Not everyone is an artist or graphic designer. And even I as a graphic designer need some help sometimes. Enter Fotolia, a wonderful source of royalty free stock photos. What can you do with these images? Use a photograph of a snowy landscape for your holiday card or find a pattern for your blog background. Want some hot social icons or a nice “contact me” badge for your website? Visit Fotolia!
I often see a lot of blogs with a cartoon woman in the header design which I’m willing to bet came from a stock photo site. And I’ve definitely seen many uses of clip art when someone could be using stock photos; high resolution, quality images that offer a more professional and clean look.
I was generously offered a free month to try out Fotolia and let you know what I think. Even without the free month, I can tell you I’ve used Fotolia and sites like it many times in the past for my graphic design business. Sometimes a client is looking for something I may not be able to draw or create on my own. With a few exceptions, the images available on Fotolia can be used in numerous ways. Fotolia’s royalty-free license allows you to use images in your projects without limitations on time, the number of copies printed, or geographical location of use.
There are two ways to purchase images. If you just need one or a few images, credits are available in packages starting at 25 credits ($1.20/credit) and up to 6,400 ($0.75/credit) or you can enter a custom amount starting at 10. Depending on the size of the image, you can get an XS image for 1 credit or an XL image for 24 credits (for example). Extended licenses for resale items can be had for around 50 credits. And in addition to images, Fotolia also stocks royalty free vector images and videos.
Graphic designers might benefit more from a subscription plan. Choose between 2 types of subscriptions plans: daily and monthly. With these plans, a download is a download so no need to count your credits.
- Daily Subscription – Download up to 250 files per day and take advantage of our lowest pricing. (From $ 0.16/image).
- Monthly Subscription – Download 50 to 5,000 files per month! Plus, any unused downloads automatically roll over – no more expired downloads. Your unused downloads are automatically carried forward to the next month!
This fabulous company also offers free images for “liking” their Facebook page, so make sure to go on over and show some love.
Fotolia provided us with a month long subscription in order to facilitate this review. All opinions are 100% my own.
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