Create Simple Photo Collages with Fotojet

Here on the blog, we’re always interested in finding new and exciting tools to help us get creative, and in today’s article, we’re exploring one such tool: Fotojet! This is a great alternative to Canva and Crello, and might be just what you need if you want to create a family tree or some photo collages! The folks at Fotojet were gracious enough to provide us with an account to explore its features and we’re inviting you along for the ride! Let’s go!

 

What is FotoJet?

Fotojet is an online graphic design service, similar to Crello (now VistaCreate), Canva, and even Canvas Photo Editor, that you can use either for personal or business use. They have hundreds of templates that you can try that will help you shortcut your creation time and still have it come out professional-looking. Besides templates and layouts, they also have clipart, backgrounds, fonts, and much more to help you create photo collages with ease.

 

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What Can You Make with Fotojet?

You are only limited by your own imagination when it comes to how much you can create with Fotojet. For individuals, think invitations, photo collages, posters, cards, family newsletters, etc. For businesses, you can make social media graphics, brochures, business cards, ads, menu, and so much more. And you don’t have to follow a template either – you can create your own ideas from scratch as long as you have an idea of what you’re making and its dimensions.

Fotojet also has a pretty powerful image editor, so you can fix up your old photos for use in projects. You can crop, resize, rotate, add text, add frames, create effects, and more. This is very helpful when creating projects, and you want to keep everything together. Please note that this service is not suitable for photo restoration – for that, you’ll need something more powerful (like Adobe Photoshop, which we showcase in this article here).

 

4 Steps to Creating Photo Collages

So now that you have an overview of what Fotojet is and what is can do for you, let’s take a quick peek at how easy it is to create a photo colleage!

Here are the steps:

 

1. Go to Collages

Go to https://www.fotojet.com/ and choose “Collage.”

 

 

 

2. Choose a Template

Choose a template that’s appealing for the project you’re creating. You can filter templates based on how many photos you’d like to use. In this case, I chose just one, thinking that I’d create an imaginary family newsletter.

 

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3. Edit the Template

​Next, edit the template with the photos, background, text, and colors that you want. Move things around as needed. When you’re happy with how it looks, make sure to save your design.

 

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4. Download, Print, or Share

Next, you can print your design or download it to your computer, depending on how you will use it. There’s a number of options in terms of size, so you can pick whichever one works the best for your project.

There is also a sharing option, which lets you share the design via social media.

 

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How Much Does it Cost?

Fotojet’s currently has two plans: Free and Plus. The free plan will be enough for a lot of our readers, or at least those who use services like this for basic needs, like creating cards and invitations. The plus plan will be useful for businesses who have a lot of imagery to create, and those who work as freelancers in the social media field or similar. For the purpose of testing out this service, we used a plus account, which had access to over 800 templates and all of their advanced editing tools.

For the free plan, there is no need to download or register your name; you can simply try it for free; for the plus plan, you’ll need to create an account and sign up for one of their payment plans. You can either choose to be billed $6.99 on a monthly basis, or $39.99 per year (the annual plan is a 50% savings).

I have to say that this price point is an exceptionally good deal, compared to Fotojet’s competitors. A similar plan from Crello is $10/month, and from Canva, about $12.95 per month (or $119.99 per year).

 

How Does it Compare to Competitors?

Just like its competitors, Fotojet is extremely easy to use. It requires no special skills, and even the most non-technical person should be able to figure it out pretty quickly. No complains there. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that they have standalone apps for both Macs and Windows that you can purchase and use offline.

 

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The Pricing is Fair

Like I mentioned before, the pricing is also extremely fair. That being said, they have less templates than they competitors. A good example is Canva, which has a quarter of a millon templates on their pro plan compared to Fotojet’s 800-ish. BUT… how many do you really need? A couple at most, and you may very well find exactly what you need within the smaller amount.

A popular feature on Canva’s pro plan is that it gives direct access to the stock library from Unsplash to let you find quality images to use in your projects. Crello has a similar stock image (and video) library that makes it easy to find something suitable. Fotojet works with Pixabay, which is a similar asset library, and they have great content as well, so you’re not missing a whole lot there.

 

 

Current Limitations

There are a couple of limitations, however, which make a difference to me as a business owner, and those would be great to see developed when Fotojet develops more:

 

1. Magic Resize

One of the things I tend to pay extra for is the “Magic Resize” options, which is when you can take one design that you have and duplicate it for a different purpose, for example an Instagram image to a Facebook image. A “Magic Resize” feature lets you do that without recreating the image that you have; in other words, all design elements are preserved with colors and font choices, so that you only have to make some smaller adjustments on it. That is a time-saver I’d love to see added someday.

2. More Download Options

When I tested Fotojet’s plus plan, I only saw two options for downloading a design: Jpeg or Png. In most cases, that’s enough, but I’d love to see them as transparent Pngs as an option (I use those A LOT), as well as PDFs for designs that are intended as “documents.” A workaround for me was to choose “print” instead of “download” and save the document as a PDF in the printer preferences rather than actually sending it my printer, but I’d love to see that be added as a direct option at some point.

3. Brand Kits

As a business owner, brand kits are very helpful, especially when you are outsourcing graphic design, and I didn’t see this as a feature in Fotojet. Good thing I know my hex codes by heart. This would be a really good addition to the feature stack at some point, and I would be inclined to pay more for that benefit.

4. Better Sharing & Copying Options

Right now, you can share a design to Twitter, Pinterest, or Tumblr, and while that is great, I would love to see at least two additional options here: email, and by URL. It would also be nice if they would allow other users to make a copy of your design. This is incredibly helpful for B2B situations where you create templates for others, and even for individuals who need to work together with other family members.

Are these four suggested improvements deal breakers today? Well, that’s up to you. For me, yes, but that’s because I have specific needs as a business. For individuals or businesses with different needs, they may not be. I’m excited to see Fotojet develop in the future – I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them.

 

In Conclusion

Fotojet is a great option for those who don’t need all the bells and whistles for business use, and that is a great way to save some money. Personally, I would love to see this service develop just a little bit more to win me over, but I’m happy with its ease of use. It will certainly be more than enough for many of our readers!

 

What do you think, dear readers? Have you tried Fotojet? If so, what did you think?

Let us know in the comments below!