# Presentation rules: the 10-20-30, 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules and when to ignore them > The 10-20-30 rule (ten slides, twenty minutes, 30-point type) comes from Guy Kawasaki and was written for investor pitches. The 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules cap words per line, lines per slide and sometimes slides per deck. All are rules of thumb: they catch crowded slides, but they are conventions, not findings, and none can tell you whether a slide says something useful. - Source: https://ai-presentations.com/guides/presentation-rules/ - Updated: 21 October 2026 - Language: English - German version: https://ai-presentations.com/de/ratgeber/praesentationsregeln/ **The 10-20-30, 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules are rules of thumb against crowded slides, not laws.** The 10-20-30 rule limits a pitch to ten slides, twenty minutes and 30-point type. The 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules cap the words per line, the lines per slide and, in some versions, the number of slides. No study sets these numbers, and the SlideModel and HubSpot explainers linked below cite none. Use the rules to catch overload in a draft, then judge each slide by one question: can your audience take it in while you are talking? ## What is the 10-20-30 rule? The 10-20-30 rule says a presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes and use no type smaller than 30 points. Guy Kawasaki [wrote it for pitches to investors](https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/rule-of-thumb/192718). His reasons are practical. A listener cannot weigh more than about ten ideas in one meeting. Twenty minutes leaves room for setup problems and discussion. Large type forces you to find the points that matter, because nothing else fits. For the type size he offers a fallback: half the age of the oldest person in the room, which gives 30 points for a 60-year-old. He says the rule applies to any presentation meant to reach agreement, but he set the numbers for a venture pitch. **Where it helps.** A first investor pitch, or any short meeting that should end in a decision. Ten slides in twenty minutes means two minutes per idea, and the type size makes padding impossible. The [pitch deck template](https://ai-presentations.com/templates/pitch-deck/) is built on ten slides. **Where it misleads.** Outside a pitch. A board pack that people read in advance needs more on the page. A table with eight rows does not fit in 30-point type. A 45-minute workshop is not a 20-minute talk. Treat 30 points as a way to force cuts, and ask the real question: can the back row read it? ## What is the 5-5-5 rule? The 5-5-5 rule says no more than five words per line, five lines per slide and five text-heavy slides in a row. [SlideModel's explainer](https://slidemodel.com/5-5-5-rule-of-powerpoint) presents it as a guideline, not a hard law. Its third part is the one people forget, and it is useful because it limits the deck, not only the slide. Treat it as a pacing rule: after a text-heavy slide, show a chart, a number or a picture. **Where it helps.** Catching a slide that has become a paragraph. **Where it misleads.** A title that states a point needs about 8 to 15 words (see [action titles](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/action-titles/)), so five words per line cannot apply to titles. It also says nothing about charts and tables, where the question is clarity, not word count. Apply it to body text only. ## What is the 7-7-7 rule? The 7-7-7 rule has no single definition. The common version allows at most seven lines per slide and seven words per line, also written 7x7. [HubSpot's explainer](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/7x7-rule-powerpoint) leaves titles out of that limit, adds a variant that also caps the deck at seven slides, and says no specific data supports the 7x7 limit. It mentions 6x6 and 8x8 versions as well. Numbers that move this easily are conventions, not findings, and that answers the question about a 6-6-6 rule too: same idea, different number. Say which version you mean before you adopt one in a team. Seven lines of seven words is 49 words of body text. That makes a useful ceiling for a deck people read, such as a handout or a pre-read. It is a poor target for a deck you present: a listener who is busy reading 49 words has less attention left for what you are saying. ## How do the four rules compare? | Rule | What it limits | Helps when | Misleads when | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 10-20-30 | 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30-point type | A first investor pitch or a short decision meeting | The deck is read, not presented, or carries tables and detailed charts | | 5-5-5 | 5 words a line, 5 lines a slide, 5 text-heavy slides in a row | You check a draft for slides that turned into paragraphs | It is applied to titles, charts or tables | | 7-7-7 or 7x7 | 7 lines, 7 words a line, in one version 7 slides | You need a ceiling for text in a deck that is read | It becomes a target for a deck you present | | [PechaKucha](https://www.pechakucha.com/) | 20 slides, 20 seconds each, 6 minutes 40 seconds in all | A short, image-led talk at an event | The talk needs explanation or numbers | The rules also disagree about pace. 10-20-30 allows one slide every two minutes; PechaKucha shows three a minute. Both are right for their format. For the number your own talk needs, use [how many slides you need](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/how-many-slides/). ## Can a slide follow the rules and still fail? Yes. A slide can pass a word count and say nothing. The reverse also happens: a slide breaks the cap and works, because it carries one message and proves it. > **Avoid: Passes 7-7-7, says nothing** > > **Q3 overview** > > - Revenue increased significantly > - Costs were well controlled > - Customer base continues to grow > - Several projects were completed > - New hires started in Q3 > - Risks remain manageable > - Outlook is positive > > Seven lines, none longer than five words. The audience still learns nothing it can act on. > **Do: Breaks 5-5-5, works** > > **Rework fell by a third after the checklist went live** > > One chart of monthly rework hours with the launch month marked, and one sentence: “Rework fell from 300 to 200 hours a month between March and September.” > > A ten-word title, one chart and a 13-word sentence. One message, and the chart proves it. The third slide of the example [quarterly business review](https://ai-presentations.com/templates/quarterly-business-review/) works the same way: a full-sentence title, one chart and a short takeaway. *Breaks 5-5-5 and works: one message, one chart, one takeaway* 3. Berlin has 64 weekly active users, Leipzig 17; Leipzig is the one to watch ## Do the presentation rules come from research? No, but two lines of research sit behind their spirit. - **Short-term memory.** The number seven is often linked to George Miller's 1956 paper [“The magical number seven, plus or minus two”](https://doi.org/10.1037/h0043158). It is about how many items people can keep in mind, and its lasting point is chunking: grouping items so that more fits. [Nelson Cowan's 2001 review](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/magical-number-4-in-shortterm-memory-a-reconsideration-of-mental-storage-capacity/44023F1147D4A1D44BDC0AD226838496) puts the central limit nearer four chunks. Neither paper is about slides. - **Words on screen while you speak.** Richard Mayer's work on multimedia learning describes a redundancy effect: in lessons, people tend to learn better from graphics with narration than from graphics with narration plus the same words as on-screen text, though conditions apply ([*Multimedia Learning*, Cambridge University Press, 2009](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/multimedia-learning/7A62F072A71289E1E262980CB026A3F9)). It studies teaching material, not business decks, but it is the best argument for keeping your script off the slide. Edward Tufte warns about the opposite risk. His essay [The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint](https://www.edwardtufte.com/book/the-cognitive-style-of-powerpoint-pitching-out-corrupts-within-ebook/) argues that fragment-sized bullets often lower the quality of analysis, and a hard cap on words per line can push a writer toward exactly that. ## What are the golden rules of presentations? There is no official list; the “five golden rules” and “ten golden rules” that circulate differ from source to source. These six hold up for decks people use at work: - **Lead with the answer.** The first content slide states the conclusion and the decision you need ([pyramid principle](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/pyramid-principle/)). - **One message per slide, stated in the title.** If you cannot say it in one sentence, split the slide. - **Match density to use.** A deck you present needs less on the page than a deck people read alone. If you need both, build two versions of the story. - **Say it or show it, not both.** Do not read your slide aloud, and do not paste your script onto it. - **Let speaking time set the length.** Count minutes first, then slides. - **Test legibility, not point size.** Look at the slide from the back of the room and check that you can read the numbers ([best fonts for presentations](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/best-fonts-for-presentations/) covers type choice). ## How do you check a draft against the rules? **Steps** 1. **Read only the titles.** Do they tell the whole story in order? If not, fix the titles before you touch the layout. 2. **Find your densest slide** and count its body words. If it is far above your cap, ask whether it carries one message or two. 3. **Mark every text-heavy slide.** If several sit next to each other, put a chart, a number or an image between them. 4. **Divide your speaking time by the number of slides.** Two minutes a slide and 20 seconds a slide are both possible, but they are different talks. 5. **Check the room.** View the slide from the distance of the back row and fix whatever you cannot read. ## How can AI help you apply the rules? State your limits in the brief: the number of slides, the speaking time, one message per slide and how much text a slide may carry. AI builds to the instructions it gets, so the limits are yours to set. In the plan, check the slide count against your speaking time and that each card carries one message. After the build, a render check looks at each page for overflow, cut-off text, weak contrast and logos that are too small. Check every figure against your source before you present, as with any draft. **Prompt: A brief that builds in the limits** ```text Create a [10]-slide deck for [audience, e.g. an investor meeting] that I will present in [20] minutes. Give every content slide one message, stated as a full-sentence title of at most two lines. Keep the body of each slide to one chart, one table or at most [three] short lines of text, in type large enough to read from the back of a room. Put the answer and the ask on slide 2 and move detail that is only for reading into an appendix at the end. Content: [paste your notes or attach a file]. ``` **Key takeaways** - 10-20-30, 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 are checks on a draft, not laws, and their exact numbers are conventions. - Apply word caps to body text only, not to titles, charts or tables. - Pitch rules assume a pitch: a read deck, a data review or a longer slot needs other limits. - Set the length by speaking time, give each slide one message and keep your script off the screen. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is the 10-20-30 rule? Guy Kawasaki's rule for pitches: ten slides, twenty minutes at most, and no type smaller than 30 points. He argues that listeners cannot weigh more than about ten ideas in one meeting, that twenty minutes leaves room for discussion, and that large type forces you to find the points that matter. ### What is the 5-5-5 rule in PowerPoint? No more than five words per line, five lines per slide and five text-heavy slides in a row. It is a guideline for catching crowded slides. It does not suit titles that state a point, which usually need 8 to 15 words, or charts and tables. ### What is the 7-7-7 rule in PowerPoint? Sources differ. The usual version allows at most seven lines per slide and seven words per line; a stricter variant also limits the deck to seven slides. HubSpot's own explainer notes that no specific data supports the 7x7 limit, so treat it as a ceiling for body text, not as a target. ### What is the 6-6-6 rule, and how does it differ? It is the same idea with a different number, like the 6x6 and 8x8 variants that circulate. Numbers that move this easily are conventions, not findings. Pick one cap for your team as a check on body text, and do not apply it to titles, charts or tables. ### Are the 5-5-5 and 7-7-7 rules based on research? No. The nearest research is on short-term memory (Miller 1956, Cowan 2001) and on narration combined with on-screen text (Mayer). It supports the spirit of the rules, not their numbers. ### Which presentation rules are worth following? Lead with the answer, give each slide one message and state it in the title, match the density of a slide to how it is used, set the length by speaking time rather than slide count, and do not repeat your spoken words on screen. Numeric rules are checks on top of these. ## Related pages - [How many slides?](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/how-many-slides/): 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes? Plan one slide per 1 to 2 minutes of talking, subtract the time for questions and leave the appendix out. With a table and examples. - [Action titles](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/action-titles/): Write slide headlines as full sentences. Six rules for action titles, twelve before-and-after examples and a quick test you can run on any deck. - [Best fonts for presentations](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/best-fonts-for-presentations/): Which fonts work for presentations, how many to use, what size to set and how to stop fonts changing when a PowerPoint file opens on another computer. - [Pyramid principle](https://ai-presentations.com/guides/pyramid-principle/): The pyramid principle by Barbara Minto: give the answer first, group the support and order it. With a worked example and an outline you can reuse for a deck. - [Pitch deck](https://ai-presentations.com/templates/pitch-deck/): Ten slides for a seed round: problem, solution, market, traction, unit economics, competition, team and the ask. A pitch deck template with a worked example. - [White space](https://ai-presentations.com/glossary/white-space/): White space is the empty area around and between elements on a slide. Definition, why it improves clarity and how to use it, with examples and mistakes. --- ai-presentations.com is published by Slaide (https://www.slaide.de), a sole proprietorship run by Nathalie Scholl in Heilbronn, Germany. [How this site is written, checked and corrected](https://ai-presentations.com/editorial-policy/).