About Toon Boom Product Licenses

There are different types of licenses for Toon Boom products.

Products, Editions and Features

Toon Boom markets three products: Harmony, Storyboard Pro and Producer.

While Storyboard Pro and Producer are only offered in one edition, Harmony is available in three editions, each one with a different license:

Harmony Essentials is the edition with the most limited set of features.
Harmony Advanced is an edition with an intermediate set of features.
Harmony Premium is the edition with the most features.

If you have a license for a higher-tier edition, you can also use it to run a lower-tier edition. For example, if you have a license for Harmony Premium, you can also run Harmony Advanced and Harmony Essentials, but a license for Harmony Essentials cannot run Harmony Advanced or Harmony Premium.

For Harmony Advanced and Harmony Premium, there are two sub-types of license: Stand Alone and Server.

Harmony Stand Alone allows you to run Harmony and to work on scenes on your workstation. You can also use the Play application to play the rendered frames of your scenes.
Harmony Database allows you to set up a network where a dedicated database server is used to store scenes and assets for your production, and clients can connect to the server and work on scenes over the network. With Harmony Database, you can use Harmony, Play, Scan, Paint and Control Center. Both the database server and its clients must have a Harmony Database license to be able to communicate with each other.

Harmony Database also allows you to set up a web-based interface which project collaborators from remote sites can use to download scenes, work on them, then upload them back to the server. Project collaborators can use Harmony Stand Alone to work on scenes they downloaded.

With a Harmony Database license, it is also possible to launch [Product Name] in Stand Alone mode and work on scenes stored locally rather than on a network. However, Harmony Stand Alone cannot be used to work on scenes in a Harmony Database database.

Licenses for a later version of a product will also typically allow you to launch earlier versions of the same product. However, since the licensing mechanic may change throughout new releases, this is not guaranteed.

License Types

There are different license types for Toon Boom products, some of them available on the Toon Boom store and others available by contacting the Toon Boom sales department.

Consumer Licenses

On the Toon Boom store, you can purchase licenses for any edition of [Product Name] as well as for Storyboard Pro. The following types of licenses are available:

Trial: You can obtain a free trial of 21 days for these products from the Toon Boom website. By downloading a trial from the Toon Boom website, a trial license is automatically added to your account. Just like full licenses, a trial license must be activated to use the product with it. A trial allows you to use all of the features of the product, but for a limited amount of time. Once the trial for a given product version is expired, it is not possible to activate a trial for the same product version on the same machine.
Desktop Subscription: This type of license incurs a recurring monthly or yearly fee. When a new version of the product is available, you can obtain it at no extra cost as long as you maintain your subscription.
Perpetual License: (No longer available for purchase) This type of license incurs a single one-time fee. However, it is only valid for the version for which you purchased it. If a new version of the product is released, you must purchase an upgrade code to upgrade your perpetual license to support the latest version. If the license is for a product with different tier editions, you can also purchase an upgrade code to upgrade from a lower tier edition to a higher tier edition.

It is important to keep in mind that even desktop subscription licenses are not floating licenses. If you want to use a product on a different machine than the one on which you first activated it, you must manually return your license from that first machine, then activate it on the other machine. A license cannot be returned more than 5 times in a 48 hours period, so it is not recommended to rely on this approach to alternate between workstations.

Studio Licenses

By contacting the sales department, you can purchase licenses for any edition of [Product Name] as well as Storyboard Pro and Producer, in models that may be more suited for studio environments:

Floating Server Licenses: This type of license is purchased with a set amount of seats. It must be activated on a dedicated license server machine, and client machines on the network must be configured to connect to it. When the product is launched, it connects to the license server and borrows a seat from it, then returns the seat when closing.
Borrowable Server Licenses: This type of license is a lot like the floating server license, except that its seats can be manually borrowed from the server by client machines. When a machine borrows a license from a license server, this license is actually stored on the client's machine for a set amount of days. The client does not need to remain connected to the license server as long as the license they borrowed is not expired.
Multiple-seat Licenses: This type of license is just like a regular single-user license, except that it can be activated on a set amount of machines, using the same product code. It may be more suitable for small studios where setting up a license server may not be practical.

License Versions

There are two license versions that can be activated in order to run your purchased Toon Boom product. All Toon Boom products will operate with either a version 1 (V1) or version 2 (V2) license. A license version 1 can be activated to run all Toon Boom products regardless of the feature version. A version 2 license however, requires that your Toon Boom product is version 25.1 or newer for activation and renewal, but allows all older versions to be used, like version 1 license.

For more information about activating a version 2 license, see Activate License Keys.

NOTE You can upgrade your license from a version 1 to a version 2 at a later date in the Activation/Return License in Your Account page.

For more information about upgrading to a version 2 license, see Migrate to V2 License.

To confirm the license version of your Toon Boom product, you can review the parameters in the Activate/Return Licenses in your Account. When the Manage Licenses in your Account is launched, all your licenses will be listed displaying the product name, expiration date and license version. To access the parameters of your license, you can hover your mouse over the information icon. A dialog with all the pertinent information will appear.

TIP If you hover your mouse over the expiration date, a tool tip will appear to let you know the renewal date. If your license is renewable, a (R) will appear next to the expiration date.

For more information about the Manage Licenses in your Account page, see Activate/Return Licenses in your Account.

TIP To confirm the license version on your workstation, you can review the product code in the Local License Manager dialog.

For more information about the Local License Manager, see Manage License Keys.

Version 1

The version 1 license is the standard license version that is available for all Toon Boom products. This license version will enable the activation of all license types, including any perpetual licenses that have been purchased. With this license you will be able to activate, return and manage your licenses in the License Wizard.

IMPORTANT Perpetual licenses are no longer available to purchase.

For more information on returning licenses, see Return License.

Version 2

The version 2 license can be activated for Toon Boom product versions 25.1 or newer. In addition to activating and returning, this license will allow you to transfer your licenses to your current workstation without first returning the license from the originating workstation.

IMPORTANT In order to activate a version 2 license, you need a Toon Boom product that is version 25.1 or newer. The license will allow older versions to be executed, however, activation, return and transfer requires a version 25.1 or newer.

NOTE Your license will only remain valid while disconnected from the internet for a maximum period of 5 days before expiring. You can validate the license by reconnecting to the internet within those 5 days.

For more information about transferring, see Transfer License.