How to make a PDF portfolio from your images

Design schools, architecture practices, photography clients and illustration agents often ask for “a PDF portfolio” rather than a link. A single file opens on any computer, can be read offline and is easy to forward to a colleague. Building one from your images is mostly a matter of choosing well and controlling the file size.

Choose and order the work

• Edit hard. Ten to twenty strong pieces beat forty mixed ones. Reviewers often look at the first few pages only.
• Lead and close with your best. Put the strongest project first and a strong one last.
• Match the request. If the job is for packaging, show packaging first, even if your favourite piece is a poster.
• Name files in order, such as 01-cover.jpg, 02-project.jpg, so they load in the right sequence.

Resize the images first

Camera files are much larger than a screen needs. A portfolio is read on a monitor, so around 2,000 to 2,500 pixels on the long side is plenty. Use Resize Image on the whole set before building the PDF. This is the single biggest factor in the final file size, and it is far better than shrinking the finished PDF, which can blur fine detail.

Build the PDF step by step

1. Open Image to PDF and add the images. JPG, PNG and WebP can be mixed.
2. Move them into order with the up and down arrows.
3. Choose the page size. “Match image” gives each page the shape of its picture, which looks best on screen. Choose A4 or Letter if the portfolio may be printed.
4. Choose landscape or portrait, and add a margin if you want white space around the work.
5. Create the PDF. Everything happens in your browser, so unreleased work is not uploaded.

Add a cover and navigation

A cover page with your name, discipline and contact details can be made in any word processor and exported as a PDF, then joined to the front with Merge PDF. For a portfolio with several projects, add bookmarks with the PDF Bookmarks Editor: one entry per project, so a reviewer can jump straight to the one they care about. The guide to adding bookmarks to a PDF explains how readers show them.

Landscape or portrait?

Most portfolios are read on laptop screens, which are wide. Landscape pages fill the screen without black bars, so they are usually the better choice for a mixed portfolio. Portrait suits a portfolio of posters, book covers or fashion photography. Do not mix the two within one project; a reader should not have to rotate their head between pages.

Stay under the size limit

Application forms and email both have limits; check the one you are sending to. If the file is too big, resize the largest images further rather than compressing the PDF. Compressing redraws every page as an image, which is fine for scans but can soften crisp graphic work. For more detail on image sizes and quality, see how to compress images without losing quality.

Final checks

• Open the PDF on a phone as well as a computer.
• Check colour-critical work on more than one screen.
• Name the file with your name: alex-morgan-portfolio-2026.pdf, not portfolio.pdf.