A printed deck behaves as a different object from the projected one, with different physics, and the physics is arithmetic you can do before you print anything.
How does N-up printing change the page count and scale?
Start with pages. Thirty slides print on 30 pages at one per page, 15 at two, 10 at three, 8 at four, 5 at six and 4 at nine per page. That last column is the appeal of an N-up handout, and the cost is hidden in the scale factor.
Compute the scale factor, which is the number that converts an inch on the slide to an inch on paper. A4 is 8.2677 by 11.6929 inches; at half-inch margins the printable area is 7.2677 by 10.6929. Allow a 0.2-inch gutter between cells, which is what the layouts leave, because the gutter changes the answer and an unstated one is why two people computing the same handout get different numbers. A two-up layout then gives each slide a cell of 7.2677 by 5.2465 inches, and fitting a 13.333 by 7.5 slide into that cell means a scale factor of 0.5451. A three-up layout, which puts the slides in a column 55% of the printable width and rules blank note lines beside them, gives 0.2998. A six-up grid of two columns by three rows gives cells of 3.5339 by 3.4310 inches and a scale factor of 0.2650.
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How small does the type print on a handout?
Type shrinks by that same factor, and the numbers are unforgiving.
| On the slide | 2-up (0.5451) | 3-up with note lines (0.2998) | 6-up (0.2650) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 pt title | 21.803 pt | 11.992 pt | 10.602 pt |
| 24 pt subhead | 13.082 pt | 7.195 pt | 6.361 pt |
| 18 pt body line | 9.811 pt | 5.396 pt | 4.771 pt |
| 12 pt chart label | 6.541 pt | 3.598 pt | 3.180 pt |
Now set 9 pt as the floor for comfortable reading on paper and invert the arithmetic. To clear 9 pt on paper, on-slide type must be at least 16.511 pt at two-up, 30.021 pt at three-up-with-note-lines and 33.957 pt at six-up. A deck whose smallest type is 11 pt, which is an ordinary chart axis label, prints at 5.996 pt on a two-up and 2.915 pt on a six-up. The second of those has stopped being small text and become a grey smudge that happens once to have been text. If you've ever squinted at a handout in a meeting, you've met that smudge.
Why is the handout a separate artefact, and how do you print it?
So the handout has to be a separate artefact. A print setting can't produce it. If the deck must be read on paper at six-up, the charts need larger labels, fewer series and a bigger title, and those are changes to the slide. No printer dialog can make them. The alternative, which is often the right answer, is to accept two-up, spend the extra pages, and stop pretending a six-up handout is readable.
Two production details save a reprint. Print a grayscale proof before printing colour, because a chart that distinguishes its series by hue alone becomes four identical grey lines, and the fix is a marker or a direct label. A different palette doesn't help. And check what the chosen layout carries before you print it, because the notes-page layout puts your speaker notes on the page while the three-up handout rules blank lines instead, and a notes-heavy deck printed from the wrong one hands internal commentary to a client.