Licensing

Perfectly Clear provides licenses across all its image processing solutions. Based on your use case, you might require a license or not.

License types

The Perfectly Clear SDK is available in three categories: a license-protected, time-limited, and an unprotected.

Time-limited SDK

The time-limited SDK is a special bundle that allows you to use the SDK until a specified expiration date. This is used in annual licensing agreements or trial periods. Time-limited SDK's operate like the unprotected SDK - no specific license activation is required, but the SDK will stop working after the expiration date.

Unprotected SDK

This bundle requires no license activation, no network connectivity for validation, and no special setup beyond the standard SDK integration.

If you have an unprotected SDK:

• Skip all license activation steps in the documentation
• No sdk_license folder is needed
• No calls to PFC_SetProtectionPath() are required
• The SDK works immediately after integration

Protected SDK

If your SDK package includes an sdk_license folder with license files, then you have a protected bundle that needs to be activated before use.

Protected SDK characteristics:

• Requires a valid license key
• Validates license every 12 hours via network connection
• Uses node-based activation (each unique computer counts as one node)
• Returns images unchanged if license validation fails

How to know which bundle you have

Check your SDK package for an sdk_license folder. If this folder exists and contains files like license.key and ShaferFilechck.dll (or .so/.dylib), you have a protected SDK that requires activation.

License files (protected SDK only)

If you have a protected SDK, then your sdk_license folder contains these files that work together to validate your license: