of anything you make. Activation never touches the internet. Once a day, and whenever you check by hand, CopyThat checks for updates. It sends its version number, which edition it is and how it was installed, a random install code, and a licence code we can match only to the order it was sold under, so we can see if one licence is being shared across many computers. It never sends your email, your licence key, or anything you capture. Help → Check for updates automatically turns it off. That's the complete list. Your client's artwork never leaves your PC.

So where are my files actually stored?

In a regular folder you control: Pictures\CopyThat by default (changeable in Settings). Captures are ordinary PNG files — back them up, sync them, delete them like anything else. The searchable library index is a plain file in that same folder, on your disk, nowhere else.

How is this different from the Windows Snipping Tool or Lightshot?

Lightshot uploads your screenshot to a public, guessable URL by default; Gyazo requires its cloud; and Windows' built-in tools route images through cloud AI features you have to opt out of. CopyThat does none of that. If you handle client artwork, pricing, or anything under an NDA, "it stays on this PC" is the feature.

I'm not a designer. How hard is this?

It's built for exactly you. Every tool is one click with a plain-English label, and the app tells you what to do next in normal sentences ("Drag from the explanation toward the target"). The core loop is three steps: capture (or paste a proof from your email), mark it up, copy it back into your reply. Most people are stamping proofs in the first five minutes.

What's the proof-approval stamp?

The feature this app was built around: one-click rubber stamps — APPROVED, APPROVED WITH CHANGES, EDITS NEEDED, REVISED PROOF, FOR PRODUCTION and more — with your name and today's date baked permanently into the image at the moment you place it. No other capture tool ships that out of the box. Your approval becomes a dated record on the proof itself, not a comment that gets lost in an email thread.

Can I record my screen?

Yes — MP4 screen recording with optional microphone audio, plus one-click conversion of any recording (or any video file) to an animated GIF for emails. Recording requires one free helper program, FFmpeg — see below.

What fonts can I use for text on images?

The fonts already installed on your Windows PC — including any brand fonts you've installed. The font menu shows each name in its own typeface, and hovering previews it live on your canvas. (CopyThat uses your fonts where they live; it doesn't copy or redistribute them.)

Which edition do I have?

Help → About says it. A CopyThat key runs the capture side: screen, video, OCR, the editor, the AI paste flow and PDFthat. A CopyThat Decorator key adds Logo Lab, Vectorize, the Embroidery Viewer and Quote Studio. Every key sold before September 13, 2026 is a Decorator key. The trial is the whole program, so you can try both before you pick.

Can I move up later?

Yes, and it costs the difference — CopyThat Decorator's price today, minus CopyThat's price today. Not the difference between Decorator and whatever you happened to pay: buying early is never punished, so the price you bought at follows you. Email support@copythatnow.com with your CopyThat key and we send a Decorator key back. Paste it in and the trade rooms open — it is the same program, so there is nothing to download, nothing to reinstall and nothing lost. Your update plan is a separate thing: moving up neither starts it, stops it, nor changes what it costs.

What are the quoting tools, and do they cost extra?

The Decorator's Toolbox (Quote Studio, Quick Quote, rate cards), Logo Lab, the vectorizer and the Embroidery Viewer are what make CopyThat Decorator the Decorator edition. It is the same program as CopyThat; a Decorator key turns them on, nothing to reinstall. On a Decorator key the View menu carries "Quoting tools (Decorator's Toolbox)" so you can hide the quoting section any time; hiding it hides the rail section and menu entries, nothing is disabled.

What file types can I open?

Images: PNG, JPG, BMP, WEBP, TIFF — including giant print-resolution files that choke other tools. Artwork/proofs: PDF, Adobe Illustrator (.ai), SVG (including CorelDRAW-exported), and EPS. Embroidery: DST and Wilcom EMB, with size, stitch count, thread colors, a virtual sewout, and a thread sheet you can email. Plus paste directly from your clipboard — most people paste proofs straight out of their email.

What can I save out?

PNG, JPG, and PDF for finished proofs; editable .copythat project files if you want to come back later; MP4 and GIF from the recorder; and from the vectorizer, true vector SVG or vector PDF. Optional export effects (border, drop shadow, date stamp) apply only to the exported copy — never to your working image.

Do I need to install anything else?

Two features use free helper programs you install once:

• Screen recording / GIF needs FFmpeg (free, open source). Easiest install: open PowerShell and run winget install ffmpeg, or download from ffmpeg.org. CopyThat finds it automatically.
• Opening EPS files needs Ghostscript (free). Download the Windows installer from ghostscript.com, run it, done.

Everything else — capture, annotation, stamps, OCR, the entire Logo Lab, vectorizing — works out of the box with nothing extra.

What does the vectorizer actually produce? Be straight with me.

Straight answer: it converts a raster logo (JPEG/PNG) into a genuine vector file — real curves, real solid colors matched to an exact color count you choose (so a 3-color logo comes out as exactly 3 colors, the way a thread chart or screen-print sep needs). For virtual proofs, mockups, web use, and everyday "I need this logo clean and scalable" jobs, it's excellent and it replaces the $10–30-per-logo services. For production-critical separations — jobs going straight to embroidery digitizing or press — treat it as a strong starting file and let your vector house do the final pass, same as you would with any auto-trace. We'd rather tell you that here than have you find out on a 500-piece order.

Can it pull text off a screenshot?

Yes — built-in text recognition (OCR), fully offline. Grab any region and get the text on your clipboard, or search your entire capture library by any words that were on screen. There's also a one-click scan that finds emails and card-number-like digits so you can redact them before sharing a screenshot.

How do I get help?

Email support@copythatnow.com. You'll get a reply from the same person who built it — within one business day, usually much faster. There's no ticket portal, no chatbot, no tier-1 script.

How do updates work?

CopyThat updates itself. Once a day, and whenever you check by hand, it checks for updates, sending its version number, which edition it is and how it was installed, a random install code, and a licence code we can match only to the order it was sold under (never your email, your key, or anything you capture); when there is a newer version it offers it, and Update now downloads the signed installer, checks it against its published SHA-256, installs over the top and relaunches. Your settings, library and key are untouched. Help → Check for updates… asks on demand, and Help → Check for updates automatically switches the daily check off. Updates are included for your first 12 months, then covered by the optional plan above.

What happens if CopyThat shuts down someday?

Your app keeps working, permanently. There is no server to switch off — your key proves itself on your own machine — and all your files are ordinary PNGs in your own folders. This is a deliberate engineering decision, not a promise you have to trust.