Summary

Printing a PowerPoint deck one slide per page wastes paper and gives your audience nothing to write on. This article shows you where the handout layouts hide in the print screen, which one to pick for which purpose, how to add a header and page numbers with the Handout Master, and how to cut the toner cost or skip paper entirely with a PDF.

In this guide

• 1. Open the Print Screen
• 2. Find the Handout Layouts
• 3. Choose How Many Slides per Page
• 4. Choose Between Handouts and Notes Pages
• 5. Set Framing, Scaling, and Colour
• 6. Add a Header, Footer, or Page Numbers with the Handout Master
• 7. Print to PDF Instead of Paper

Before You Start

• Microsoft PowerPoint, desktop version. Handout layouts and the Handout Master are not available in PowerPoint for the web.
• A printer installed, or Microsoft Print to PDF if you are producing a file.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Open the Print Screen

Everything in this article happens on one screen.

1. Open your presentation and press Ctrl + P, or click File > Print.
2. The backstage print screen opens. Settings run down the left column; a live preview of the printed page fills the right side.
3. Confirm the printer named in the Printer dropdown at the top of the left column is the one you want. Change it now rather than after configuring the layout.

Note: The preview on the right updates with every change you make. Trust it — it shows exactly what comes out of the printer, including margins and page breaks.

2. Find the Handout Layouts

This is the step people miss, because the control does not say "handout" until after you click it.

1. Look down the left column to the Settings heading.
2. The first dropdown reads Print All Slides. Leave it, unless you want a subset — in which case choose Custom Range and type the slide numbers, such as 1-4,9.
3. Click the second dropdown. In a fresh presentation it reads Full Page Slides.
4. A menu opens with two sections: Print Layout at the top and Handouts beneath it.

The Print Layout section holds three entries:

• Full Page Slides — one slide filling each page. The default, and the reason so many decks get printed as a wasteful stack.
• Notes Pages — one slide per page with your speaker notes printed underneath it.
• Outline — the text of every slide as an indented text outline, with no images. Useful for proofreading a deck, not for an audience.

The Handouts section holds nine entries: 1 Slide, 2 Slides, 3 Slides, 4 Slides Horizontal, 6 Slides Horizontal, 9 Slides Horizontal, 4 Slides Vertical, 6 Slides Vertical, and 9 Slides Vertical.

Verification: Click any handout option. The preview on the right immediately redraws showing several slides on one sheet. The dropdown now displays the layout name instead of Full Page Slides.

3. Choose How Many Slides per Page

Pick by how the handout will actually be used, not by how many pages it saves.

• 3 Slides — three slides down the left of the page with ruled note lines beside each one. This is the only handout layout that gives the audience somewhere to write, and it is the right choice for training sessions, workshops, and anything where people take notes.
• 2 Slides — two large slides per page. Charts and small text stay readable. Use it when the slides carry detail people need to read.
• 6 Slides — six slides per page. A compact reference or agenda. Body text at 18pt or below becomes hard work on paper.
• 9 Slides — nine slides per page. A visual index of a long deck, not a document anyone reads.
• 4 Slides — a middle ground between 2 and 6.
• 1 Slide — one slide per page, but sized to the handout area with a margin, rather than filling the page as Full Page Slides does.

Horizontal versus Vertical controls the order the slides flow across the page. Horizontal runs left to right along each row, the way you read. Vertical runs down the first column and then down the second. Choose Horizontal unless you have a specific reason not to — readers follow it without being told.

Tip: The ruled lines on 3 Slides are the single biggest upgrade to a printed deck. People who write during a session remember more of it, and you stop fielding follow-up questions that were answered on slide 6.

4. Choose Between Handouts and Notes Pages

These two get confused constantly, and the difference matters.

	Handouts	Notes Pages
Slides per page	1 to 9	Always 1
Includes your speaker notes	No	Yes
Writing space for the reader	Ruled lines on 3 Slides only	None
Intended reader	The audience	You, or someone delivering the deck
Pages used	Few	One per slide

Nothing in the Handouts section prints speaker notes. If you have written commentary under each slide and you want it on paper, select Notes Pages in the Print Layout section instead. Writing and formatting those notes is covered in How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint.

A practical split: print Notes Pages for yourself before you present, and 3 Slides handouts for the room.

5. Set Framing, Scaling, and Colour

Four settings sit below the layout dropdown, and three of them are worth changing.

1. Reopen the layout dropdown. The checkboxes sit at the bottom of the same menu.
2. Tick Frame Slides. A thin border draws around each slide image, which stops white-background slides from bleeding into the page and looking like floating text.
3. Tick Scale to Fit Paper when the preview shows slides cropped at the edge. This shrinks the layout to fit inside the printer's unprintable margin — most printers cannot reach the last few millimetres of a sheet.
4. Leave High Quality off unless the handout carries photographs. It slows printing and uses more ink for a difference nobody notices on text and charts.
5. Tick Print Comments only when you want reviewer comments on the sheet. They print on separate pages at the end.
6. Click outside the menu to close it.

Now set the colour mode, which is where the toner savings are:

1. Click the last dropdown in the left column. It reads Color by default.
2. Choose one of the three options:
   • Color — full colour. Correct for a client-facing leave-behind, expensive for 30 copies of an internal deck.
   • Grayscale — converts colours to shades of grey while keeping images and gradients visible. This is the everyday choice and it cuts colour toner use to zero.
   • Pure Black and White — drops greys entirely. Every fill becomes white and every line black. It uses the least toner of the three, and it rescues a deck with a dark background, which under Grayscale prints as a solid dark block across the whole page.
3. Watch the preview. It redraws in the mode you picked, so you see the dark-background problem before you print 30 copies of it.

Verification: The preview shows framed slides, fully inside the page margins, in the colour mode you chose. Set the number of Copies at the top of the screen, then click Print.

6. Add a Header, Footer, or Page Numbers with the Handout Master

The Handout Master controls the page around the slides — the parts the print screen cannot reach.

1. Press Esc to leave the print screen.
2. Click the View tab, then Handout Master in the Master Views group.
3. The window changes to a single page showing placeholder boxes: a header at the top left, a date at the top right, a footer at the bottom left, and a page number at the bottom right, with grey rectangles standing in for the slides between them.
4. A Handout Master tab appears on the ribbon. In the Placeholders group, tick or clear Header, Footer, Date, and Page Number to control which boxes print.
5. Click inside the Header box and type your text — a course name, the presenter's name, Confidential — internal use only, whatever the handout needs. Do the same in the Footer box.
6. Use the Home tab to set the font and size of that text, exactly as on a slide.
7. In the Page Setup group, use Handout Orientation to switch between Portrait and Landscape, and Slides Per Page to preview a specific layout while you design.
8. Click Close Master View in the Close group.

Note: The Slides Per Page setting in the Handout Master is a preview aid. The layout that actually prints is the one selected in the print screen dropdown from step 2.

The Handout Master follows the same master-and-layout logic as the rest of PowerPoint's design system, covered in How to Use the Slide Master in PowerPoint.

Verification: Press Ctrl + P and select a handout layout again. Your header and footer text now appear at the top and bottom of the preview page.

7. Print to PDF Instead of Paper

A PDF handout emails cleanly, prints on someone else's printer, and costs nothing in toner.

The quickest route uses the same print screen:

1. Press Ctrl + P.
2. Click the Printer dropdown at the top of the left column and select Microsoft Print to PDF.
3. Set the handout layout and colour options exactly as in steps 2 to 5.
4. Click Print. A Save Print Output As dialog opens instead of anything reaching a printer.
5. Choose a folder, type a filename, and click Save.

For more control over the finished PDF, use the export route instead:

1. Click File > Export > Create PDF/XPS Document > Create PDF/XPS.
2. In the dialog that opens, click Options at the bottom.
3. Set Publish what to Handouts.
4. Set Slides per page and choose Horizontal or Vertical under Order.
5. Tick Frame slides, then click OK.
6. Choose a folder and filename and click Publish.

Tip: Send the PDF as a link rather than an attachment when the deck carries photographs — see How to Save or Print Any Document as a PDF for the general technique across Office apps.

Troubleshooting

TIP

Print one copy before you print thirty. A single test sheet catches the dark background that turned into a toner-soaking grey block, the 14pt body text that is unreadable at 6-per-page, and the header you meant to change from the last session's course name.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
No handout options in the layout dropdown	Using PowerPoint for the web	Handout layouts are desktop-only. Open the file in the PowerPoint desktop app, or export a PDF from the desktop app and share that.
Handouts print with no lines to write on	A layout other than 3 Slides is selected	Only 3 Slides includes ruled note lines. Select it in the layout dropdown (step 3).
Slides are cropped at the edge of the page	Printer's unprintable margin	Tick Scale to Fit Paper in the layout dropdown (step 5), or switch the handout to Landscape in the Handout Master.
Header text does not appear on the printout	Header placeholder is off or empty	Open View > Handout Master, tick Header in the Placeholders group, and type into the box (step 6).
The whole page prints as a dark block	Dark slide background rendered in greyscale	Set the colour dropdown to Pure Black and White rather than Grayscale (step 5).
Pages still print in colour after choosing Grayscale	Printer driver overriding the application	Click Printer Properties under the Printer dropdown and set the colour mode there as well. Full detail is in How to Manage Default Printers and Print Settings on Windows.
Speaker notes are missing from the handout	Handout layouts never include notes	Select Notes Pages in the Print Layout section instead (step 4).

Related Articles

• How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint
• How to Use the Slide Master in PowerPoint
• How to Save or Print Any Document as a PDF
• How to Manage Default Printers and Print Settings on Windows
• How to Create an Effective PowerPoint Presentation

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