Fotolia stock images - a review

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try the royalty-free, online stock image database at Fotolia and thought you'd like to hear about it.

There ares more millions of high-quality photographs, illustrations, vector images, and HD videos. They have a really simple search function which makes quick results of sorting through the endless options. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple their terms of use are.  Most are allowed to be used in print, electronic, online materials and web pages.  And most images are able to be modified in order to create derivative works.  Very generous compared to other stock companies.

Depending on your needs and your budget, there are a variety of size options to choose from, ranging from extra-small (346 px wide at 72 dpi) all the way up to XXL which is in the neighborhood of about 4350 px wide at 300 dpi.  There is also an extended RF license which allows you to use or modify the images for items you intend to resell.

The way you purchase the images is by credits. Extra-small files are as little as just 2 credits, whereas the extended license fee varies from 20-100 credits.  The more credits you buy at one time, the better the rate.  So if you were to buy say 6400 credits, it works out to just 75 cents per credit.  But someone like myself might only need something small like 25 credits which works out to be $1.20 per credit.  This is really a competitive price with their stock photography costing as low as 1 - 10 credits, vector illustrations as low as 4 credits, and video footage as low as 10 credits.

Overall, I found Fotolia to have a broad variety of stock at a competitive price and will use them again for future projects.