Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Miss paying for film? This new iOS app has you covered with digital rolls

fotr prints every photo 14022172 1122689221146502 4295071666284156912 n
Fotr
Forget the best of both worlds, a new iOS app is mixing the best of digital photography with the worst of film — the cost. Using Fotr, smartphone photographers have to purchase ‘rolls’ of film — and every photo they snap is printed, blurry, underexposed, and all.

While digital photography is more convenient, when there is no cost to reshooting an image, photographers put less thought into the shot, says Fotr founder Ondrej Loudil. By adapting some of those analog elements, Fotr is a tool that encourages users to put more into every frame.

While the cost may deter a few and encourage some, Fotr is also designed as a way to prevent snapshots from being swallowed into thousands of other photos that are never actually shared or looked at, much less printed.

The app forgoes the traditional editing filters and instead sells rolls that mimic traditional film looks, including both color Fuji Velia and Fuji Superia as well as the black and white Kodak Tri-X. Buy a film look, and you are locked into that roll for the next 24 to 36 shots. Essentially, you are choosing the filter before you shoot and there is no swapping or experimenting on individual photos until the roll is finished.

The film starts at $17 for 24 black and white prints in a 4×6-inch size, or, for the daring, $36 for 36 5x7s. Once the roll is shot, Fotr will deliver the prints within 10 days.

Apps to print photos certainly are not a new concept, but Fotor is a bit different, mimicking the process of shooting an entire roll — and paying for every frame, even the bad ones. Whether the idea will catch on or not is anyone’s guess — after all, photographers that do not mind paying for rolls may just use actual film.

Download for iOS

Editors' Recommendations

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Everything you need to know about the massive Apple App Store outage
App Store on-screen illustration

Happy Wednesday evening, everyone! You're unwinding for the day, getting ready for a relaxing night, and ... you realize that the App Store and a bunch of other Apple services aren't working. Don't worry, you aren't alone.

What Apple services are down? When did the problems start? Is the outage still ongoing? Here's everything you need to know.
When did the App Store outage start?
According to DownDetector, reports of outages with the App Store flooded in a little after 6 p.m. ET. Reports appear to have spiked at over 6,000, indicating pretty widespread problems.

Read more
The 7 biggest features we expect to see in iOS 18
The home screen on the Apple iPhone 15 Plus.

Apple revealed that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place on June 10. This is when we expect to see the next iteration of software across all of Apple’s products, including iOS 18.

From the sounds of it, we’re in for a big update with iOS 18, rumored to be one of the “biggest updates” yet. Here’s what we expect from Apple's next major iPhone update with iOS 18.
A more customizable home screen

Read more
This could be our first look at iOS 18’s huge redesign
An iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 Pro standing upright on a desk.

While iOS 17 fell short on a visual overhaul, Apple is rumored to be working on an updated identity for its next iOS version. Previous reports have claimed that the upcoming iOS 18 will feature visionOS-like elements introduced on the Apple Vision Pro. A new report confirms this with a leaked image of the iOS 18 Camera app.

According to a report from MacRumors, the next version of the Camera app could feature visionOS-style design elements. It is based on an iPhone frame template that the publication received from an anonymous source who claimed to have received it from an iOS engineer. It is said to have been included as part of the Apple Design Resources for iOS 18.

Read more