Legal

Terms of Service

Last updated 7 October 2026

These terms are the agreement between you and Vowborn Studio ("Vowborn", "we", "us") for using our website and our software. Part A applies to everything we make. Part B adds the terms for Panel Shelf. By using our website or software, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use them.

Part A General terms

1. Who we are

Vowborn Studio is the name under which independent developers publish software. You can reach us at [email protected].

2. Who can use our products

You must be old enough to enter into a binding agreement where you live, or have the permission of a parent or guardian who agrees to these terms for you.

3. Buying from us

Our paid products are sold through an online reseller that acts as the merchant of record. The reseller processes your payment, handles sales tax or VAT, and issues your receipt, and its own terms of sale apply to the purchase. These terms apply to your use of what you bought. Prices are shown before you pay. Refunds are described in our Refund Policy.

4. Licences and licence keys

When you buy a product, you get a personal licence to use it, not ownership of the software. Your licence key is for you: don't share it publicly, sell it, or let others use it. We may deactivate keys that are shared, resold, or obtained by fraud or a reversed payment.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• get around licence checks or the limits of a free version, or help others do so;
• resell, rent or redistribute our builds or licence keys;
• use our website or software to break the law or to harm, attack or overload our services or anyone else.

6. Open-source components

Our software is built with open-source components made by others, such as Electron, each under its own licence. Their licence notices are included with the software, and nothing in these terms limits the rights those licences give you.

7. Updates and changes

We may update our products to fix problems, improve them or add features, and features may change over time. We aim to keep what you paid for working on the systems we support, but we can't promise that every feature will exist forever or work with every future system.

8. Third-party services

Some features connect to services run by other companies, such as AI providers. Those services are not ours. Their own terms and privacy policies apply, and we aren't responsible for their availability, pricing or behaviour.

9. Our website and brand

The Vowborn and Panel Shelf names, logos, designs and the content of this website belong to us, except for material we use under licence or from the public domain. Please don't use our names or logos in a way that suggests we endorse you or your product.

10. No warranty

We work hard to make good software, but it is provided "as is" and "as available". To the extent the law allows, we don't promise that it will be free of errors, uninterrupted, or suitable for a particular purpose. Keep backups of files that matter to you.

11. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable for indirect or consequential losses, such as lost data, lost profits or lost time. Our total liability for any claim about a product is limited to the amount you paid for it in the twelve months before the claim.

12. Your rights as a consumer

Nothing in these terms takes away rights you have under consumer law that can't be excluded by agreement. If the law where you live gives you more protection, that protection applies.

13. Ending these terms

You can stop using our products at any time. We may suspend or end your licence if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms. Sections 9 to 12 continue to apply after that.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms as our products change. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is significant, we'll make it clear on our website or in the app. Continuing to use our products after a change means you accept the updated terms.

15. Disputes

If something goes wrong, please email us first. Most problems can be solved quickly that way. If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest still applies.

Part B Panel Shelf

16. What Panel Shelf is

Panel Shelf is a reading app for Windows. It opens comics, EPUB and PDF files that are already on your computer and keeps your library, progress, quotes and words on your computer.

17. Free and paid

You can use Panel Shelf for free, with some limits. A paid licence removes those limits. What each version includes is described on the Panel Shelf page at the time you buy or download it. You may install a paid licence on the computers you personally use.

18. Your files and content

Panel Shelf doesn't supply books, comics or other content. It reads files you already have. You are responsible for having the right to the files you open, and for complying with copyright law. Panel Shelf doesn't move, rename or change your files, but please keep backups of anything important.

19. Sexually explicit content

You may not use Panel Shelf to read or organise sexually explicit material: content made mainly for sexual arousal, such as pornographic books and comics. If we learn that Panel Shelf is being used or promoted for this, we may refuse support and end the licence.

This doesn't cover other mature content: violence, gore and horror are fine, as long as they're legal where you live.

20. AI features

Panel Shelf's AI features use API keys that you get from an AI provider and enter yourself, such as Gemini, Groq or OpenAI. When you use these features, your request goes to the provider you chose, under that provider's terms and privacy policy. You are responsible for your account with them, any costs, and following their rules. The free setup guide we provide is help, not a promise that a provider's free tier will stay free or available.

AI definitions and explanations can be wrong or incomplete. Treat them as a reading aid, not as authoritative fact.

21. Text recognition (OCR)

Panel Shelf can read text from images, such as speech bubbles and scanned pages, on your computer. Recognised text may contain mistakes.

Contact

Questions about these terms? Email [email protected].