Printing a PDF on both sides is one checkbox if your printer has a duplex unit, and a two-pass job if it doesn't. This guide covers where the setting lives in each app, how to pick long edge versus short edge so the backs aren't upside down, and how to duplex by hand on any printer, including the odd-page-count trap that ruins most manual attempts.
If your printer has a duplex unit, it's one setting. The name changes from app to app:
lp -o sides=two-sided-long-edge file.pdf (use two-sided-short-edge for landscape).If none of those options shows up, either your printer can't duplex or the driver doesn't know it can. Both are covered below.
This is where most double-sided jobs go wrong. The setting describes the edge the sheet turns over on, like the spine of a book. Pick the wrong one and every back page comes out upside down.
| How the pages turn | Choose | Typical documents |
|---|---|---|
| Portrait, turned like a book | Flip on long edge | Reports, contracts, manuals |
| Landscape, turned like a book | Flip on short edge | Slide decks, wide spreadsheets |
| Portrait, flipped up over the top | Flip on short edge | Notepads, clipboard forms |
| Landscape, flipped up over the top | Flip on long edge | Wall calendars, flip charts |
The CUPS printing system that Mac and Linux use puts it simply: short edge suits landscape pages, long edge suits portrait. If a PDF mixes both, print the portrait and landscape sections as separate jobs, or turn the odd pages upright first with a page rotation tool.
You print it in two passes: all the odd pages, then turn the stack over and print all the even pages on the backs. Here's the method that works on almost any printer.
Whether you need Reverse depends on two things: whether your printer stacks finished pages face up or face down, and whether the tray feeds from the top or the bottom of the stack. There's no rule that covers every model, so do a test with a 4-page document before you print 80 pages. Once you know your printer's pattern, write it on a sticky note on the printer.
Some printer drivers have a "manual duplex" or "print on both sides manually" option that does all of this for you and tells you when to reload. If yours does, use it.
Then the last sheet has nothing on its back, and that throws off manual duplexing. After the odd pass of a 7-page document, you have 4 sheets: pages 1, 3, 5 and 7. The even pass only prints 3 pages. Leave page 7's sheet in the stack, and depending on your printer's order, page 6 can land on the back of page 7 and shift everything after it.
There are two easy fixes. Take the last printed sheet out before you reload, then add it back at the end. Or add a blank page to the end of the PDF so the count is even. No tool here inserts a blank page directly, but you can merge a one-page blank PDF onto the end with our PDF merge tool.
| Pages | Sheets one-sided | Sheets double-sided | Paper saved | Pass 1 / Pass 2 | Last sheet has a blank back? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 7 | 4 | 43% | 4 odd / 3 even | Yes, remove it |
| 10 | 10 | 5 | 50% | 5 odd / 5 even | No |
| 25 | 25 | 13 | 48% | 13 odd / 12 even | Yes, remove it |
| 48 | 48 | 24 | 50% | 24 odd / 24 even | No |
| 100 | 100 | 50 | 50% | 50 odd / 50 even | No |
| 250 | 250 | 125 | 50% | 125 odd / 125 even | No |
Double-sided cuts paper use roughly in half. A 250-page manual drops from half a ream to 125 sheets.
Yes, and it's the most reliable way to do it when your print dialog has no odd/even option, which is common on phones and some browser setups. Use our extract PDF pages tool twice. It keeps pages in the order you type them, so you can build the reversed even file in one step.
1,3,5,7,910,8,6,4,26,4,2Leave "Keep document order" unticked for the reversed file, or it'll sort the pages back into normal order. To shuffle pages by hand, delete a stray blank page, or turn one landscape page so it reads the right way on the back, use the organize PDF tool. Printing a booklet is a different setup. See how to print a PDF as a booklet.
Four usual causes. The printer has no duplex unit. The driver doesn't know the unit is installed: many Windows drivers have a "Device Settings" tab in Printer Properties where it should say Installed. The paper isn't allowed in the duplexer, common with envelopes, labels, card stock and Legal on smaller printers. Or the app is using a generic driver, and installing the maker's driver brings the option back. Failing all that, the manual method works on any printer.
Open the Print dialog, tick "Print on both sides of paper," and choose "Flip on long edge" for normal portrait documents or "Flip on short edge" for landscape. If the checkbox isn't there, your printer driver doesn't report a duplex unit and you'll need to print odd pages, reload, then print even pages.
You picked the wrong flip edge. Portrait documents bound on the side need "flip on long edge" and landscape documents need "flip on short edge." For manual duplexing, the stack went back in rotated, so mark the top edge with an arrow before reloading.
In Acrobat, open More Options in the Print dialog and set Odd or Even Pages to odd only, then even only. If your print dialog has no such option, make two PDFs with a page extractor, for example 1,3,5,7,9 and 10,8,6,4,2 for a 10-page file.
Remove the last printed sheet before reloading the stack for the even pages, then put it back at the end. Or add a blank page to the end of the PDF so the page count is even.
About half. A document of N pages needs N divided by 2 sheets, rounded up, so 100 pages take 50 sheets and 25 pages take 13, which saves 48%.