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mandi.morrin
mandi.morrin
New Participant
July 27, 2016
Answered

Acrobat Not Printing Double Sided

  • July 27, 2016
  • 4 replies
  • 33896 views

I recently switched my work computer from a PC to Mac, but have worked on Macs for years so I'm not exactly a newbie. In Acrobat, it's not allowing me to print double-sided. I have printed from this computer to the same printer (Canon iR-ADV C5030/5035 UFR II) from other programs, and it allows me to print double-sided just fine. But it seems as though Acrobat doesn't even recognize that double-sided is an option on the printer. Other resources says to download new drivers for the printer, but that doesn't make sense since other programs will print double-sided.

Has anyone experience something like this before?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Abambo

Adobe Acrobat reads from the OS what the printer driver advertises as features to the OS. If the double sided feature is not advertised and you need to pass through a printer dialogue established by the printer manufactorer, you cannot blame Acrobat for this. Acrobat allows only for a shortcut, avoiding the printer dialogue at all during it's print job preparation.

It seams to be obvious, that a correct printer driver tells the OS about all of it's features. This is primordial for a seamless integration of the whole soft- and hardware chain.

4 replies

O
Otherwisegood
New Participant
September 3, 2017

    Abambo
    AbamboCorrect answer
    Adobe Expert
    September 4, 2017

    Adobe Acrobat reads from the OS what the printer driver advertises as features to the OS. If the double sided feature is not advertised and you need to pass through a printer dialogue established by the printer manufactorer, you cannot blame Acrobat for this. Acrobat allows only for a shortcut, avoiding the printer dialogue at all during it's print job preparation.

    It seams to be obvious, that a correct printer driver tells the OS about all of it's features. This is primordial for a seamless integration of the whole soft- and hardware chain.

    ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
    O
    Otherwisegood
    New Participant
    September 3, 2017

    I, too, had the same problem on my Mac (Running Sierra, and fresh installed, updated Brother printer driver).  Despite the fact this is almost a year old, I figured I would reply with a solution since it is clear the respondent was missing the point you were making.  I'm using Acrobat DC with a one month old Brother printer capable of two-sided printing.  Other program print dialogs show the two-sided printing checkbox option but Acrobat DC does not, just like you experienced.  However, by selecting the "Printer..." option found next to the "Page Setup" option at the bottom left of the print dialog screen as produced by Acrobat DC, it opens up the system print dialog screen.  Before that dialog opens, you will be given a warning (from Acrobat DC).  Just select "yes" and the system print dialog will open.  You should notice that the two-sided print option will be available.  Click the checkbox for the "Two-sided" option, then select "Print".  That dialog will close and return you to the Acrobat DC dialog.  Select "Print" from there as well.  This worked for me.  As a side note, that work-around you provided also worked for me, too.  Hope this helps if you hadn't found a solution as of yet.

      R
      robink40660315
      New Participant
      April 3, 2018

      Wow--I have been totally stumped about this for months and finally decided to try to get some info and stumbled on this post. Thank you so much. What a ridiculous problem. And how is the ordinary person supposed to dig up such a totally unobvious solution. So thanks again.

      Abambo
      Abambo
      Adobe Expert
      April 4, 2018

      Well, the printer driver programmer did a very bad job! his should go to his forum.

      ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer
      Teledyol
      Teledyol
      Known Participant
      October 31, 2016

      This is fairly lame not to have Two-Sided as a choice, since Acrobat is otherwise great for large documents.

      However, here's my workaround for Mac.

      1. Save finalized PDF to a folder as a PDF.

      2. Open the PDF in "Preview" – the name of a standard app supplied with MacOS
      3. Print from the app "Preview"
      4. check the 'Two-Sided" box

      5. Write a message to Adobe to fix that nonsense…

      =8^}

      Preview has it Acrobat "Pro" doesn't 

        Willi Adelberger
        Willi Adelberger
        Adobe Expert
        November 1, 2016

        Preview is not in any way a correct PDF viewer as it supports only a subselection of the PDF functionality. Many PDFs will look different. Avoid using it for opening PDFs.

        How the print dialog looks depends more on the used printer driver. You might download a newer one.

        Teledyol
        Teledyol
        Known Participant
        November 1, 2016

        The question was about printing double-sided. In this case I had a 90-page statement to be reviewed for an IRS audit.

        I would have preferred to use the powerful Acrobat program that comes with my Creative Cloud subscription.

        This is a "workaround" and it does print two-sided. I've tried it and it works for this particular project. Preview is provided free with MacOS and will work for basic PDF editing. As with any external program workaround, it might not provide the results one is looking for. However printing two-sided is one of those things that is lacking in Acrobat and a few other Adobe apps for the near-term.

        Willi, you don't offer a solution that you've tested, you're guessing at possible "shotgun approach" fixes, which can cause undesired incompatibilities elsewhere. Ultimately, they just waste time.

        If you mention the printer, OS and driver that you've successfully tried to get Acrobat DC to print a large document two-sided, you are answering the question. If you're unable to do that…

          Willi Adelberger
          Willi Adelberger
          Adobe Expert
          July 31, 2016

          I would also recommend to download a new driver, as this indicates that your driver is not passing on the correct information to Acrobat.

          E
          epona
          New Participant
          July 31, 2016

          Disagree.

          I have exactly the same problem, but I do not believe the driver is the issue because:

          The same printer is registered in two ways, WIRELESS and LAN.  Each has a different name and IP address, (normal).

          Print a document to the Wireless version and the double-sided option is there.

          Print the same document to the LAN version and there's no double-sided option.

          Print a document to the same choices from Microsoft WORD and BOTH Wireless and LAN printers offer the double-sided option.

          If you open the same original PDF document with Microsoft EDGE (Microsoft's Windows 10 web browser), it also offers duplex printing on both the wireless and the LAN versions of the printer.

          So, the system driver *IS* capable of finding the double-sided capability.  The only thing that doesn't recognise it is DC.

          I have also uninstalled and reinstalled both the printer and its drivers and DC, rebooting the computer after each uninstall and reinstall.

          My environment:

          Surface Pro 4

          Windows 10

          Adobe Acrobat Reader DC - 15.017.20050 (no further updates available)

          Brother MFC-9970CDW

          Firware version: L

            Willi Adelberger
            Willi Adelberger
            Adobe Expert
            July 31, 2016

            It is not said, that both kinds use the same driver. What hinders you to update the driver or even try to do it?

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