OR are you supposed to use adobe acrobat? I see a tutorial for that online

"Also any advice on transferring digital portfolios to a physical bound respectable form would be appreciated too!"

i.e. Printing?

If you are comfortable using photoshop, then you should start with that. Do play around illustrator if you get a chance. I have no idea what InDesign is used for outside of combining illustrator files into a booklet. All three are made by Adobe and there is definitively abundance in feature overlap.

I find illustrator to be easier to maneuver around in larger projects ie. moving stuff around and just playing with different types of layout. Photoshop files tend to get very messy very fast. Revisiting a portfolio in illustrator is much easier than one made in photoshop. Illustrator will also create much smaller PDF files, which is useful for when applying to jobs that have a size limit requirement.

I suggest that you learn to use both. They will be of great use to you for many years to come.

I'm too lazy to retype what has already been said on several threads about portfolio making, but Photoshop is not the way to go, unless you really hate yourself. Illustrator or InDesign, although probably both will be necessary. Trust me. And do some research, I mean there is a google search embedded in this site. Seriously.

im aware of the search feature i have been digging through these forums all day =)

use indesign. it takes about 10 minutes to learn...

use indesign for portfolio layout - look through some magazines for a way in which to design your sheets in your portfolio - use photoshop and illustrator to doctor your drawings and images.

Pay someone to do your layouts for you.

@unicorn ghost- sounds good !

Available for portfolio layout hire.

indesign.

It's specifically geared towards designing books/pamphlets/magazines or layouts of any sort. You need to see your pages individually and as a whole, and you need to be able to move fluidly between the twain. Photoshop edits specific images, Illustrator edits specific vector based files. The Adobe suite is largely self explanatory and intuitive. I might also suggest 'Bridge' as a means to organize your images. InDesign has a built in mechanism for creating 'master' pages. AKA the standard template you're looking for.

Otherwise you could always learn Quark. Flash is for the dumb.

@ cherith cutestory- I can pay you with honest enthusiastic support

inDesign -> PDF -> Lulu.com -> Print -> Evaluate -> Lulu again if needed -> Send out.

@fluxbound - thanks for the feedback ^^;