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I am making cards and icons for a board game I developed in PPT. All pieces have two sides to them and for economies of scale all the the pages are filled with different cards or icons. I am having trouble printing the pages back t back so that the images line up.

As an example, shown below I've arranged the pages so that the front of one card is in the upper left hand corner and the back of that card is in the upper left corner. I want them to print back to back. However, when I go to print, the cards do not line up at all. I've tried printing the pages using both the long edge and the short edge function of the printer to no avail. Here's what happens for each:

Here's what the pages look like in PPT enter image description here

Here's how it prints when selecting the long edge option. enter image description here Here's how it prints when selecting the short edge option. enter image description here

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    Possible duplicate of Two-sided printing: exact positioning? and 1 2 If the printer is not capable of duplex printing, you'll need to flip the paper properly before printing it the second time. But.. it's never going to line up exactly.
    – Scott
    Feb 6, 2019 at 0:41
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    And, in any case, both sides should not be in the exact same relative position on a sheet for the layout. The back should be on the opposite side of the layout. i.e if the front is in the top LEFT corner of the page, the back should be in the top RIGHT corner of the page.
    – Scott
    Feb 6, 2019 at 1:00
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    If you are flipping along the top edge, then the back page should be positioned to the right corner of the sheet, not the left.
    – Billy Kerr
    Feb 6, 2019 at 11:29
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    – GerardFalla
    Feb 6, 2019 at 16:10
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    What Martin said. And then once you've worked out the layout generally, use PowerPoint's guides. Drag one vertical to each side of the slide so that they're equal distances from the edge of the slide. Snap the recto design of one card to the guide on the left, the verso of your card to the guide on the right (on the next slide). By the way, life will be simpler if you set a CUSTOM slide size (to whatever paper size you're using) rather than using PPT's built in sizes. Then make sure to tell PPT NOT to scale to fit paper in the print dialog. BTW, CTRL+drag to make extra guides as needed.
    – Steve Rindsberg
    Feb 11, 2019 at 2:25

1 Answer 1

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Seems you are having a challenge envisaging the needed backside layout. So your idea with the lamp is great.

Next step: Use a pin and prick through the paper on the top-left and top-right and bottom-right (but not bottom-left) corners of your (first) Front of Card. Then turn the paper and draw the respective Back of Card. Only prick the next card, when you have drawn and labled the first one. Etc.

Once you have done this for all elements, you have the plan to layout your back page in your MS Powerpoint(?).

Scott and Billy are doing this inside their heads, and they got it right (pun intended), because they have done it five billion times. Paper models are great for beginners and they save trees, avoiding messed recto-verso print runs. After you have done this a few times, your brain will learn this front-back thinking.

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