Menu option for "print on both sides" not displayed

[Guest]

I have the latest Acrobat X on my MAC, but the print option for "print on both sides" does not show up. It shows up fine in other applications, just Acrobat doesn't include it in the print dialogue box.Of course, the printer allows for double-sided printing, and I use it all the time. And there is only one printed installed on the computer.

  I look through the "Preferences," but couldn't find anything governing printing.

  Any idea what it could be?

[astrochovy]

THANK YOU! Someone, PLEASE MAKE THIS THE GO-TO ANSWER!

After attempting to install the driver, and almost giving up and using a different program than adobe to open my PDFs, I found this. It's a simple answer without any extra installation. I didn't even have to restart anything.

[Mary25437141tl5d]

Thank you so much for this simple and straightforward answer.  I have had this problem for months - not being able to do double-sided printing for Adobe documents, while I could double-side all my Word docs.  It was really bugging me because you waste such a lot of paper. All fixed now.

[Black_Scourge]

I guess it was just a *very bad idea* (to put it politely) by Adobe to have their own print dialog box. It just makes life much more complicated for us Mac users, and doesn't give any added value. As one can see from this thread, lots of people have presets for printing that are not readily accessible from the Adobe print dialog box, but require unnecessary extra steps. My advice to Adobe: remove the print dialogue box altogether if you care about your Mac users. My advice to Mac users: open your files with Preview and print them free of all this hassle.

[billh9699641]

Thank you very much Black _Scourge.  I have wasted hours trying to find a way to print 2-sided from Adobe Reader on a brand new duplex printer with, of course, the very latest driver.  It had not occurred to me that Preview can print pdf files.  So easy!  🙂

[andrewstuartallen]

I have this problem too. I'm using OS X 10.11 and Adobe Reader XI 11.0.13. Every other application on my Mac offers two-sided printing in the print dialog box, but Adobe Reader does not.

I can use the "Printer" button in Adobe Reader's print dialog to access the OS' two-sided printing option, and it will print two-sided then, but with the annoying quirk that the back of the first sheet is blank. For example, a document with pages "1", "2", and "3" prints page 1 on the front of the first sheet of paper, nothing on the back of the first sheet of paper, and then page 2 is printed on the front of the second sheet of paper, and 3 on the rear of the second sheet. Does anyone know a way to fix that?

[Guest]

I had the same problem but with an HP printer. I used to only be able to duplex print with Microsoft Word. Adobe Acrobat DC and pages off the internet would not give me duplex options. So someone above mentioned to install the PostScript driver. So I went to HP website and downloaded and installed the PostScript driver (removed the PCL driver)  AND THAT WORKED! Now any application I print from or internet pages I want to print has the option for duplex printing showing up.

[Marcin Chady]

I have the same problem. Windows 10 64 bit, Brother MFC-J450DW, latest Acrobat, latest printer driver. No option to print duplex. I have to open the file in the Edge browser to access the duplex feature.

Now, Adobe, please stop stonewalling people by saying it's the printer driver's problem. There's quite a selection of printers mentioned here from various manufacturers. Their duplex feature works with native OS, but mysteriously not with Acrobat. It's pretty obvious that your software is not detecting it like it should.

[Guest]

I had the same problem on windows 10 (64bit). I could print double sided in Word but not Adobe... This is how I fixed it.

Start Menu>Settings>Devices

Then scroll to the bottom and click on devices and printers

Once that page loads... right click on the printer you want to use>Printer properties>then click on 'Device Settings' tab.

use the dropdown for Duplex Unit: and select installed.. ('Not installed' was the default).

After that click 'ok'. When I refreshed my print page from Adobe the 'print on both sides of the paper' option appeared

Hope that helps.

[mariao475423]

This works for me in Windows: open the file in word, so first open Word and from within Word open the pdf file. It will tell you it's going to convert it to doc and may take a while but then voila the pdf is readable in Word and I have the options to print double-sided. One happy bunny..

[plainerjaner]

I am a windows user and have had success in getting the option to show up for double sided printing, but even when I choose the option, it still doesn't print double sided.  I've gone through so much paper testing it out and I've wasted so much.  I am VERY FRUSTRATED!  I just got a new printer that I bought because it would automatically do the double sided printing and it's not working at all.  Any help is appreciated.

I have Windows 10 and a Brother MFC-9340CDW printer.  I've gone into the printer properties and clicked "install" for the duplex unit.  (that brought up the "print on both sides" option.)  I've also gone into the adobe reader "properties" dialog box and chosen the option for print on both sides. And it still won't do it.  (NOTE:  This is only an Adobe problem. As I can print double sided on a Word Document)

[RicheleMc]

I don't see the option and I am on a Mac. But I have quite the opposite situation...my printer is only printing double-sided. I have tried everything and nothing works. I do realize that I simply can print page by page, so not printing double-sided would present bigger issues. However, it is still frustrating. I have an HP 7640. Previous to an Adobe update, I never had an issue. So weird.

[Abambo]

As Atul wrote:

If the Mac OS dialog is unable to detect whether your printer is double sided or not, Acrobat/Reader would not be able to detect so.

To explain about this technically, Acrobat/Reader always read this information from a printer driver file if a printer is a double sided or not. If that key in printer driver file is missing then it directly assumes that printer is a single sided printer and no longer shows the print on both sides option.

Sometimes it so happens that a printer is a double sided printer but the printer driver does not contain this information in its file which causes the applications to not display appropriate option. In such cases, it is recomendded to use an appropriate driver which has to be downloaded from vendor's site.

If the printer does not show the option, you need to enter the printer configuration to cofigure "manually" the duplex:

Be sure you have the CORRECT printer driver for your printer.

[jingl57020593]

the setting is now in the document property itself, advanced tab

it's amazed that the adobe staff here wasn't aware of this change and still pointing to the wrong direction

[gkaiseril]

There have been only 2 or 3 Adobe staff members, clearly marked, that have responded to this post. Most of the respondents are unpaid volunteers.

[Abambo]

Could you post a screen shot of the settings? Could be helpful.

[Palooch]

I am a Mac user with a Brother printer. Double sided printing did not appear when i was Acrobat Reader. I got double sided printing by following the advice above of clicking "printer" at the bottom of the page. in the pop up menu that appeared, there was the prompt for double sided printing - but it was damn annoying until in desperation I found this page. All other print units - preview etc. - all had double sided printing prompts.

[Abambo]

This is a bug/omission in the printer driver. The printer driver needs to report the printer's capabilities to the OS, what yours obviously does not.

[Marcin_K13]

If what you said was correct, than the operating system would also not know about printer's duplex print capability.

I think the fundamental issue is that Adobe fails to use the default print mechanism, or at least allow for print output to "Open in Preview", in which case duplex print would still be possible via the OS's capabilities.

[Abambo]

Marcin_K13  wrote

If what you said was correct, than the operating system would also not know about printer's duplex print capability.

I think the fundamental issue is that Adobe fails to use the default print mechanism, or at least allow for print output to "Open in Preview", in which case duplex print would still be possible via the OS's capabilities.

Well how would this work if the OS isn’t aware of it?

You are making in your statement a mistake. Adobe is using the default print mechanism. It‘s the printer that fails to report its capabilities, asking the user to take an additional step before beeing able to print.

The screen you see when you want to print is not the printing dialogue, but the dialogue that allows you to enter some parameters specific to the Acrobat application. As a curtesy, Adobe sets some parameters for you aloowing you to proceed without opening a second dialogue.

[Marcin_K13]

First, after further review, I believe this topic is meant for Windows, while my experience is with Adobe Acrobat Read DC under MacOS.

This could be purely driver's fault under Windows (can't comment there).  Here is what I observe on MacOS:

1. Every application that uses standard MacOS printing framework presents the user with the OS standard GUI, which includes duplex print option for the Brother printer I am using
2. Reader offers printing features beyond what MacOS offers, so it is understandable that it uses its own dialog.  However, it could have passed the resulting output via the OS's printing framework.  Possibly it does not do that because it want to block the "Print to PDF" feature built into the OS.
3. Reader's dialog is missing the duplex print option
4. Chrome also uses its own print dialog on MacOS, but it does offer the duplex print option

Since this works in Chrome and it does not in Reader, it points to an issue with Reader.

[Abambo]

OP is on Mac.

You can get the standard print dialogue by pushing an additional button on both, MacOS and Windows, to set any parameter that Acrobat does not set.

I do not know how Chrome gets its information. But Chrome is not a replacement for Acrobat, nor is Preview. Both have problems with a lot of PDF files.

[jojorus]

The same. I reinstall Abode. Different versions. Reinstalled printers drivers. All time the same!

[Abambo]

You need to go to properties... and set there the duplex printing option.