How to Print PowerPoint With Notes

Over 500 million people use Microsoft PowerPoint for presentations every single year, yet the vast majority never discover the one print setting that turns their slides into a complete speaker reference sheet. If you need to know how to print PowerPoint with notes, you are in exactly the right place. Printing your speaker notes alongside your slides gives you a page-by-page cue card — no second screen, no frantic scrolling, no losing your place mid-talk. This guide covers every method, every layout option, and every cost consideration, so you can walk into your next presentation fully prepared. For more practical printing advice, browse our printing tips category.

PowerPoint has offered a Notes Pages print layout since its earliest versions, but most users never look past the default "Full Page Slides" setting. Your speaker notes — the text you type in the small panel below each slide in Normal view — print right next to a thumbnail of the corresponding slide when you use the correct layout. The result is a page that shows exactly what your audience sees on screen, paired with exactly what you planned to say.

The challenge is that the notes print option is buried inside a drop-down menu inside the print dialog. It is not labeled in an obvious way, which is why so many experienced PowerPoint users have never stumbled across it. Once you know where to click, the whole process takes under a minute. Let's start with the fastest approach and work toward the most customized setups.

The Fastest Way to Print PowerPoint With Notes

Most people learn to print PowerPoint with notes in under two minutes once they know exactly where to look. The key is a single drop-down menu inside the print dialog — specifically the one that controls how slides appear on the printed page. Here is how to find it on both Windows and Mac.

Step-by-Step on Windows

These steps work for Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2021, 2019, 2016, and 2013. The process is identical across all recent versions.

1. Open your presentation in PowerPoint.
2. Press Ctrl+P to open the Print dialog, or go to File > Print.
3. Under the Settings section, click the drop-down that currently reads "Full Page Slides." This is the layout selector — it is not labeled as "layout," which is why it confuses so many people.
4. Under the Print Layout heading inside that drop-down, select Notes Pages.
5. Confirm the correct printer is selected in the Printer field at the top.
6. Click Print.

Each printed page will show one slide thumbnail at the top half of the page and the corresponding speaker notes text in the bottom half. If a slide has no notes, that bottom half will be blank — which is still useful as a writing space during a meeting or workshop. If you want to print only specific slides, type a range into the Slides field (for example, "1-5, 8, 12-15"). This lets you skip slides that have no notes rather than printing blank pages for every one of them.

A quick detail worth knowing: PowerPoint respects your notes formatting when printing. If you bolded or italicized text inside the Notes panel, that formatting carries through to the printed page. Use this to your advantage — bold the key terms or cues you want to catch your eye during the presentation.

Step-by-Step on Mac

The Mac version of PowerPoint hides the layout options slightly differently from Windows. The extra step is expanding the print dialog to reveal all the options.

1. Open your PowerPoint file on your Mac.
2. Go to File > Print or press Cmd+P.
3. If the dialog appears as a small box, click Show Details in the lower-left corner to expand the full print options.
4. Find the drop-down that says "Copies & Pages" and change it to Microsoft PowerPoint (or just "PowerPoint").
5. A new set of options appears. From the Print What drop-down, choose Notes.
6. Click Print.

If you regularly print documents from your Mac and want to save time on printer configuration across all your apps, our full guide on how to print on Mac covers system-level settings that apply everywhere — not just PowerPoint.

Pro tip: Always click Print Preview before sending the job — blank notes sections are invisible until you look, and a 40-page print run of half-blank pages is an unpleasant surprise.

Print Layout Options Compared

PowerPoint gives you multiple ways to arrange slides on a printed page. Some layouts are built for the speaker; others are designed to hand out to the audience. Understanding the difference saves you paper, ink, and the embarrassment of distributing the wrong format to a room full of people.

Notes Pages vs. Handouts

Notes Pages is the layout you want when printing for yourself. Each page shows one slide and its full notes text. Handouts are designed for the audience — they pack multiple slides onto a single page, sometimes with blank lines for note-taking, sometimes without any extra space at all. Here is a complete comparison of every print layout PowerPoint offers:

Picking the Right Layout

The decision comes down to who is using the printout. For the speaker, Notes Pages is almost always the correct answer. For an audience that needs to follow along and take notes, the 3-slide handout is the industry standard — three slides down the left side, three sets of blank lines on the right for writing.

• Speaker with detailed talking points → Notes Pages, one copy
• Speaker who only needs occasional reminders → Notes Pages, print only key slides
• Training audience that needs to write → 3-slide Handouts
• Conference attendees (passive listening) → 6-slide Handouts
• Academic class with annotation needs → 3-slide Handouts with wide margins

According to Wikipedia's overview of Microsoft PowerPoint, the application was originally designed by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin as a business presentation tool. Speaker notes were included from the beginning because even the original designers understood that presenters need a way to track what they planned to say — something a slide alone can never fully capture.

Basic vs. Advanced Print Setups

Not every presenter needs the same level of control over their printout. A first-time speaker just needs the notes to appear on the page. An experienced presenter might want custom fonts, specific slide ranges, headers, footers, and margin settings that match their presentation style. Here is how to handle both ends of the spectrum.

The Beginner Approach

If this is your first time printing PowerPoint notes, keep it simple. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the first section, select Notes Pages, and click print. Do not overthink the settings. The default layout gives you a usable result in under a minute, and that is enough for most situations.

A few things first-timers should know before hitting print:

• Notes text in the Notes panel is usually smaller than slide text — it still prints legibly at default size on most printers.
• Slides with no notes print as a half-blank page. This is normal, not a malfunction.
• If your slides use dark backgrounds, those backgrounds print by default and eat through ink quickly. Turn this off under File > Options > Advanced — uncheck "Print background colors and images."
• Black-and-white works perfectly for text-heavy notes pages. Reserve color for slides with charts or images that must be read accurately in print.

Before you print anything, it helps to understand what type of printer you are working with. Laser printers and inkjet printers handle text documents very differently in terms of quality and cost. Our guide to types of printers explained breaks down the key differences between inkjet, laser, thermal, and dot matrix models so you can make an informed decision about the right equipment for this kind of job.

Advanced Customization

Once you are comfortable with the basic steps, PowerPoint gives you deep control through a feature called the Notes Master. This is a separate editing view — think of it as a template that controls how every notes page looks before you print a single sheet.

To access Notes Master, go to View > Notes Master. From here you can make changes that apply to every notes page in the deck:

• Resize the slide thumbnail — shrink it to give your notes text more vertical space on the page
• Change the notes font and size — increase to 14pt or 16pt for easier at-a-glance reading during a talk
• Add a header or footer — include your name, the presentation title, a date, or automatic page numbering
• Adjust margins and layout — customize spacing so the page matches your preferences exactly
• Apply a theme color or brand style — useful when distributing formal printed handouts that need to match your organization's visual identity

Advanced users also take advantage of selective slide printing. In a 60-slide deck, you might only need speaker notes for slides 3 through 10 and slide 45. Type "3-10, 45" in the Slides box inside the Print dialog and print only those pages. This keeps your speaker packet lean and cuts paper use significantly.

If you routinely produce presentation handouts as part of a professional workflow, duplex (two-sided) printing cuts your paper use in half on every job. Our guide to the best duplex scanning printers covers models that handle text-heavy documents with clean, reliable results — worth reading before your next major print run.

What It Costs to Print Presentation Notes

Printing notes adds pages to your job. A 20-slide deck in Notes Pages layout produces 20 printed pages — compared to just 3 pages if you used the 9-slides-per-page handout format instead. That difference matters when you are printing multiple copies or running a large deck. Understanding the real cost helps you make smarter decisions about layout, color, and volume before you start.

Printing at Home

Home printing costs depend on your printer type and whether you print in color or black-and-white. Here is a realistic per-page estimate for a 20-slide Notes Pages printout:

• Laser printer (black only): approximately $0.02–$0.05 per page → 20 pages = $0.40–$1.00 total
• Inkjet printer (black only): approximately $0.05–$0.10 per page → 20 pages = $1.00–$2.00 total
• Color inkjet: approximately $0.15–$0.25 per page → 20 pages = $3.00–$5.00 total
• Color laser: approximately $0.08–$0.15 per page → 20 pages = $1.60–$3.00 total

For speaker notes you only use once during a presentation, black-only laser printing is the most cost-effective option by a wide margin. Laser toner is durable, text stays sharp even at small font sizes, and the per-page cost is significantly lower than inkjet color. If your deck uses branded charts or color-coded diagrams that your audience needs to interpret from a printout, printing only those specific pages in color is a smarter move than running the entire deck in color.

Duplex printing cuts your paper use in half — a 20-slide Notes Pages job becomes 10 sheets of paper instead of 20. Just confirm your printer actually supports automatic duplex before selecting that option. Manually flipping pages mid-job on a single-sided printer causes page-order confusion and wastes more paper than it saves.

Print Shop vs. Home Printer

For larger decks or when printing multiple copies for a team, it is worth comparing home printing against a print shop before you start.

• Home printer (laser, black): $0.02–$0.05/page — cheapest for single copies
• Office supply store self-serve: $0.08–$0.15/page black, $0.30–$0.50/page color
• Local print shop (volume): $0.05–$0.12/page black for 100+ pages — often cheaper than home inkjet
• Online print service: $0.04–$0.08/page black at volume, plus shipping time

For a single-use speaker notes packet, home printing almost always wins on both cost and convenience. For 20 or more copies of a distributed handout — say, a full presenter notes packet for every attendee at a workshop — a local print shop or online service is faster and often cheaper per page once you factor in your ink and paper costs. If you produce professional printed materials on a regular basis, the right printer investment pays for itself quickly.

Pro Tips for a Flawless Notes Printout

Knowing how to print PowerPoint with notes is only half the job. The other half is making sure the output is actually useful when you are standing at the front of a room. These habits separate mediocre printouts from ones that genuinely improve your presentation.

Before You Print

Preparation before you send the job to the printer prevents wasted paper and last-minute panic. Run through this checklist every time:

• Review every notes panel — scroll through Normal view and confirm every slide you care about actually has notes typed in. Blank slides print as half-blank pages.
• Use Print Preview — always, without exception. This shows you exactly how each page will look before any paper is involved. Look for truncated text, missing content, or unexpected blank sections.
• Proofread your notes — speaker notes go through far less review than slide content. They are full of quick abbreviations and typos that look fine on screen but embarrassing in print.
• Know your page count — a 60-slide deck in Notes Pages layout is 60 pages. Load enough paper and make sure your ink or toner can handle the job.
• Set the correct paper size — most Notes Pages are designed for Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) in North America or A4 elsewhere. A mismatch causes content to clip at the edges without warning.

Getting the Best Output

A few final adjustments before you print make the output significantly more readable and professional:

• Increase your notes font size in Notes Master — 12pt is readable in normal lighting, but 14pt or 16pt is far easier to glance at during a live talk without losing your place on the page.
• Print in grayscale for text-heavy decks — grayscale mode gives better tonal contrast than pure black-only mode, making slide thumbnails clearer without burning through color cartridges.
• Use heavier paper for distributed handouts — standard 20lb copy paper is fine for your personal speaker packet. If you are handing notes to an audience, 24lb or 32lb paper feels noticeably more professional.
• Number your pages in the footer — add automatic page numbering through Notes Master so you can find your place instantly if pages get shuffled before you walk on stage.
• Always print a test page first — send the first two slides to the printer and inspect the result before running the full job. This catches font rendering issues, layout problems, and printer configuration errors before they multiply across 40 pages.

If you regularly print handouts intended for an audience and quality matters, it is worth having a printer that handles text documents cleanly at any volume. Our guide to the best printers for certificate printing covers models that excel at sharp, professional text output — the same qualities that make a great presentation handout printer.

Frequently Asked Questions

The right printout does not just remind you what to say — it gives you the confidence to say it like you mean it.