I must be missing something.. Duplex printing on Brother printer

[HejKatt]

I recently bought a Brother laser printer which claims it supports duplex printing and copying. This evening I started to print out KQ's Olympics Game (it looks fun, BTW).

http://knowledgequestmaps.com/blog/2012/07/let-the-games-begin/

 

I ran into a problem whereby the pages came out printing on one-sided paper, despite the printer's settings being Duplex/Flip on Long Edge. After spending too much time fiddling around with settings and different software (FoxIt, Google Docs), I found that:

 

- Copy/Print more than one page: good

E.g. I print a document with 2 pages, it prints out duplex (one sheet of paper, both sides).

 

- Copy/Print one page multiple times: bad

E.g. I print a document with 1 page, 2 copies, it prints out simplex (2 sheets of paper, one side).

 

I must be tired or missing something.. I expected the second document to print like the first. Has anyone else seen this?

[ondreeuh]

What if you print out one copy of the document, then feed it in and copy it duplex? I haven't tried that myself (just got my duplexing Brother printer the other day!).

[skeeterbug]

Well I don't have a Brother, but yes...print 2 different pages it will print two-sided/duplex. Print two copies of the same page and it doesn't. It will print one-sided on two different pieces of paper. If I ever have a need to print like that I print on one side and then put the paper back in to print on the other side. So I'm guessing this isn't a Brother problem but just printing in general. I've had it happen in both Reader and Office programs.

[LaxMom]

Well I don't have a Brother, but yes...print 2 different pages it will print two-sided/duplex. Print two copies of the same page and it doesn't. It will print one-sided on two different pieces of paper. If I ever have a need to print like that I print on one side and then put the paper back in to print on the other side. So I'm guessing this isn't a Brother problem but just printing in general. I've had it happen in both Reader and Office programs.

 

Right. Because when you duplex, it prints page 1 on one side, page 2 on the other, and so forth. When you print multiple copies of page 1, it prints them all on the front.

 

Some printer do have a "print on both sides" setting, different from duplexing.

[Deniseibase]

I have a Brother printer. Check your printer settings on your computer. Even when the printer itself is set to duplex, if your computer settings are not also set to duplex, it will not print duplex. If you were printing a file directly off your computer, I would bet that is the problem.

[HejKatt]

Thanks for all the replies so far!

 

Some printer do have a "print on both sides" setting, different from duplexing.

Oh, I didn't know that! When I searched for "print on both sides", the pages returned seem to treat both the same, e.g. Titles like 'How to print on both sides (duplex)'. I wonder, is there a term I should be looking for instead?

 

I have a Brother printer. Check your printer settings on your computer. Even when the printer itself is set to duplex, if your computer settings are not also set to duplex, it will not print duplex. If you were printing a file directly off your computer, I would bet that is the problem.

Thanks Deniseibase - the computer Printer Options have Duplex on by default. I'm not sure about the printer - the only place I see to set Duplex on is for Copying, and the behavior was the same for Print/Copy.

 

So far, it seems like the behavior is expected. I guess I will do what skeeterbug suggested - print 1, turn paper and print again. And if I have to print more than 2, use that duplex sheet to make duplex copies.

[MomatHWTK]

I have not been able to get a single page document to double itself. The printer gets one "document" at a time. My printer treats a duplex order for a single page document as duplex, but it will print on the first side then pull it back in and print the second side blank (because there's only one page to the document).

 

If I do want to double side something that is a single sheet document, I print out my first side, flip it put it back in the paper feed tray and print another copy.

 

ETA: To get copies on my particular brother to print on both sides facing the same direction I flip "up and over." So when I feed it back into the printer, the printed side is facing up and the bottom of the page goes into the printer first.