When you make a reel, a browser that can encode H.264 video and AAC sound itself does it with its own built-in video tools, and nothing is downloaded for that. A browser that can’t, or whose own encoder gives up part-way, downloads a video engine from us and uses it to join and encode your video on your own device. That engine is FFmpeg, compiled to WebAssembly by the open-source ffmpeg.wasm project (the package @ffmpeg/core, version 0.12.9). We serve the files unchanged, from our own servers. The engine runs in a separate worker and talks to the rest of QikTools only by passing messages; it is a separate program, and we have not changed it.
Its licence is the GNU General Public License, version 2 or any later version (GPL-2.0-or-later), because FFmpeg was built with its GPL parts switched on and with the GPL-licensed video encoders x264 and x265. The licence applies to the engine, not to the videos it makes: it does not change who owns what you create (see the Terms of Service). Here is everything inside it:
| Component | Version | Licence | Source code (exact version) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FFmpeg | 5.1.4 | LGPL-2.1-or-later, with GPL-2.0-or-later parts in use | FFmpeg/FFmpeg · tag n5.1.4 · 4729204c17 |
| x264 (ffmpeg.wasm's fork) | branch 4-cores | GPL-2.0-or-later | ffmpegwasm/x264 · branch 4-cores · 33cac6b77d |
| x265 (ffmpeg.wasm's fork) | 3.4 | GPL-2.0-or-later | ffmpegwasm/x265 · branch 3.4 · 2bb5520e95 |
| libvpx | 1.13.1 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/libvpx · tag v1.13.1 · 10b9492dcf |
| LAME | 3.100 | LGPL-2.0-or-later | ffmpegwasm/lame · branch master · 2badea1974 |
| Ogg | 1.3.4 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/Ogg · tag v1.3.4 · bada457184 |
| Theora | 1.1.1 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/theora · tag v1.1.1 · 7ffd8b2ecf |
| Vorbis | 1.3.3 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/vorbis · tag v1.3.3 · 7798164043 |
| Opus | 1.3.1 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/opus · tag v1.3.1 · e85ed7726d |
| zlib | 1.2.11 | zlib licence | ffmpegwasm/zlib · tag v1.2.11 · cacf7f1d4e |
| libwebp | 1.3.2 | BSD-3-Clause | ffmpegwasm/libwebp · tag v1.3.2 · ca332209cb |
| FreeType | 2.10.4 | FreeType Licence, or GPL-2.0-only | ffmpegwasm/freetype2 · tag VER-2-10-4 · 6a2b3e4007 |
| FriBidi | 1.0.9 | LGPL-2.1-or-later | fribidi/fribidi · tag v1.0.9 · f9e8e71a6f |
| HarfBuzz | 5.2.0 | "Old MIT" licence | harfbuzz/harfbuzz · tag 5.2.0 · 4a1d891c63 |
| libass | 0.15.0 | ISC licence | libass/libass · tag 0.15.0 · d149636f50 |
| zimg | 3.0.5 | WTFPL | sekrit-twc/zimg · tag release-3.0.5 · e5b0de6beb |
| Emscripten (compiler and runtime) | 3.1.40 | MIT and University of Illinois/NCSA licences; its C library (musl) is MIT, its C++ library (libc++) is Apache-2.0 with LLVM exceptions | emscripten-core/emscripten · tag 3.1.40 · 5c27e79dd0 |
The build recipe (the Dockerfile, build scripts and bindings) is the ffmpeg.wasm project at commit 21b90a8d09, the commit that published version 0.12.9 of the package; it builds the engine in the Emscripten 3.1.40 Docker image from the versions in the table above. The exact addresses, versions and commits are also written in the notice that sits next to the engine’s files, together with the build configuration and the files’ checksums, and the full licence text is in the licence file beside them (also at gnu.org).
Our written offer (GNU General Public License, version 2, section 3(b)). For at least three years, and for as long as we offer this engine for download, we will give anyone a complete copy of the corresponding source code for no more than the cost of physically providing it. Write to hello@qiktools.com.
The Movie Director and its film editor, the Reel Maker, the AI Explainer Video Maker and our other video and audio tools read and write video and audio files in your browser with Mediabunny, a library that uses your browser’s own codecs. When sound has to be saved as an MP3, your browser also loads Mediabunny’s MP3 encoder, which contains LAME compiled to WebAssembly. Both come in the code your browser downloads from us, and we have not changed them. Their licences let us hand them to you as long as we pass the licence on and tell you where the source code is:
| Software | What it does | Licence | Source code |
|---|---|---|---|
Mediabunny (mediabunny, version 1.60.0) | Reads and writes video and audio files in your browser, using your browser’s own video and audio codecs (the film editor and exports, the Reel Maker, the AI Explainer Video Maker, previews) | MPL-2.0 (licence text). | Vanilagy/mediabunny |
Mediabunny MP3 encoder, with LAME 3.100 (@mediabunny/mp3-encoder, version 1.60.0) | Makes MP3 sound in your browser when a film’s sound or a speech file is saved as MP3: LAME, compiled to WebAssembly, loaded only then | MPL-2.0 for the encoder; LGPL-2.0-or-later for LAME (licence text); LAME’s own licence is at lame.sourceforge.io. | Vanilagy/mediabunny (with the instructions to build the encoder), and LAME 3.100 at lame.sourceforge.io |
Our written offer. For at least three years, and for as long as we offer these libraries in the code you download from us, we will give anyone a complete copy of the corresponding source code of Mediabunny, its MP3 encoder and LAME, with the instructions to build the encoder, for no more than the cost of physically providing it. Write to hello@qiktools.com. As with the video engine, the licences apply to these libraries, not to the videos and sound they make.
The text of QikTools is set in Geist, and the Design Studio, the video editors and the other places where you choose a font offer a large menu of open-source fonts. We serve every one of them from our own servers: your browser never contacts Google or any other font service to show or use them. Their licences let us hand them to you and let you use them in what you make, for business too; the fonts themselves may not be sold on their own.
| Fonts | Where you meet them | Licence | Where they come from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geist and Geist Mono (the geist package, version 1.7.2) | The text of QikTools itself | SIL Open Font License, version 1.1. Copyright (c) 2023 Vercel, in collaboration with basement.studio (licence text). | Vercel (vercel/geist-font), unchanged. |
| The Design Studio’s own fonts | The Design Studio, Brand Kits, and the titles and captions in the video editors and other tools that draw text | SIL Open Font License, version 1.1, or for a few of them the Apache License, version 2.0. | Google Fonts. The files are kept on our own servers. Each family’s authors and licence are on its page on Google Fonts. |
| The font library | The font menu: hundreds of families you can search and preview in your own words | SIL Open Font License, version 1.1, or the Apache License, version 2.0, depending on the family. | Google Fonts. Our server fetches a family’s files when they are needed and passes them on to you; nothing about you is sent to Google. |
| Inter, Montserrat, EB Garamond and Source Serif 4 | The résumés, proposals, quotes and other documents the tools design | SIL Open Font License, version 1.1 (the licence texts: Inter, Montserrat, EB Garamond, Source Serif 4). | Google Fonts. The files, with their licences beside them, are kept on our own servers. |
| Noto, Amiri and IBM Plex Sans Arabic (and the other fonts for scripts beyond Latin) | Designs, captions and documents in Arabic, Hebrew, the Indian scripts, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and other scripts; a PDF carries only the characters it uses | SIL Open Font License, version 1.1, which allows the fonts to be embedded in the documents you make. | Google Fonts. Our server fetches a family’s files when they are needed and passes them on to you; nothing about you is sent to Google. For a Chinese, Japanese or Korean document it cuts a copy down to the characters the document uses. |
Fonts you add to a Brand Kit yourself are not on this list: they are stored privately in your workspace, and you confirm that you have the right to use them when you add them.
When a résumé, proposal or other document you make has text in a script that needs careful setting (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, the Indian scripts, Thai, Chinese, Japanese or Korean), it goes into the PDF as real, selectable text. Two small open-source libraries do this on your own device: one puts mixed left-to-right and right-to-left text in the right order, the other shapes the letters. They come from our own servers (the shaping engine only when a document has such text). Both are under the MIT licence, which lets us hand them to you as long as we pass its notice on.
| Software | What it does | Licence | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| harfbuzzjs (version 1.6.2) | Shapes the letters of each script (joining, vowel signs, marks) with HarfBuzz, compiled to WebAssembly | MIT licence. Copyright (c) 2019-2026 The harfbuzzjs project authors (licence text). The HarfBuzz engine inside it is under HarfBuzz’s own “Old MIT” licence (harfbuzz/harfbuzz). | The harfbuzzjs project (harfbuzz/harfbuzzjs), unchanged, from our own servers. |
| bidi-js (version 1.0.3) | Puts mixed left-to-right and right-to-left text in the right order (the Unicode bidirectional algorithm) | MIT licence. Copyright (c) 2021 Jason Johnston (licence text). | Jason Johnston (lojjic/bidi-js), part of the code your browser downloads from us. |
QikTools is built on many open-source libraries. Their authors’ licences and notices come with the software, and we follow them. This page lists the software that we hand to your browser under a licence that asks us to pass something on to you: the video engine, the video and audio libraries, the fonts and the document libraries above. If that ever includes more, it will be added here before it goes live. Questions about any of it: hello@qiktools.com.
If the video engine changes (a newer build, or another engine), we serve fonts under a licence that is not listed above, or one of the libraries above changes (including a new version of Mediabunny or its MP3 encoder), we update this page, the notice and the licence files before the change goes live.