During the month of April I tried out Fotolia, one of many popular royalty-free stock image services. Like its competitors, Fotolia offers an extensive library of high resolution photos and vector graphics.
Overall, I was very pleased with the selection and quality of images. I used many of these on posts here at Simple Scrapper, particularly the Celebrate Monday and Weekend Reading posts. It was rare that I wasn’t able to find a suitable image for a topic. My one complaint is that there are too many overly-posed marketing-type images vs. more natural yet professional images. Additionally, I found the site’s ease of use to be just fine – downloading files was very easy.
The per-image and block-of-credits pricing I found slightly less expensive than other sites and a power user might find Fotolia’s subscription plans quite a bit more affordable. Here’s why: Fotolia offers a flat number of images per day vs. a fixed quantity of allowed credits per day. This creates a bit more peace of mind, knowing you won’t need to keep a supply of top-up credits to let you download an extra special file.
Everyday Uses for Stock Images
While I have used Fotolia primary for blogging, there are many ways to use stock photos and vector graphics for those who love creative projects:
- Customize and order large canvas prints for your home
- Download vectors for creating stationery or invitations
- Create custom skins for laptops and smart phones
Have you ever used stock images?
Disclosure: I was provided a one month trial of Fotolia to test the service for this review.
Fotolia just let me know.. the first three people to email me (jennifer@simplescrapper.com) will receive a 14 day free trial to Fotolia, allowing 3 image downloads per day.
I would like to have the 14 day trial please. Thanks.
Hi Jennifer,
I was searching the web and saw you posted fotolia 14 day trial and I would like to try it out if you would send me the code please. Thank you in advance.
You have a great website 🙂
Thank you for this review! I recently used stock images for slides in a class I taught at a digital scrapbooking retreat, and then re-purposed some of those photos for a couple of blog posts. I’ll have to give Fotolia a try!
I use stock images for work. Many times I will need a series of shots and a lot of times stock images will have this. Thanks for the review I will definately check them out.