Quick Answer
There are seven widely used slide rules, and six of them say roughly the same thing: cut the text. The 5/5/5, 6x6, 7x7 and 1-6-6 rules cap words and lines per slide. The 2/4/8 rule caps time and topics. The 30-point rule caps font size. Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule caps the whole deck at 10 slides, 20 minutes and 30-point type. For most US business decks, start with 1-6-6 for content and 30-point for type. For investor pitches, use 10/20/30. No rule fixes a weak story, which is why a presentation design subscription like PitchWorx at $699 a month often beats memorizing formulas.
Table of Contents
- Why so many slide rules exist
- The 5/5/5 rule
- The 6x6 rule
- The 7x7 rule
- The 10/20/30 rule
- The 2/4/8 rule
- The 1-6-6 rule
- The 30-point rule
- All seven rules compared
- Which rule should you actually use
- Where every rule breaks down
- How PitchWorx handles this
- Pricing and cost comparison
- Case study
- Client reviews
- FAQs
Why so many slide rules exist
Every one of these rules solves one problem: people read slides instead of listening to the speaker. There is real science behind it. A 2021 paper in PLOS Computational Biology on slide design points out that reading and listening use the same cognitive channel. An audience facing a text-heavy slide can either read it or listen to you and does both badly. Knowing when each rule stops being useful matters more than following any single one.
The 5/5/5 rule
Five words per line, five lines per slide, and no more than five text-heavy slides in a row.
That third number makes 5/5/5 different. Other rules ignore pacing across a deck. This one forces you to break up a wall of bullets with an image or a chart.
Best for: training and internal decks that run long.
The 6x6 rule
Six words per bullet, six bullets per slide. The most quoted rule in corporate America. The Presentation Training Institute criticizes it fairly: force every idea into six words and you distort information until the meaning is lost. A quote cannot be chopped to fit.
Best for: dense corporate decks that need a first-pass cleanup.
The 7x7 rule
Seven lines per slide, seven words per line. Also called 777. The most permissive word-count rule, which is the problem. Seven by seven allows 49 words on a slide. That is a paragraph. If your slides pass 7x7 and still feel heavy, the rule is doing nothing.
Best for: technical or regulatory decks where detail cannot be cut.
The 10/20/30 rule
Guy Kawasaki's rule for pitching investors: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30-point minimum font. This governs the whole deck, not a single slide. The 20-minute limit assumes a one-hour meeting where technology fails and discussion runs long. The 30-point floor is deliberate: if your content does not fit at 30 points, you have too much content.
Best for: seed and Series A pitches. VCs recognize this one by name.
The 2/4/8 rule
Each slide stays on screen at least 2 minutes but no more than 4, and the full presentation covers no more than 8 main topics. This says nothing about words. It governs pacing and scope. A 2/4/8 deck runs 16 to 32 minutes across eight topics, a realistic conference or board slot.
Best for: conference talks and board updates.
The 1-6-6 rule
One main idea per slide, six bullets per slide, six words per bullet. That first number is the whole point. The 6x6 rule limits volume but still lets you cram three unrelated ideas onto one slide. "One idea per slide" fixes the structural problem, not just the visual one.
Best for: almost every business deck. Remember this one if nothing else.
The 30-point rule
No font smaller than 30 points, anywhere on the slide. Kawasaki's argument is that small type is a symptom. Presenters shrink the font because they have too much content. Setting a floor forces the edit.
Best for: any room where someone sits more than 15 feet from the screen.
All seven rules compared
| Rule | What it limits | Strictness | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5/5/5 | Words, lines, consecutive text slides | High | Training decks |
| 6x6 | Words per bullet, bullets per slide | Medium | Corporate cleanup |
| 7x7 | Words per line, lines per slide | Low | Technical decks |
| 10/20/30 | Slide count, runtime, font size | Very high | Investor pitches |
| 2/4/8 | Time per slide, total topics | Medium | Conference talks |
| 1-6-6 | Ideas, bullets, words | High | Most business decks |
| 30-point | Font size only | Medium | Large rooms |
Which Rule Should You Actually Use
Stack two rather than picking one. Use 1-6-6 for content and 30-point for typography. Together they cover structure, density and readability without contradicting each other. If you are raising money, switch to 10/20/30, because investors know the format. Presenting on a clock, layer 2/4/8 on top for pacing. Most teams running a presentation design subscription work this way too, treating rules as a starting checklist rather than the finished deck.
Where Every Rule Breaks Down
All seven rules assume slides are bullet lists. In 2026, many of the best decks have almost none. A full-bleed product photo with a six-word headline passes every rule and says more than 49 words could. The rules also cannot tell you whether your story works. A deck can pass 5/5/5, 6x6, 1-6-6 and 30-point and still lose the room, because the argument was never clear. That is the gap a presentation design subscription fill. Rules police symptoms. A designer fixes structure.
How PitchWorx Handles This
PitchWorx started in 2012 and has designed over 150,000 slides for clients including Wipro, Samsung, Honeywell, PepsiCo and Caterpillar. The studio is ISO 27001:2022 certified and serves the USA, UK, UAE and India.
In 2026 it restructured around one plan called Creative Assist, an AI-led presentation design subscription where AI agents handle the first pass and senior designers review every output before it ships.
What the plan includes:
- Unlimited requests, two actives at a time
- Most requests back in about 72 hours
- Unlimited revisions
- Eight service categories: presentations, brand identity, marketing creatives, web design and development, video and motion, print and outdoor, books and magazines, illustration and infographics
- Editable source files you own, in PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides or Figma
- Unlimited team members on one account
- No contract, cancel anytime
- A 7-day free trial with a real brief
One detail matter for US teams. Most competitors route deck work through the same queue as social banners. PitchWorx sends presentation requests to a dedicated deck team, so an investor deck does not wait behind an Instagram carousel. That is the difference between a general design service and a true presentation design subscription, and it is why the unlimited graphic design subscription ends the cycle of briefing a new freelancer for every request.
Pricing & Cost Comparison
Creative Assist is $699 per month, flat.
| Option | Monthly cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PitchWorx Creative Assist | $699 | Dedicated deck team, 8 categories |
| Kimp | $899 | Shared queue |
| Penji | $1000 | Entry tier, shared queue |
| Flocksy | $1,199 | Pooled daily hours |
| US in-house designer | ~$5,000 | Over $60,000/year before benefits |
Upwork lists presentation designers at $35 to $60 per hour and $500 to $2,500 for a 10 to 20-slide pitch deck. 24Slides charges $16 per slide for a fix-up, $43 for a redesign and $66 for a redraw. A 40-slide redesign at $43 per slide costs $1,720, more than two months of the presentation design subscription.
Chart brief: horizontal bar chart from the table above, monthly cost on the X axis, PitchWorx bar in brand color, others neutral gray. Title it "Monthly design cost, 2026."
Case study
According to PitchWorx's published results, a Boston medical device manufacturer recorded a 41% increase in sales conversion rate after rolling out new product presentations. A New York investment firm reported client retention improving by 28% after its quarterly review decks were redesigned.
A 22-slide Series A deck was rebuilt from a content document into a story-led structure with an opening hook, evidence and ask. That round closed within nine weeks. None of those outcomes came from a slide rule. They came from a senior team working continuously through a presentation design subscription.
Eight full case studies are at pitchworx.com/case-studies.
Client reviews
**Note for the PitchWorx team: replace this block before publishing.** No public Google Business Profile reviews were available at the time of writing. Verify the profile, request reviews from active subscribers, then quote three to five verbatim reviews here with first names and star ratings. The Clutch profile at clutch.co/profile/pitchworx already carries verified client feedback and can be linked meanwhile.
FAQs
Which presentation rule is best to follow?
For general business decks, 1-6-6 paired with the 30-point rule. For investor pitches, 10/20/30.
Is the 6x6 rule outdated?
Incomplete rather than outdated. It limits text volume without requiring one idea per slide, which is why 1-6-6 has largely replaced it.
What is the difference between 5/5/5 and 7x7?
5/5/5 allows 25 words per slide and limits consecutive text-heavy slides. 7x7 allows 49 words and ignores pacing.
How much does a presentation design subscription cost?
PitchWorx Creative Assist is $699 per month with unlimited requests and no contract. Competing plans run from $499 to $1,199 per month.
Is an unlimited graphic design subscription cheaper than hiring in-house?
On published US figures, yes. A full-time in-house designer costs over $60,000 a year before benefits, against $8,388 a year for the PitchWorx plan.
Can PitchWorx apply these rules to an existing deck?
Yes. Cleanups and full redesigns both run through the same unlimited graphic design subscription, with most requests back in about 72 hours.
Does the unlimited graphic design subscription cover more than slides?
Yes. One unlimited graphic design subscription covers brand identity, web, video and motion, print, books and illustration alongside the presentation design subscription work.
Is there a trial?
A 7-day free trial is available. Send a real deck brief and judge the output before subscribing.
