How to Print on Both Sides of a Sheet With an Inkjet Printer

Two-sided printing is a feature you should look for in an inkjet printer. This enables you to save time as well as paper if you can print on both sides of a sheet. Two-sided printing is economical and environmentally conscious.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Inkjet printer
• Printer paper

1. Know your printer. Know if your printer has a manual or automatic duplex feature. You can find out if your printer supports duplexing by checking your owner’s manual or by looking at the options under the tabs in your print dialog box. Look for options that say "double-sided printing," "duplex printing" or "print on both sides of paper."

2. Load the paper into your inkjet’s paper tray. Make sure the paper is facing the correct direction.

3. Open your document in the program you created it in. Make sure to save any changes made.

4. Select "file" from the top menu. Now drag down and select "print."

5. Look under the appropriate tab in the print dialog box. Usually the double-sided printing option is under "properties."

6. Select "finishing." You should have the option "print on both sides," "duplex printing," or "double sided printing." Select this option. Make sure other important options are correct such as color, orientation and amount of pages to print.

7. Select "okay" to return to the main print box. Select "print."

Tips & Warnings

• If your printer does not support two-sided printing you will have to manually duplex your pages. You will select the manual duplex feature under print options. Then you will need to select odd pages or reverse order. You will select print to run the sheets through once. Then select print again and select even pages. Flip them over making sure they are facing up and feed them back though the printer.
• If you do not see the "print on both sides" and "double-sided option" check that you are looking under the correct tab.
• Short edge and long edge options refer to whether you want to flip the paper on the long edge or short edge. You will have to run a test to see what option you will need for your document.
• Remember that the tabs on the printer properties box vary by manufacturer. Some printers might have the finishing tab, a features tab or a layout tab where you can find two-sided printing.