How to Print on Both Sides of the Paper

Printing double sided takes a little patience and preparation

Whether it is intentional or not, printing on both sides of a sheet of paper is an economical solution. It saves money since less paper is required for the same print job. It also saves space since two pages are fit onto a single sheet. Some printers feature a two-sided printing option, but duplex printing can be done manually as well.

Instructions

1. Read through the instruction manual that came with your printer and look for a double-sided printing feature. It might be as simple as adjusting the settings or loading the paper a certain way. Proceed by following the manual's instructions carefully in order to print on both sides of a single sheet.

2. Print the first page on a sheet of paper as you normally would if the printer has no pre-setting for double-sided printing. You will use this sheet as a test sheet before continuing with the entire print job.

3. Once the sheet has printed, flip it over onto the reverse side. At the top of the blank page, use a pen to write "Top" or "Up" in order to indicate which way the page should be oriented.

4. Place the test sheet back into the paper tray either face up or face down so that it will print on the blank side. Then print the second page. Remove the sheet from the printer and check to see that the page is oriented correctly and not upside down. If it is correct, follow the same steps with a larger stack of papers, placing them back into the tray in the exact same manner in order to print on the second side. If it is incorrect, try another test sheet until you get it right.

Tips & Warnings

• For lengthy documents, don't forget to print the odd-numbered pages on the front sides of the sheet and the even-numbered pages on the back so that it can be read in order. To do this, set your computer or word processor to print odd numbers only the first time around. After reloading, set it to print even numbers on the other side of the sheet.

References

• Microsoft Office: Print on Both Sides of the Paper (Duplex Printing)
• Hewlett Packard: Print Two Sided Manually