HP DesignJet Z6200 PowerPoint PC 4x4 Layout

PowerPoint was designed to create on-screen presentations. It was not intended for poster design. However, you can easily modify PowerPoint presentations for poster format by using the 4x4 layout feature of the print system and PowerPoint's "Scale to Fit Paper" option. The following instructions show you how to create a PDF file for the large-format HP DesignJet Z6200 printer in 004 Smith Hall.

A typical PowerPoint slide has a 4x3 aspect ratio, matching typical screen resolutions of 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768. When you print these slides on US letter-size paper, you get one 10"x7.5" slide per page, centered on the 11"x8.5" paper. By changing the "printer" and "paper size" settings, and the order in which the slides are printed, you can properly arrange the slides to print a PDF file 40x30.

This document assumes that you are working in the Smith Hall computing site. You can use your own system instead by first preparing your PC as directed in HP DesignJet Z6200 Poster Printing Instructions for Windows.

Creating a PDF file

For this example, you will select the printer and the paper size to create the PDF file. The "document size" always remains the same size as in the "on-screen show," namely 10"x7.5".

PowerPoint 2010

• Page Setup
• 1. From the Design tab, select Page Setup. The displayed width and height must be in a 4 to 3 ratio, for example, Width: 10 and Height: 7.5.
  2. Note the page Orientation.
  3. Click OK.
• Print
• 1. From the File menu, select Print.
  2. Under Printer, select HP DesignJet Z6100.
  3. Click the Printer Properties link.
     1. In the Layout tab, choose the correct Orientation for the slide, and for Pages Per Sheet:, select 16.
     2. Click Advanced.
        1. For Paper Size, select Postscript Custom Page Size and enter Paper Size: 30 x 40 (PDF produced will be 40x30).
        2. Click OK.
     3. Click OK.
        1. Uncheck “Draw Borders” if necessary.
     4. Click OK.
  4. Under Printer, check Print to File.
  5. Under Settings, select Custom Range.
  6. In the Slides: box, type 1,5,9,13,2,6,10,14,3,7,11,15,4,8,12,16.
  7. On the Full Page Slides popup menu, check Scale to fit paper.
  8. Click Print (icon at the top of the dialog box).
  9. Type the output filename (e.g., poster.ps).
  10. Click Save to generate the PostScript output file.

The resulting PS file will be one page with the 16 selected slides. The slides will be arranged to be read column by column.

To convert the PS file to PDF, use Adobe Distiller in the Smith Computing site.