Image reproduction

You can purchase high quality reproductions of images from our collections using our image library.

Under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL) written content from a Crown copyright public record may be published by transcription, without charge.

Publication of images of the documents themselves falls within the scope of Tradable Information, for which the payment of reproduction fees applies under contract law. Find out more about our reproduction fees which apply to uses such as publication, display and broadcast.

If you are interested in commercial licensing opportunities, please go to our licensing page or email licensing@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Third-party copyright clearance

Crown copyright is either waived or has expired, therefore separate copyright clearance for publication is not required, except in the case of documents in third-party copyright.

Exceptions requiring separate copyright clearance are listed here:

  • British Transport Commission and British Railways Board records (RAIL and AN record series)
  • Duchy of Cornwall records
  • Duchy of Lancaster records (DL record series)
  • Haig diaries (record series WO 256)
  • Hudson’s Bay Company records (BH record series)
  • Legal records
  • Parliamentary copyright
  • Police records
  • Prime Ministers’ Letters in the Royal Archives (record series CAB 41)
  • Probate records (PROB record series)
  • Ramsay MacDonald papers (record series PRO 30/69)

Read more about obtaining permissions in the document below:

Using materials from The National Archives (PDF, 380 KB)