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This documentation describes how to take an existing PowerPoint presentation of 16 slides and prepare an Adobe PDF file for printing as a 40"x30" poster.

PowerPoint was designed to create on-screen presentations. It was not intended for poster design. However, PowerPoint presentations can be easily modified for poster format by using the 4x4 layout feature of the MacOS print system and PowerPoint's "Scale to Fit Paper" option. This will be illustrated using the large-format HP DesignJet 5500 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. the slides will be properly arranged and printed on a 40"x30" roll of printer paper.

(This document assumes that you are working in the Smith Hall Computing Site. You can use your own system instead by first preparing your Macintosh as directed in HP DesignJet 5500 Poster Printing from a Macintosh.)

Creating a PDF file

For this example, you will only select the printer and the paper size choices. The "document size" always remains the same size as in the "on-screen show", namely 10"x7.5". You first select two options from the File pull-down menu, one for page setup, and one for printing to create the Adobe PDF file.

1. Page Setup...
   Select File -> Page Setup....
   • The displayed width and height must be in a 4 to 3 ratio, for example, Width: 10 and Height: 7.5
   • Press the Options... button.
   • Select "Format for:" HP5500_DJRIP on 128.175.8.236.
   • Select "Paper Size:" 30_by_40".
   • Press the OK button.
   • Press the OK button.

2. Print...
   Select File -> Print....
   • Select "Printer:" HP5500_DJRIP on 128.175.8.236.
   • In the "Copies & Pages" section, make sure there are exactly 16 slides to be printed.
   • In the "Layout" section, select 16 "Pages per Sheet:" 16, and select the "Layout Direction" to go down and then to the right.
   
   • Press the Save As PDF button.

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