Perhaps your company is looking to showcase its work to potential clients. Or maybe you’re a photographer or graphic designer looking to land a new client or a new job. In any of these situations, a well designed portfolio printing project is sure to help you achieve your objectives.

At Publishing Xpress, we specialize in printing books! We provide the options you need to print a book that showcases your works of art exactly the way you want. We offer a range of portfolio printing services—choose your own unique size, binding, and paper. Our online calculators can give you an instant quote on your printing project:

Printing Quote

Before you publish your portfolio, there are many decisions you need to make in the design of the book. Check out this article on tips for a graphic design portfolio. Or these 150 print portfolio ideas may inspire your project. You might also want to download our Ultimate Guide to Printing Your Book, Booklet, Catalog, or Magazine. It’s free and contains lots of helpful tips when designing your portfolio.

You may also want to check out one of our client spotlights: Strata Architects and their portfolio printing project.

Tips for Your Portfolio Printing

The point of a portfolio book is to impress the recipient. Thus, every part of the book needs to look professional — from the quality of the photos, to the layout of the book, to the quality of the printing. As you prepare your portfolio printing project, keep these tips in mind:

  • Before you even start laying out your portfolio book, get samples of other similar books. Go through them to see what you find appealing. What binding do they use on the book? How is the quality of the graphics? Does the layout have plenty of white space? How much text is in the book? What fonts are used? Are there items included that you hadn’t considered?
  • Since the book is displaying your portfolio and will probably have lots of photos in it, make sure that all of the photos are high quality.  The resolution should be at least 300 dpi and the color profile should be set to CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black). Most cameras and phones use an RGB (red-green-blue) color profile. You should convert to a CMYK color profile yourself, to make sure that the converted images have the right colors. Our printing presses will convert images from RGB to CMYK, but color shifts can occur.
  • Decide on a binding style. You can use any of our four binding styles (perfect binding, plastic coil, saddle stitch, or wire-o) for a portfolio book. The most common option, however, is perfect binding. This will give a very professional look to your portfolio.
  • Since you are trying to showcase your portfolio printing project, consider using 100# gloss or matte text stock for the inside pages. That is our highest quality text stock, which has a nice sturdy feel to it. Additionally, heavy color coverage of photos will not show through the page. If you are using perfect binding, we would recommend using 100# cover stock (the heaviest for this type of binding). Again, this has a nice sturdy feel to it. We recommend sending for our free sample packet. The packet has samples of all four binding styles in it. Also, the plastic coil book has samples of all of our papers in it as well as examples of gloss lamination and soft-touch lamination. It’s a great resource when deciding on options for your portfolio printing.
  • Make sure you have a professional cover for your portfolio. Consider adding lamination to the covers. Gloss lamination will make the colors on the cover pop, while soft-touch lamination has a velvety feel to it. If you aren’t happy with the cover you’ve designed, consider letting Publishing Xpress design your cover. For only $100, our designers will get basic information from you and then design your cover. The fee includes two free rounds of revisions. If you need more revisions, they only cost $25 per round.
  • Make sure you have lots of white space in your portfolio, which adds sophistication to the book. Books crammed with text and graphics are not visually appealing. You want your reader to be impressed with your portfolio, so visual appeal is very important.
  • Our minimum print quantity is only 25 copies. While that might seem like a lot if you are using the portfolio to get a job, you want the portfolio to look professional. We are experts at printing books and will make sure that your portfolio book will impress. Plus, our prices are so reasonable that 25 copies will not break the bank.
  • If you’re nervous about whether you’ll like the options you selected for your portfolio printing project, consider getting a hard copy press proof. We’ll print and bind your portfolio using the specifications in your order, so you’ll know exactly how your finished books will look. If you’re not happy with any of the options, you can change them before we print the rest of your books. You’re also likely to notice things in the hard copy press proof that you didn’t notice in your digital file. You can make changes to your file and submit a new file before we print your final order. We don’t charge extra for new file submissions. The cost of a hard copy press proof is $60 if it is sent via UPS ground service and $100 if sent via UPS overnight service.

Get Quotes for Your Portfolio Printing

Once you’re ready to print your portfolio, check out all the great options we offer—including four different binding styles, lots of paper options, lamination of covers, quick turnaround, and outstanding customer service. Plus, we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so you have peace of mind knowing that you’ll be happy with your printed product.

Contact Us Today for Portfolio Printing!

With Publishing Xpress, you’ll have access to quality printing at reasonable prices. Have questions about your portfolio printing project? Our client service representatives are here to answer your questions. You can chat online (our chat feature is in the right hand corner on every page of our website), call us at 1-877-977-3779, or email us at help@publishingxpress.com. You may also want to check out our other book printing ideas!

© 2024 Publishing Xpress. All Rights Reserved.

Email Quote