How to Create A Digital Portfolio - Adobe Illustrator:

Illustrator is great if you have already created your individual portfolio pages and just need to combine them. But it also allows you to link files rather just embed them, which means that you can edit the original files and it will update them within the combined file. It also allows you to add a bleed to each page, which is useful when printing a physical portfolio, but not necessary for a digital version.

THE BLEED:

The bleed is the part of the image that extends beyond the trimmed edge. When printed this part can be trimmed, allowing for the image to extend to the edge of the page, and leaving no white margin or border. To do this you will need to save this PDF with crop marks, which indicate to the printers where to trim to.

A purely digital portfolio (i.e. one that is not going to be printed) does not require a bleed, however it is still a good idea to add one for the 'working file', as it allows the option to print later down the line, should you need to. You can then save versions of the the PDF to either include or not include the bleed area.

a. SETTING UP…

• open Adobe Illustrator.

• go to file > new > a new documents window will appear > choose file name.

• under profile, select the correct profile for the project, i.e. web, print, etc.

• under number of artboards type the number of pages required in the portfolio – note that you can add or subtract these later.

• with multiple artboards (pages), all artboards are visible on the one screen, so keeping these in order is good practice. You can choose how you want to order them, space them apart, as well as how many columns, etc.

• under size select the desired page dimensions, i.e. A4or A3, and next to orientation select either portrait or landscape.

• choose the amount of bleed (if required). A 3mm bleed on all edges is common, however certain printers may specify particular allowances.

• click advanced if the advanced options are not showing.

• under mode select either CMYK for print or RGB for web. This is the colour profile, and for example using the wrong one i.e. RGB for print, can result in colours that differ from what was desired.

• choose raster effects > high (300ppi) and preview mode > default.

• click ok > the pane with the empty artboards will now open.

b. FILLING THE PAGES…

• to populate the artboards with images, simply drag and drop the individual files from Finder(Mac)/ My Computer(PC) into the artboards - resize to fill bleed area (if necessary). These images are linked to the original file, and this can be edited by selecting edit original in the header bar, the image will in turn be updated when edited on the artboard.

• Repeat until all pages are filled.

• to make it easier to see what files are linked, go to window > links > a window will appear with all of the linked files.

• when you are happy that all of the pages are finished, embed the linked files by selecting the file on the artboard and clicking embed in the header bar. You can also embed files by clicking the downward triangle symbol in the top right corner of the links window, embed image is one of the options in the dropdown list.

Note: linked files are not truly within the artboard, it is just a ‘link’ connecting it to the original, and if you do not embed these files, when you share them they will be missing from the pages, and error message of missing files will appear.

c. EDITING THE ARTBOARDS…

• if you should need to add or delete pages, go to window > artboards > a new artboards window will appear > in the top right corner click the downward triangle symbol > a dropdown list will appear and here you can choose to either add a new artboard, or delete artboard. You can also choose to duplicate artboards, delete empty artboards; or even rearrange artboards – which is handy for organising the pages on the screen.

• another way of editing artboards is to go to file > document setup, or select document setup in the header bar> a new document setup window will appear (you can change bleed amounts now if needed).

• Click edit artboards which takes you back to the pane, in ‘edit mode’ with all of the pages, but with each artboard numbered. Now if needed, you can resize the artboards in the dropdown list next to presets, as well as change orientation. You can add artboards by clicking the new artboard icon to the right of the page orientation icons. You can also delete artboards by selecting the board and pressing the delete button on you keyboard. To exit this ‘edit mode’ select one of the tools in the tool bar i.e. the black selection tool (arrow) icon.

d. SAVING…

• when finished save the file by going to file > save > a window will appear where you can choose the file name, and save location > under format choose AdobePDF > click save > a save Adobe PDF window will appear > under Adobe PDF preset choose the version of PDF to save the file as in the dropdown list. The higher file size is at the top and the lowest at the bottom, but with low file size some editing features are lost. TIP: save a version as Illustrator Default to keep as the original, and another low file size version in PDF/X 2008 or Press Quality that is more of a sharable file size.

• under marks and bleeds choose whether you want to save the file with trim marks, and bleed – this is only necessary if you are getting your pages printed professionally and can get them trimmed down to the correct size.

• click save PDF.

• All done!