[Solved] Printing double sided: Binding option

[Richard Lane]

Good day: when I print double sided, I would like to flip the page horizontally. The way my documents are printing, I have to flip the page vertically. How do I change this? Many thanks.

Edit: Your duplicate post was deleted. Please don't do that. -- MrProgrammer, forum moderator

[keme]

This is normally a printer driver setting, often on the same spot where you enable double sided printing. Description:
(I have the Windows version, not a Mac at this time, sorry! The MacOS version may differ slightly but you get the gist of it).

• Initiate print (Cmd+P or select Print from the File menu)
• You should be on the General tab-page, click on the Settings button below the printer selection pane.
• You should now be in the print driver dialog. Look for a section that says Paper handling" or "Finishing".
• Somewhere near the selection for "double sided" there is a setting where you can select either Long edge or Short edge. Select the edge which the pages will turn over.
  For the most common case, "portrait" page format and horizontal turning, this will be "Long edge"

Note that if you use the brochure print function in Writer, it is a little "backwards". you will be turning over the long edge of the pages, which corresponds to the short edge of the paper. The printer driver is not "content aware", so the settings need to relate to the paper, not the page (i.e. the counter-intuitive "short edge"). If you instead use a brochure/leaflet feature in the print driver, different manufacturers employ different viewpoints, so you just have to test the options to determine what works.

[RoryOF]

The precise wording depends on the actual printer driver used. On my linux systems (I don't use Windows). on /File /Print there is a "Properties" button below the window for Printer selection. That button will open the low level printer settings for the _selected_ printer. A new window opens, with two tabs:

the Paper tab [Epson printer] offers a choice for

1) Paper size - note that this is the paper size the Printer will use, which may be different from the page size OpenOffice will use.

2) Orientation - Portrait or Landscape

3) Duplex - <ignore>, Off, On (Portrait), On (Landscape)

4( Paper tray - <ignore>, Automatic, Main, Rear (or as the printer has).

Other printers [Brother, Lexmork] show the following differences from the above

3) Duplex: None. Duplex Tumble, Duplex no Tumble

On all printers the second tab, Device, allows choice of resolution and other detailed printer settings including choice of colour or B&W, also details of the low level printer engine to use.

[Richard Lane]

Thank you both - I appreciate that you took the time to reach out. Unfortunately, the option to select long or short edge is nowhere to be found. It could be due to the Epson printer that I have (WF-2750) which doesn't allow for much flexibility.

[keme]

See page 108 of the Epson WF-2750 User's guide. It is the "binding" options.

[Richard Lane]

Thank you for that. Unfortunately, none of the menus shown in the manual appear - I don't have any of the choices that the manual indicates. It could be the driver is out of date because I've had this Mac since 2011. Thanks for trying to help - I do appreciate it.

[MrProgrammer]

when I print double sided, I would like to flip the page horizontally. The way my documents are printing, I have to flip the page vertically.

As others have noted, this behavior is controlled by your printer driver, not by OpenOffice. I don't have your Epson printer so I can't tell you where the setting will be in your printer's dialog. But just check all of the settings, one by one, and hopefully you'll eventually find it. By default you'll probably see the OpenOffice group of settings, but there are other groups to explore.

For my printer it's under the Layout group, then the Two-sided option gives me choices of Long-Edge Binding and Short-Edge Binding.

202303122057.gif (73.25 KiB) Viewed 4842 times

It could be the driver is out of date because I've had this Mac since 2011.

Perhaps a more recent printer driver will match the manual that keme found. This printer driver for it is dated 2022-11-02, four months ago. You'd have to install it using Epson's instructions. There's a version of the driver for MacOS 10.13.

Epson WorkForce WF-2750 → Drivers → Printer Driver v12.62

It could be due to the Epson printer that I have (WF-2750) which doesn't allow for much flexibility.

Yes, perhaps that printer is not capable of printing the document that way. It could be a hardware or firmware limitation.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit ☐ button and add [Solved] to the start of the Subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[Tutorial] Mac FAQ

[robleyd]

https://files.support.epson.com/docid/c ... index.html may be helpful - go to Printing with a Computer | Printing with OSX. There seem to be different options available for Windows and MacOS.

[RoryOF]

A possible workaround: using /File /Export as PDF will generate a PDF file; your PDF reading utility may allow that file to print doublesided.

I find it difficult to believe that your EPSON printer cannot manage a correct doublesided print under Windows. As I listed above, I have been able to print from a (different) Epson on linux. Most probably you are overlooking some setting.

[Richard Lane]

I'm not sure if my reply went through so if this is a duplicate, I apologize.
Thank you all for your help - I was finally able to solve the problem with your help.
Thanks again - I really appreciate your patience and your assistance.