Hey all,
I’m in the first stages of creating my Product Design portfolio and trying to come up with a uniformed layout.
However, just a really quick question, what is the best page size to use for a PDF portfolio? 8.5 x 11, 11 x 14, 11 x 17… etc. or is it simply down to personal preference?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
8.5x11 and 11x17 tend to be the most common. Also, these are the aspect ratios (in landscape at least) that will tend to match a computer screen the best, since these days your digital portfolio will generally be the first thing anyone sees if you’re applying for a job.
11x17 is a better printed size because it’s larger and easier to share if you are presenting in person (like a portfolio review) but 8.5x11 will be easier for people to print themselves if you mail out a PDF, and the text will be closer to the correct size if you’re presenting off an iPad or laptop screen. Text optimized for an 11x17 print will be very small unless viewed on a larger screen.
I usually stick to 8.5x11" with consideration for ease of printing. For making a .pdf, its best to keep the size around 5MB.
Another question thats good to think about is how many pages its going to be? Its always a good idea to feature at least one project that demonstrates full process. It can be easy to go overboard, but you don’t want to get too meager either. I always wonder how many pages are in most portfolios? Does it vary greatly between professional and student portfolios?
There are some portfolios that I’ve seen that have way too much fluff and then there are some portfolios that get the point across in just a few pages.
This is a really old thread but it comes up a lot on the most frequently read and searched logs so I thought it would be good to bump it with an update.
Obviously when this was asked years ago we mostly talked in print sizes. Now we mostly talk about these things in aspect ratios. Older screen based presentations were in 4:3 but the most common at this point are 16:10 or 16:9 for both projection and modern monitors. I feel like presentations in 4:3 just feel old 
16:9 is standard widescreen. I tend to use 16:10 because it is a little more manageable if it does need to be printed out and it is less likely to have letterbox blocking when projected. 
I’m actually wondering if maybe portrait is the way to go now with so much mobile use… Rotating the phone sucks and so much is viewed online in portrait mode (IG, reels, websites, etc.).
PDFs I think are also largely out of date. A live web link is so much more useful and can be easily updated and we don’t have the issues we used to have of fonts not rendering properly or sending files with small email file caps.
Not to mention there’s so much better and easier web hosting platforms now for projects such as squarespace and IG is becoming a defacto portfolio site.
I used to always send PDFs but have more often now sent links to my website or social for portfolio or project views.
I’ll second the notion that pdfs feel outdated. I honestly get annoyed when employers will only accept pdf portfolios. How is that more convenient than a link for anyone?
On the website side, I think it depends on the goals of your portfolio site. If you’re specifically out looking for a job, I still think landscape imagery is the way to go. Most people looking at your work in a professional capacity are still looking at it on a laptop or desktop, and landscape photos fit nicer in that situation and are easier to scale for smaller screens in the off chance they’re working from a mobile or tablet. Personally I’m using mainly 2:1 aspect ratio images, which I just find easy to work with. Also, do everything you can to limit clicks and navigation. You have a very short window of opportunity to make a first impression, and you don’t want someone getting lost in maze of clicks. In my opinion fewer pages and more scrolling is the way to go, at least for an overview/landing page.
If you’re exclusively trying to drive traffic from non-professional users or sources (i.e. people viewing on their phones), though, portrait images may be the way to go these days.
All that advice goes out the window if you’re able to do something like Apple does with their product landing pages, which have basically no defined aspect ratio and I have always found to be pretty wonderful from a UX point of view (e.g. https://www.apple.com/apple-watch-ultra/.) They are simultaneously infinitely scrollable and infinitely scalable, which is pretty much the perfect combo in my book.
Responsive web design is 100% a must. One reason why I love the Squarespace platform.
(Not an ad)
I always think it is good to start with the end in mind. If a person’s goal is to get a job with a major global brand, either in house or consulting, it will likely help to make a great PDF portfolio or pitch deck no matter who thinks PDFs are outdated or not. Just thinking about who the end viewer is and where they will be and what the HR department might straight up require for in house job postings.
I reviewed a few hundred portfolios this year for the offsite program. Usually I review 50 at a time or so. Making me click around on a website where it is different website to website, applicant to applicant is much more cumbersome for me than downloading all of the PDFs and flipping through each and sorting. Same when I reviewed portfolios when I was hiring at Nike, frog, and Sound United. It is just easier when you have a lot of applicants or multiple proposals to review to batch it all together and sit down at a 40" desktop screen.
But to each their own.
I agree with @_YO with regards to considering the usability by the individual doing the reviewing. You shouldn’t make it harder for an employer to review your work. (As @_YO said, “Making me click around on a website where it is different website to website, applicant to applicant is much more cumbersome for me than downloading all of the PDFs and flipping through each and sorting.”)
Here’s what I tell my ID students–which is perhaps different from what I would recommend to other practicing professionals:
When you have a singular story to tell (e.g., “I’m a young designer or design students and all of my projects are part of my story, so it’s important you see all of them in a particular order”), the PDF is the best format to make sure your story is told in the order you intend it to be seen. Yes, you can create a linear set of images one can scroll down through on a single web page, but the PDF is “packaged” deliverable that can be downloaded, digested quickly, shared with co-workers, and sometimes printed (I know of some colleagues who do that as part of their candidate evaluation process).
If you’re a professional with a more diverse background or a consultant, you might be fine with potential clients wandering around your website, but this does not apply to a kid who has maybe 4 - 6 projects to show. If the employer clicks on just a few of them, it’s possible their best project(s) might be overlooked. This is why I encourage my students to create PDF portfolios with a beginning, middle, and end. It helps them develop a narrative of who they are and how each project contributes to that story. And I suggest 11" x 17" for the 16:9 rationale @_YO mentioned.
That’s not to say that my students shouldn’t have their own websites (many do). But, it’s so tempting to create what they think is a “professional design website” without realizing the risks of having some of their work overlooked. I recommend a single landing page with some images “above the fold” and a link to download a PDF of their portfolio. This satisfies the request by many HR departments to “just provide a link to your work”. This might make things easier for HR, but it’s not to the advantage of the young designer with just a few projects to show.
