you can download tons of fonts for free...just do a google search for 'free font downloads'

any suggestions for simple thin ones?

Verdana, and the Swiss Lt fonts are pretty thin and simple...you should have these with Photoshop too.

Avantgarde is thin and elegant

just take any font and free distort it in illustrator or photoshop. i.e. squish any font to make it thin...
make sure that it it legible though but most people won't read your text anyway.

true dat on the not reading text. however text is a major part of/enhancement to graphics whether someone is going to read it or not. also, you don't want to have to squash every letter individually to thin it. one thing you can try with your standard 'fat fonts' is increase the letter spacing to make it a little more airy.

Do you want thin letter widths, or thin weights?

For the former, search for "compressed" or "condensed" on a font site, such as www.veer.com/products/type/. For the latter, look for typefaces with "light," "extra light" or "ultra light" weights. For a very modern look (albeit somewhat clichéd), try Helvetica Neue Ultra Light.

is a portfolio used only for school or can it be used as a resum'e

isocpeur

slaprabbit
any good practice would be curious to see your portfolio which may mean more than your resume

Helvetica Nue: Thin or UltraLight, also in Condensed and Extended versions -- four fonts of a wide range of quite cool fonts (despite the seemingly boring Helvetica name)

go to miniml

i wouldn't recommend 'squishing' fonts. just because you can do it doesn't mean you should. for other font options try these sites >>

http://www.typedifferent.com/
http://www.emigre.com/
http://store.adobe.com/type/main.html
http://www.fontfont.de/
http://www.myfonts.com/foundry/
http://www.fontbureau.com/
http://www.lineto.com/

isocpeur for me as well, verdana is my second choice (i usually use this when i type term paper)

I found that verdana is a great font but it uses too much space.

SansSerif is a classic.

i love DIN right now.

Do you mean thin as in line weight (boldness) or in the actual width of each letter?

BTW.. do NOT take the advice of rak1os. You'll just be immediately revealed as a typographic know-nothing. Unless you dont' mind that.