What is duplex printing? Easy explanation and step-by-step guide

Duplex printing just means printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. That’s it. It’s also called double-sided printing, and it’s a good way to reduce your paper consumption and printing costs, as well as the physical length of documents.

Duplex printing can happen automatically (if a printer supports automatic duplexing) or manually by reloading the pages yourself.

What is duplex printing?

‘Duplex’ comes from the Latin word for ‘twofold’ or ‘double’. It’s simply the process of printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. The first side is printed, the paper is turned or fed back through the printer, and then the second side is printed.

The main difference between duplex and simplex printing is that duplex prints on both sides of a single sheet of paper, whereas simplex prints on one side only.

Duplex printing is particularly useful for reports, meeting notes, presentations, school assignments and other multi-page documents where printing every single page on a separate sheet is both unnecessary and wasteful.

What is the difference between automatic and manual duplex printing?

The only real difference between automatic and manual duplex printing is who turns the paper over.

Automatic duplex uses hardware inside the printer to feed the sheet back through and print on the second side. Once duplex printing is selected, this process happens automatically. You don’t have to do anything.

Manual duplex requires the user to physically remove and reload the printed pages, so the printer can print on the reverse side. The exact process varies between printer models, and you’ll need to follow on-screen instructions to make sure the pages are reloaded correctly, otherwise the printing on the second side will be upside down.

Automatic duplexing is obviously way more convenient if you frequently require double-sided printing. Manual duplexing is more of a backup for when a printer doesn’t have an automatic duplex unit.

Why use duplex printing?

Because duplex printing reduces the number of sheets required for a multi-page document it can benefit your budget as well as the environment. For starters, duplex printing literally cuts your paper use in half. This not only lowers costs, it also reduces your print waste.

1. Reduce paper costs

Printing on both sides massively reduces the number of sheets required for multi-page documents.

Let’s bust out the old mental calculator for a second: a 100-page document printed single-sided requires, you guessed it, 100 sheets of paper. Printed duplex? 50 sheets of paper.

The actual financial saving depends on paper prices, print volumes and the type of documents you’re printing, but as a simple illustration, if your organization uses 1 million sheets a year at $5 per 500-sheet ream, a switch to duplex printing represents up to $5,000 in paper savings alone. From one simple policy config.

And that’s before you factor in storage, handling, recycling, and other costs associated with physical documents.

2. Reduce paper waste

Using fewer sheets also shrinks the resources required to produce, transport and dispose of all your paper.

Duplex printing isn’t a substitute for reducing unnecessary printing altogether – we’ve covered printing behavioral change in more detail, if you’re interested – but it is a straightforward way to make printing more efficient.

3. Create smaller documents

Document storage is an often-overlooked benefit of duplex printing. A 20-page report printed duplex occupies half as many sheets, and half as much space, as the same report printed single-sided.

That means less paper to carry, less paper to file and less paper to store.

Learn how PaperCut can help reduce paper waste

How do you print double-sided?

The exact steps to enable duplex printing vary depending on your operating system, printer, and application, but the basic process is pretty similar.

How to print duplex in Windows:

1. Open the document you want to print.
2. Select File > Print.
3. Choose your printer.
4. Look for an option such as Print on Both Sides, Two-Sided, or Duplex Printing.
5. Select whether you want to flip on the long edge or flip on the short edge.
6. Select Print.

If you can’t see a duplex option, your printer may not support automatic duplexing, or the feature may not be enabled in its driver settings. You may have to resort to manual duplexing here.

How to print duplex on a Mac:

1. Open the document.
2. Select File > Print.
3. Select your printer.
4. Look for the Two-Sided option.
5. Select Long-Edge binding or Short-Edge binding, depending on how you want the pages to turn.
6. Select Print.

How to print duplex in Microsoft Word:

In Word, the available options depend on your printer and operating system.

1. Open your document.
2. Select File > Print.
3. Select your printer.
4. Choose Print on Both Sides, if available.
5. Select the appropriate page-flipping option.
6. Print the document.

If your printer doesn’t support automatic duplexing, Word may offer a Manually Print on Both Sides option (you’ll just need to feed the paper back into the printer yourself, with the correct orientation).

What is long-edge vs. short-edge duplex printing?

This is a way of describing different binding settings. Your binding settings determine which edge of the page is used when the document is turned.

• Long-edge printing: Pages turn like a regular book.
• Short-edge printing: Pages turn from the top, like a notepad or a calendar.

For most portrait documents, long-edge duplexing is the standard choice. Landscape documents, or documents designed for top-bound reading, may require short-edge duplexing. If in doubt, flick through a few loose pages yourself, and see which one fits the document style better.

How can IT make duplex printing the default?

Organizations shouldn’t have to rely on users remembering to select double-sided printing. IT teams can configure duplex printing as the default for printers or print queues, so you’re taking the choice out of users’ hands entirely.

A print management platform, like PaperCut, can take this further by applying print policies from a central dashboard. For example, your organization might switch general-purpose print queues to default to duplex, while allowing authorized users to override the setting when single-sided printing is necessary.

See how to configure two-sided printing in PaperCut

Is duplex printing worth using?

At the end of the day, whether to use duplex printing depends on your budget, usage requirements and your sustainability commitments. But for most everyday multi-page documents, we think it should be the standard. Duplex printing is arguably the simplest and fastest way to reduce your print spend and environmental impact, without sacrificing document quality.

For organizations and schools printing at scale, the benefits can add up quickly.

The trick is to make double-sided printing the easy option. Or even better, the default option. Combined with smarter print policies, reporting and other print management controls, you can turn an individual paper-saving setting into an organization-wide reduction in paper waste.

Want to reduce your print waste? Give our friendly team a call.