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Sustainable Printing - double sided / duplex printing settings

Windows 10

  1. Click the Start button at the bottom left and choose the Settings cog.
  2. Choose Devices.
  3. Choose Printers & scanners on the left.
  4. Select the relevant printer and choose Manage.
  5. Choose Printing preferences on the left.
  6. The option to set two-sided printing as default is usually on the ‘Layout’ or ‘Finishing’ tab, but it may differ for your printer model.
    If you have a ‘Layout’ tab then make sure that ‘Flip on long edge’ is selected under ‘Print on Both Sides’.
    If you have a ’Finishing’ tab then make sure to select the checkbox for‘Print On Both Sides’.
  7. The option to set Black and White printing as the default is usually on the ‘Paper/Quality’ tab or the ‘Color’ tab, but it may differ for your printer model.
    If you have a ‘Layout’ tab then under ‘Color’ choose Black & White.
    If you have a ‘Color’ tab then choose ‘Monochrome’ or ‘Print In Grayscale’.
  8. Click OK and close the Settings box.  Repeat these steps for all printers that you use.

Windows 11

  1. Click the Start button (Windows icon) and choose Settings.
  2. Choose Bluetooth & devices.
  3. Choose Printers & scanners.
  4. Select the relevant printer.
  5. Choose Printing preferences.
  6. The option to set two-sided printing as default is usually on the ‘Layout’ or ‘Finishing’ tab, but it may differ for your printer model.
    • If you have a ‘Layout’ tab then make sure that ‘Flip on long edge’ is selected under ‘Print on Both Sides’.
    • If you have a ’Finishing’ tab then make sure to select the checkbox for ‘Print On Both Sides’.
  7. The option to set Black and White printing as the default is usually on the ‘Paper/Quality’ tab or the ‘Color’
  8. tab, but it may differ for your printer model.
    • If you have a ‘Layout’ tab then under ‘Color’ choose Black & White.
    • If you have a ‘Color’ tab then choose ‘Monochrome’ or ‘Print In Grayscale’.
  9. Click OK and close the Settings box. Repeat these steps for all printers that you use.

macOS

You can save your print settings as a preset so you can quickly use the same settings again. To create a preset, you first adjust all of the print settings you want.

Saving your settings as a preset:

  1. Open a document, then choose File - Print. Click Show Details.
  2. Select any print settings such as two-sided printing and black and white printing that you want to save as a preset.
  3. Click the Presets pop-up menu, then choose Save Current Settings as Preset.
  4. Enter a name for the preset, then choose whether to use the preset for only the currently selected printer or all printers.

Printing with your preset:

  1. Choose File - Print.
  2. Click the Presets pop-up menu, then choose your preset. If you don’t see the Presets pop-up menu, click Show Details.
  3. You see all presets available for that printer. If you don’t see a preset that you expect in the list, it’s possible that you created that preset for only a specific printer.

Printer management and hardware settings

Management of the printer’s configuration settings differs dependent on the make and model.  Most network printers can be managed by browsing to the printer’s IP address and logging in with the relevant administrative credentials.  For detailed steps on how to check the printer’s default configuration settings you should refer to the printer manufacturer’s website to access the user guide for your printer, or ring the printer supplier for technical support.  For example, if the steps further above have been followed but there is still a general difficulty in printing two-sided to a particular printer then it may be that the printer itself has not yet been configured correctly.