HP DesignJet Z6100 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 Z6100 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 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 PC as directed in HP DesignJet Z6100 Poster Printing Instructions for Windows. (Note: The downloaded printer driver only works for people running 32-bit Windows systems. There is no comparable version for 64-bit machines.)

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/Output, select Paper Size: 30_by_40
      2. Click OK.
   3. 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 dailog box).
9. Type the output filename (e.g., "poster.ps"). Be sure to type the .ps extension and the quotation marks.
10. Click Save to generate the PostScript output file.

PowerPoint 2007

• 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 Office Button, select Print.
     In the Print window:
     1. From the Name: pull-down menu, select HP DesignJet Z6100.
     2. Click Properties.
        1. In the Layout tab, choose the correct Orientation for the slide and for Pages Per Sheet:, select 16.
        2. Click Advanced.
           1. Under Paper/Output, for Paper Size:, select 30_by_40.
           2. Click the OK button
     3. Click the OK button
     4. Check Print to File.
     5. Under Print range, click Slides.
     6. In the Slides: box, type 1,5,9,13,2,6,10,14,3,7,11,15,4,8,12,16.
     7. Check Scale to fit paper.
     8. Click OK.
  2. In the Print to File window, type the output filename (e.g., "poster.ps"). Be sure to type the .ps extension and the quotation marks.
  3. Click Save to generate the PostScript output file.

For both PowerPoint 2010 and 2007, 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. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat on your PC, you can transfer the file to Strauss and distill it with the commmand:

distill poster.ps

For more information see Adobe Acrobat Reader and Distiller.