HP4000 - How to Print on Both Sides of Paper

[Philadelphia Frank]

I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to print on both sides of
the paper with my HP 4000. Printing on both sides is pretty easy,
getting page one to be on the same sheet as page two with both sides
facing the same direction is not so easy, at least for me.

I don't have the duplexer.

I tell MS Word, or Acrobat, to print all the odd pages and then I
reinsert those sheets and print all the even pages. Every now and then
I put the paper in the right way, but usually I end up with a mess.

Can someone take me by the hand and show me how to place the already
printed odd numbers pages back into the paper tray so that the even
numbered pages will match up?

Should I be printing in reverse order? Ideally I would like to be able
to remove the papers from the printer, punch out holes and put them
into a loose leaf binder.

Please help me; I'm old and stupid.

Frank

 

[George E. Cawthon]

I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to print on both sides of
the paper with my HP 4000. Printing on both sides is pretty easy,
getting page one to be on the same sheet as page two with both sides
facing the same direction is not so easy, at least for me.

I don't have the duplexer.

I tell MS Word, or Acrobat, to print all the odd pages and then I
reinsert those sheets and print all the even pages. Every now and then
I put the paper in the right way, but usually I end up with a mess.

Can someone take me by the hand and show me how to place the already
printed odd numbers pages back into the paper tray so that the even
numbered pages will match up?

Should I be printing in reverse order? Ideally I would like to be able
to remove the papers from the printer, punch out holes and put them
into a loose leaf binder.

Please help me; I'm old and stupid.

Frank

If you have a manual it will show you which way to
turn the paper for manually printing both sides.
The following procedure will work on any machine.
The trick is to keep notes. If you can feed
paper from two different places, e.g. top and
bottom tray) you will need to check both.

1. Write TOP with a pencil at the top of a sheet
of paper.
2. Insert the page just as you would read it,
i.e., writing up and going in the printer first,
in the paper drawer.
3. Print a few lines.
4. Look at the printed paper and see where
printed lines are in relation to your pencil
marked TOP. That tells you which side the printer
prints on and thus which side to put down (or up)
to print on a black sheet). Next, note which end
the printed lines are on in relation to the
penciled TOP.

Example:

Printed lines are on opposite side from the
penciled top. That means the printer prints on
the bottom as the paper sits in the tray, so when
duplexing, you print the first side and then you
take the stack and put it in the tray with the
printed side showing (up. But you also may note
that the penciled TOP is on the opposite end from
the printed lines on your test sheet. That means
that when you put the stack in to print the second
side that the stack must be turned around so that
the writing is upside down to you , i.e. the
bottom of the sheet goes in first.

You should not have to shuffle the papers for the
second side to print correctly.

If that is confusing just do steps 1-3 and tells
us the results and we will tell you how to turn
the paper.

 

[Tony]

I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to print on both sides of
the paper with my HP 4000. Printing on both sides is pretty easy,
getting page one to be on the same sheet as page two with both sides
facing the same direction is not so easy, at least for me.

I don't have the duplexer.

I tell MS Word, or Acrobat, to print all the odd pages and then I
reinsert those sheets and print all the even pages. Every now and then
I put the paper in the right way, but usually I end up with a mess.

Can someone take me by the hand and show me how to place the already
printed odd numbers pages back into the paper tray so that the even
numbered pages will match up?

Should I be printing in reverse order? Ideally I would like to be able
to remove the papers from the printer, punch out holes and put them
into a loose leaf binder.

Please help me; I'm old and stupid.

Frank

Frank
Fisrtly you can't be stupid or you wouldn't have asked the question in this
very appropriate forum. There is no need to print in reverse order.

Here are the instructions for manual duplexing with the Laserjet 4050, the 4000
should be exactly the same.
These instructions assume Word. Acrobat should be similar so far as I know.
Also I am assuming you are using tray 2 (The main tray at the bottom of the
printer). The process is quite different for Tray 1 (The multipurpose tray that
folds down as needed at the top front of the printer).

1. Make sure that the rear output tray is closed (that is the so called "face
up" tray) at the back of the printer.
2. Open your Word document, Select File and Print (don't click on the printer
icon). Select "Print odd pages" from the box at the bottom left.
3. Print the pages. If your document has an odd number of pages remove the last
page and put it to one side. If you don't do this you will just have to remove
the final page from the tray when you have finished and put it back in the
document, no big deal.
4. Remove the printed pages and put them back in tray 2 but flip the pile left
to right so that when they are in the tray page 1 is facing up with the top of
the page nearest to you.
5. Select File and Print . Select "Print Even Pages" from the box. Don't start
print job yet.
6. Important====== Open the rear output (Face up) tray. Otherwise your document
will be back to front.
7. Print the pages. The document should be correctly printed and in order. If
you had put a page aside just add it to the back of the document.
Please let me know if any of the instructions are unclear.
If you want to use the multipurpose tray (tray 1) you do it quite differently,
in that case let me know and I will list the steps.
The only problem with manual duplexing is if you have a paper jam or other
interruption to the print job, the result may be some out of order prints like
page 6 printed on the back of page 3 for instance.
Good luck
Tony

 

[Fred McKenzie]

I'm having a terrible time figuring out how to print on both sides of
the paper with my HP 4000. Printing on both sides is pretty easy,
getting page one to be on the same sheet as page two with both sides
facing the same direction is not so easy, at least for me.

Frank-

As George said, "The trick is to keep notes."

I have the HP 4600 which is apparently different from what George and Tony say.

I print EVEN pages first, in the normal forward order.

I print EVEN pages from Tray 2. They come out face down, top away from
me. I turn them face up, top away, place them in Tray 1 and print ODD
pages. If the last page is odd, it is printed from Tray 2 and added to
the back of the duplex pile.

For the HP 4000, the only question might be whether you place the EVEN
pages in Tray 1 face up or face down before printing the ODD pages.

Fred

 

[Tony]

Frank-

As George said, "The trick is to keep notes."

I have the HP 4600 which is apparently different from what George and Tony say.

I print EVEN pages first, in the normal forward order.

I print EVEN pages from Tray 2. They come out face down, top away from
me. I turn them face up, top away, place them in Tray 1 and print ODD
pages. If the last page is odd, it is printed from Tray 2 and added to
the back of the duplex pile.

For the HP 4000, the only question might be whether you place the EVEN
pages in Tray 1 face up or face down before printing the ODD pages.

Fred

Fred
The important part of the 4000 method is to use the face up tray for the second
pass to avoid a back to front document.
The problem is that there are several different feed and delivery methods used
in lasers and this affects the manual duplexing methodology.
Tony