Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Version 2026-10-13 · Effective October 13, 2026

The short version (the full terms below control):

Separation Engine is a tool. You must check every separation, film and file before you burn screens or print. We are not responsible for misprints, wasted garments, ink, screens, labor or missed deadlines.
The service is provided as is, with no guarantees. Our total liability to you is capped at what you paid us in the last 3 months.
You must own or have permission to use any art you load. You are responsible for it, not us.
One login, one person, one active session. No sharing, scraping or reverse engineering.
Pro renews monthly until you cancel. Cancel anytime; it runs to the end of the period you paid for. No partial refunds.
Disputes go to individual arbitration, not class actions or juries. You can opt out within 30 days.

1. Who we are and agreeing to these terms

Separation Engine (the "Service"), available at marcotte.ink/seps and related pages, is operated by Marcotte LLC ("Marcotte", "we", "us", "our"). These Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy below (together, the "Terms") are a binding contract between you and Marcotte LLC. Matt Marcotte and any other owner, member, manager, employee or contractor of Marcotte LLC are not parties to this contract and have no personal liability under it.

By checking the agreement box, creating an account, buying a subscription, or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. Checking the box is your electronic signature, and you consent to receive these Terms and all notices electronically. If you use the Service for a company, you agree for that company and confirm you have authority to bind it, and "you" includes that company. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 18 years old and able to form a binding contract. The Service is a professional tool for the decorated apparel and print trade, and you agree you are using it for business or professional purposes.

2. What the Service does

The Service helps you create color separations, films, previews and related files from artwork you provide ("Outputs"). Parts of the Service run in your browser and parts run on our servers. Some features use automated or AI-based processing. Features, limits, quality and availability may change, be added or be removed at any time, with or without notice, including features in the free plan.

3. You are responsible for checking every Output

Color separation depends on your art, inks, mesh, emulsion, exposure, press, substrate, curing, operator skill and many other factors we do not control. Outputs are a starting point, not a guarantee of any print result. Before you rely on any Output, you are solely responsible for reviewing, proofing and testing it, including checking ink colors, underbase, choke, halftone settings, dot sizes, registration, file format and print size.

We are not responsible for, and you release us from, any loss caused by an Output, including misprints, reprints, wasted or damaged garments or materials, ink, film, screens, emulsion, labor, press time, shipping, late or missed deliveries, customer refunds, chargebacks, lost customers or damage to your reputation.

4. Accounts and one active session

You must give a valid email address and keep your password secure. You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Each account is for one individual. An account allows one active session at a time; signing in somewhere new signs out the previous session. You may not share, sell, rent or transfer your account or let others use it. We may suspend or end any account we reasonably believe is shared, misused or used in breach of these Terms.

5. Pro membership, billing and cancellation

Price. Pro is a recurring monthly subscription at the price shown at checkout (currently $39 USD per month, plus any applicable tax). We may change the price for future periods with at least 30 days' notice by email or in the Service. Continuing after the change takes effect means you accept the new price.
Automatic renewal. Your subscription renews automatically each month and your payment method is charged until you cancel.
Cancellation. You can cancel anytime from Account, then Manage billing, or by emailing us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period, and Pro features stay on until then.
No refunds. Payments are non-refundable, and we do not give refunds or credits for partial months, unused time or features you did not use, except where the law requires it or we choose to in our sole discretion.
Payments. Payments are processed by Stripe and its affiliates, which may act as the reseller or merchant of record for your purchase. Their terms also apply to the payment. We do not receive or store your full card number.
Failed payments. If a payment fails, Pro features may be paused or ended until it is resolved.
Promotions. Promotion codes and trials are subject to the terms stated with them, may be withdrawn at any time, and have no cash value.

6. Your artwork and your rights to use it

You keep all rights you have in artwork, images and files you load into the Service ("Your Content"). You give us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to process Your Content only as needed to run the Service for you. As described in the Privacy Policy, artwork sent to our servers for processing is used for that request and is not stored.

You represent and warrant that you own Your Content or have every license, permission and release needed to use it, separate it and print it, and that doing so does not infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity, license agreement or other right of any person, team, league, school, brand or company. You are solely responsible for Your Content and for anything you print from it. We do not review, approve or license any artwork.

Subject to these Terms and your rights in Your Content, you may use the Outputs you create for any lawful purpose, including commercial printing.

7. Acceptable use

You agree not to, and not to help anyone else to:

copy, decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or try to derive the source code, algorithms, models or methods behind the Service, except to the extent the law expressly allows despite this restriction;
scrape, crawl, script, automate, bulk-download or otherwise access the Service by any means other than the normal user interface;
get around, disable or interfere with any paywall, session limit, usage limit, security feature or access control;
use the Service, its Outputs or its behavior to build, train, benchmark or improve a competing product or service, or any AI model;
resell, sublicense or provide the Service to others as a service, bureau or white label offering;
overload, attack or disrupt the Service or the systems it runs on;
upload malware or unlawful, infringing, obscene or harmful content; or
use the Service in violation of any law.

8. Our property

The Service, including its software, algorithms, models, design, text, graphics, names and logos, belongs to Marcotte LLC or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. Apart from the limited right to use the Service under these Terms, you receive no rights in it. Feedback, ideas or suggestions you send us (including through the feedback form, with any images) may be used by us for any purpose, without obligation or payment to you.

9. AI features and third-party services

AI and automated features can produce results that are wrong, incomplete or unexpected. They are provided for convenience only and you must check their results like any other Output. The Service relies on third parties such as hosting, payment, email and analytics providers. We are not responsible for their acts, failures or outages.

10. Disclaimer of warranties

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICE AND ALL OUTPUTS ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE", WITH ALL FAULTS AND WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. MARCOTTE LLC DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, ACCURACY, QUALITY, AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, ERROR-FREE OR AVAILABLE, THAT ANY OUTPUT WILL BE ACCURATE OR PRINT AS EXPECTED, OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, CREATES ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED HERE.

11. Limitation of liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW: (A) MARCOTTE LLC AND ITS OWNERS, MEMBERS, MANAGERS, EMPLOYEES, CONTRACTORS, AGENTS AND LICENSORS (THE "MARCOTTE PARTIES") WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, BUSINESS, CUSTOMERS, GOODWILL, DATA, MATERIALS, GARMENTS OR PRODUCTION TIME, OR COSTS OF REPRINTS OR SUBSTITUTE SERVICES, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, EVEN IF ADVISED THEY WERE POSSIBLE; AND (B) THE MARCOTTE PARTIES' TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS RELATING TO THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS, COMBINED, WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE SERVICE IN THE THREE (3) MONTHS BEFORE THE EVENT GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM, OR FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50). THESE LIMITS APPLY EVEN IF A REMEDY FAILS OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE, AND ARE AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN US. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW CERTAIN EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITS, SO SOME OF THEM MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU; IN THAT CASE THEY APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT ALLOWED.

12. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless the Marcotte Parties from and against any claims, demands, losses, damages, liabilities, fines, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) Your Content, including any claim that it or anything printed from it infringes or violates another's rights; (b) your use of the Service or any Output, including garments, products or services you or your customers make, sell or deliver; (c) your breach of these Terms; or (d) your violation of any law or the rights of any third party. We may take control of the defense of any claim at your expense, and you will cooperate with us.

13. Suspension and termination

You may stop using the Service and cancel at any time. We may suspend or end your access, in whole or in part, at any time and for any reason, including breach of these Terms, suspected fraud or account sharing, or discontinuing the Service. If we end Pro for reasons other than your breach, we may in our discretion refund the unused part of your current month. Sections 3, 6 (your warranties), 7 through 12, and 14 through 17 survive termination.

14. Disputes: informal resolution, binding arbitration and class action waiver

Please read this section carefully. It affects your rights, including your right to go to court.

Talk to us first. Before starting any claim, you agree to email matt@marcotte.ink with a description of the dispute and to try in good faith to resolve it informally for at least 30 days.

Arbitration. Any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms, including their formation, scope or enforceability, will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its applicable rules, before a single arbitrator. The arbitration will take place in Cook County, Illinois, or by video or written submission if the arbitrator allows. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

Exceptions. Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies, and either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual property or to stop misuse of the Service.

No class actions and no jury. You and Marcotte LLC each agree to bring claims only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any class, collective, consolidated or representative proceeding. You and we each waive any right to a jury trial.

Time limit. Any claim must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, or it is permanently barred, to the extent the law allows.

Opt-out. You may opt out of this arbitration agreement by emailing matt@marcotte.ink from your account email address, with the subject line "Arbitration opt-out", within 30 days after you first accept these Terms. If you opt out, the rest of these Terms still apply and disputes will be decided by the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois.

If the class action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim must be decided in court, not arbitration, and the rest of this section still applies to all other claims.

15. Governing law and venue

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Subject to Section 14, the state and federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois have exclusive jurisdiction, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. We will post the new version with a new version date. For material changes we will ask you to agree again in the Service. If you continue to use the Service after an update takes effect, you accept the updated Terms. Changes do not apply to disputes that arose before the change.

17. General

These Terms are the entire agreement between you and Marcotte LLC about the Service and replace any earlier agreements, statements or understandings about it. If any part is found unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent possible and the rest stays in effect. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them, including in a sale, merger or reorganization. We are not liable for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control. Notices to you may be sent to your account email or shown in the Service; notices to us go to matt@marcotte.ink. Nothing in these Terms creates a partnership, agency, employment or fiduciary relationship. Headings and the short version at the top are for convenience only and do not affect meaning.

Privacy Policy

What we collect.

Account: your email address and a securely hashed version of your password (we never store your password itself), plus sign-in times and session records used to enforce one active session.
Subscription: your plan and billing status, customer ID and renewal dates, received from Stripe. Stripe handles your payment details under its own privacy policy.
Artwork: to pick inks, build sim process separations and tune them, the Service sends a downsized copy of your art to our server. It is processed for that request and is not stored. Previews, plates, films and exports are built in your browser.
Feedback: messages, images and the details sent with them (such as the mode you were in and your browser type), stored privately so we can read and act on them.
Terms acceptance: the date, time, version, IP address and browser details when you agree to these Terms, kept as a record of the agreement.
Usage and analytics: standard technical data such as IP address, browser and pages visited, including through Google Analytics, and settings saved in your own browser.

How we use it. To run, secure and improve the Service, manage accounts and subscriptions, enforce these Terms, prevent fraud and account sharing, respond to you, and meet legal obligations.

Sharing. We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers that help us run the Service (such as hosting, payments, email, storage and analytics), when the law requires it, to protect our rights or the safety of others, or as part of a sale, merger or reorganization of our business.

Retention and security. We keep account and billing records while your account is active and as long as needed for legal, tax, dispute and enforcement purposes. We use reasonable safeguards, but no system is perfectly secure and we cannot guarantee security.

Your choices. You can ask us to access, correct or delete your personal information by emailing matt@marcotte.ink. Some records, such as billing and terms acceptance records, may be kept where the law allows or requires. The Service is not meant for children under 18.

Contact

Marcotte LLC · Chicago, Illinois · matt@marcotte.ink