Printing Both Sides?!?!

Jelpa mig!

Alright, so my roommate and I went halfers on a HP 1020 LaserJet and we’re busy printing off notes.  I’m on Mac and he’s on PC.  I used to rock a LaserJet 1012 and know the ins-and-outs of it.

Anyways, when he prints off the notes he has the option to print “Double Sided”.

BTW, these are .ppt files.

I’m using Keynote to open up the files.  I get them set up all nice for printing, 6 slides to a page, but I don’t have the option to print Double-sided…  The option is there but it’s GREYED-OUT.  What gives?

Any idea how I can get it un-grayed.  I have the option to make the slides look wicked good, while they barely reach par from his computer.

Have you tried opening them in Powerpoint?

How are you connected to the HP 1020?  USB?  USB 2?

Did you install any software for the 1020?  Or did it just find it?

sounds like he is network printing. I could be wrong of course.

The HP 1020 does not have a duplex unit so it cannot print double-sided copies - if what you mean is having your document printed on the front and back of the paper.  Of course you could always do manual two-sided printing where you just turn over the paper yourself …

Reading the specs further on the HP website I see they say Duplex - Manual (Driver Supported).  So it sounds like there is an option in the print driver for duplex printing which probably means that the printer waits for you to manually turn over the paper for printing on the second side (through the bypass tray etc).  You need to install the print driver and read the instructions (god forbid).

And to quote from pages 34 and 35 of the manual available on the HP website:

To print on both sides of the paper (manual two-sided printing), you must run the paper
through the printer twice.
NOTE Manual two-sided printing can cause the printer to become dirty, reducing print quality. See
Cleaning the printer for instructions if the printer becomes dirty.

  1. Access the printer properties (or printing preferences in Windows 2000 and XP). See
    Printer properties (driver) for instructions.
  2. On the Finishing tab, select Print On Both Sides (Manually). Select the appropriate
    binding option, and click OK.
  3. Print the document.
    NOTE Not all printer features are available from all drivers or operating systems. See the printer properties (driver) online Help for information about availability of features for that driver.
  4. After side one has printed, gather the printed pages, turn the printed side down, and
    straighten the stack.
  5. Place the stack back in the input tray. Side one should be facing down with the bottom
    edge feeding into the printer first.
  6. Click Continue to print side two.

Sounds like this option is entirely driver based and not available in all drivers and OS.

I’m confused a little.  Take a look at the screenshots and tell me which one it looks like.

The first one is my HP 1200 – it doesn’t do two-sided. 

The second is my Canon something-or-other, and it does “duplex” printing, where you don’t have to do anything, it automagically prints on both sides of the paper.

Which one does yours look like?

Also, if you just want to print manually on both sides, just print all the odd-numbered pages (an option in the print dialog box), then take the paper out, put it back in upside-down and print the even-numbered pages.  Or is that what how printer does “2-sided” anyway?

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Your first screenshot is what it looks like for me.

I did install the drivers from the CD, but it crosses out “DUPLEX” and a couple other options in the Print dialogue.

As for how the doublesided works, the printer does some of the thinking for you, so when you print all you have to do is take the printed sheets out and put them back in the printer without flipping them or anything.

Is it USB?  USB 2?  Networked?  Shared from the Windows machine?

Are you using the 1022 driver? or the 1020 one?

(1022 one attached)

[original attachment deleted after 2 years]

heh

Ok, I get it.

The printer doesn’t actually do the double-siding, you do, by taking the paper out and putting it back in.  You don’t have to flip it, because the printer does this anyway, while it’s printing.  That’s why the printed pages come out upside-down.

Anyway, here’s how you do this:  go to “paper handling” and select “reverse page order” and “even numbered pages”.  Print.  Put the pages that print back in.  Now go back and hit “odd numbered pages” and print again.

[original attachment deleted after 2 years]

Perfect, thanks.  I supposed I could have used some of my own thinking to figure that out (I gave it one attempt last night but forgot to reverse it… I gave up from tiredness/frustration).

I was hoping that the driver would just FIX it all for me, but shit is bunk from HP I guess.

The printer is hooked up with USB and we just plug/unplug between both computers when we feel like using it.

Aren’t Macs advertised as being fully functional with other hardware, without using drivers?  Like… they know Japanese?

Well, if you just use the generic printer driver (ie: postscript – does the 1020 do postscript?) then that double-sided option thing will be enabled. 

How do I use Postscript?

Ah never mind, it turns out the Laserjet 1020 can’t do Postscript.  If it could, you could just use “generic printer” as the driver, and let the Mac do all the work.