Legal
Terms of Service
These terms are the agreement between you and PaintedApp, LLC, which runs Painted Block. Buying from us, or using the site, means you accept them. If you don't, please don't order.
Last updated 9 October 2026
From your browser to the Library of Congress: the town you search and the parts of the scan you look at. To our server, only at checkout: the item, the sheet and the crop's numbers, to assemble the print.
What you are buying
A Painted Block print is a crop you choose from one sheet of a Sanborn fire insurance map, as scanned by the Library of Congress and published in its online Sanborn Maps Collection, printed on the paper or canvas you choose with a typed citation slip in one corner: the town, the year, the volume, the sheet, the Library's item number, its credit line and the print's dots per inch.
The studio shows the dots per inch every size would get from your crop. We print only at 150 dpi or more: a size under that is struck through in the studio and refused at checkout, with its number. You must be 18 or older, or the age of majority where you live, to order.
The scan is the Library's
The Library of Congress states that "the content of the Library of Congress online Sanborn Maps Collection is in the public domain and is free to use and reuse." We charge for the print: the paper or canvas, the assembly at full size, the slip and the delivery. We never sell the file, and anyone can download the same scan free from loc.gov.
Painted Block is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Library of Congress or the Sanborn Map Company. Their names appear because the credit line and the maker's name belong on the print.
The honest limits
We change no pixel of the scan. A sheet that was stained, torn, pasted over, pencilled on or faded when the Library scanned it prints that way, and screens and paper show colour differently. A Sanborn sheet shows what the surveyors recorded for fire insurers in its year: buildings may since have gone, and a sheet may have been corrected with paste-on slips years after it was drawn.
A print is a picture of a historical record. It can't settle a property line, a title, a planning question or an environmental one, and shouldn't be relied on for any of them.
The site and everything on it are provided as they are, without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability for any claim arising out of an order or these terms will not exceed what you paid for the order it concerns, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. Nothing here limits liability that cannot be limited by law.
Made to order
Every print is assembled and printed from your crop alone. Nothing is held in stock, so please check the proof, the size and the options before you pay. Your order goes to the print lab after payment, so a print can't be cancelled or returned once it's under way, except where the fault is ours or the law says otherwise. If your print arrives damaged, defective or not what you ordered, write to us within 30 days of delivery with a photograph and we'll remake it or refund you. The shipping and returns page sets out the rest.
Fair use of the site
Please don't scrape the site, resell access to it, or use it to send the Library more requests than its published limits allow. The studio paces every request for you; please don't work around it. We may decline or refund any order at our discretion.
Prices and payment
Prices are shown before you pay, and Stripe's checkout page shows the full total, including shipping, before you confirm. Stripe charges your card; we never see or store your card details. Prodigi or Printful prints and ships each print, whichever gets it to you for less, and shipping is charged at what that lab charges to send it, with nothing added. Import duties, where they apply, are the recipient's responsibility.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Oregon, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules, and disputes will be heard there, except where consumer-protection law where you live gives you the right to bring proceedings in your own country. Before filing anything, please write to us so we can try to settle it directly.
Changes
We may update these terms. The date at the top always says when. Orders are governed by the terms in force when you placed them.
Reach us
Write to support@painted.app about anything here, or by post to PaintedApp, LLC, 1327 SE Tacoma St #394, Portland, OR 97202, United States. How we handle your details is in the privacy notice.