PDF portfolio for artists: how to impress galleries and clients

Deciding on order and narrative

A portfolio is not a collection of everything you have ever made — it is a carefully curated story. Start with your strongest work, end with the second strongest. Vary between styles and media. The first three pages determine whether a gallery director or client reads on.

Image resolution and colour

Use at least 150 DPI for digital portfolios, 300 DPI if you expect it to be printed too. Colour profiles: RGB for screen versions (sRGB), CMYK if you are delivering exclusively for print. Embed ICC colour profiles so colours are rendered correctly on different devices.

Format and page size

A4 (21 x 29.7 cm) is standard for European portfolios. For work that looks better in landscape orientation, use landscape A4 or 16:9 format for digital presentations. Keep a consistent format throughout the document — a changing page format looks unprofessional.

Headers, names and contact details

Add your name, website and contact details to every page (not just the cover). Galleries and clients sometimes print a single page and lose the context. Use PDFrust to add a footer with name + URL to existing PDF files.

Managing file size

High-quality images quickly make portfolio PDFs 50+ MB. That is too large for email. Compress images with PDFrust to a maximum of 10 MB for email submissions, but always keep a high-quality version separately. Send the compressed version unless high-res is specifically requested.

Interaction: clickable links and bookmarks

In a digital portfolio PDF you can include clickable links to project pages, social media or videos. Add bookmarks per main category so a reviewer can quickly navigate between illustration, painting and design. This significantly increases the professionalism of your portfolio.

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