portfolio

After much banging of head against a brick wall, I broke down and spent $250 for a Canon 13 x 19 printer, some nice paper, and printed my portfolio myself.
Turned out beautifully.

I would choose InDesign over Word. I'm not sure how a .doc file will handle high res images.

ok i'll give it a shot. thanks

Printing in .doc format is your first mistake, but I'd imagine the second mistake is you have jpg files in that .doc file?

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Natobasso
dirtandrust.com
"Powerpoint is not a design application"

yes, they were all in .doc format and in jpg. i've since put them in .psd files and am now using indesign.. but am not sure where to send them off.. do you think any photo place will be ok? or should i send them to an online one? i did take them to a local photagraphy store to have one page printed, and it turned out really well, but it was $10 per page. is this what it normally is? if so, i will just use this photo store.

I'm curious. What are the specs of your Photoshop files? Don't expect great quality from any kind of layout if the original image is low-resolution, or even high resolution but at a small physical size that you enlarge to suit your layout. For print, the Mode should be set to CMYK. You should really be saving the images as TIFF files or some other CMYK-friendly format that isn't as "lossy" as JPEG.

Another thought. You can print directly out of Photoshop if using a layout app. like InDesign limits your options. You can add your comments by going to File/Automate/Photo Package -- the steps to take from there are pretty obvious.

When you took your .doc files to be printed, you may have gotten low quality if you only gave them the .doc files and not the image files (and fonts), with all the images in the layout linked back to their sources. Otherwise, what gets printed out is just a sort of low-rez placeholder. This would be an issue with InDesign as well. You probably know this, but I thought it couldn't hurt to mentioned that as a possible source of the problems you've been having.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned/suggested bringing them to the printers in PDF format. That's a pretty standard and widely-accepted format, and you can export in high resolution. This way you don't need to package files, like your InDesign files along with all the links and fonts.

Just bring the high-res PDF files to your printer of choice. They will turn out fine. (I suggest exporting using the X-1a format.)

my images are 3072x2304 180 resolution and 1818x1228 300 resolution. after using the auto option in photoshop, some of them are now 4540x3405 266 resolution. i will try using photoshop instead of indesign, and see how that turns out. thanks so much for your help

haley

i'm sorry, i don't really understand. how am i supposed to put descriptions along with my images without packaging them into indesign or another format? do they do that for me when i go get them printed?

I missed the part about your needing to include descriptions. In which case, simply follow Mara's suggestion of placing the image into an InDesign file then typing the info about the image below it.

Once that's complete, then you can export the InDesign file as a PDF.

haley,
Back when I was applying to art programs at universities I scanned my art work in (most of it was drawn/painted/etc) or made sure my digital work was high enough resolution for printing (which it seems you have) and bought some high gloss photopaper($20) from my local office supply depot. I then took a ride over to the local arts and crafts store and bought a few big sheets of black/black illustration board($7). I used my parents color printer to print out my images(they were more than likely in .jpg format) and then printed all my image descriptions on a separate photo paper. I used an x-acto knife($5) and some rubber cement($4) to cut out my images and image descriptions to paste on the black board. I used some ribbon my mom had in her sewing stuff and took a needle and sewed that thing together. I think it was 9"x9"? The important thing was the CRAFTSMANSHIP!! all my edges on my cuts were sharp and at 90 degree angles, i didnt have glue or crud on my pages, my images and descriptions were centered. It ended up looking really sharp and it gave me a huge advantage over the kids who submitted CD's or had kinkos print their stuff(not that any of those were bad ideas) I actually had a professor talk to me about it once i was enrolled. It took some time and patients and when i was younger i had plenty of both. I made 2-3 and they were very cheap so i didn't feel upset if i didnt get it back. Just an idea! I stress the importance of craftsmanship when making it. it also gives you some space to be a bit more creative. Good luck!

brianmot,
that is actually how i had originally done my portfolio. only i used black card stock instead of illustration board and my descriptions weren't printed on photo paper. my parents printer isn't all that great, so i just had the images printed at a local photo store. i was told by one of my architecture professors that i should not do this, that i should have it printed so that it is all one page by itself. but, he is not one of the professors that will determine my acceptance. but maybe i can glue my photo paper page to the illustration board, because the way you did it sound really professional (better than just having it printed on photo paper). thanks for your advice :)