Vista: Manual two sided printing on HP 1200

[kenc]

With Windows XP I used to be able to select two sided printing. The
odd or even pages would print, then the printer would wait for the
pages to be flipped and inserted into the manual feed tray. The
opposite pages would then be printed. With Vista if I select "Duplex
unit" in the device settings all the pages from first to last print.
If I do not select "Duplex Unit, two sided printing is not an option.

 

[Doug]

With Windows XP I used to be able to select two sided printing. The
odd or even pages would print, then the printer would wait for the
pages to be flipped and inserted into the manual feed tray. The
opposite pages would then be printed. With Vista if I select "Duplex
unit" in the device settings all the pages from first to last print.
If I do not select "Duplex Unit, two sided printing is not an option.

Hello, I'm not familiar with the 1200 or Vista, but many of the HP
printer drivers I am familiar with have an option to "Allow Manual
Duplex" do you see such an option in the Vista driver? The "Duplex
Unit" is an added part that flips the paper then prints on the other
side it sounds like you don't have that unit and should not select
it.

With our Lord's blessings take care, Doug

 

[David Rance]

Hello, I'm not familiar with the 1200 or Vista, but many of the HP
printer drivers I am familiar with have an option to "Allow Manual
Duplex" do you see such an option in the Vista driver? The "Duplex
Unit" is an added part that flips the paper then prints on the other
side it sounds like you don't have that unit and should not select
it.

No, think this is the point Ken was making. There is no option for
either manual duplexing or, for that matter, for booklet printing on
many of the HP drivers for Vista even if the printer is still on sale.
This is a very bad policy as far as Hewlett Packard are concerned and I
suppose the philosophy is to get you to keep buying new printers

What I did - and this was an idea I gleaned from the HP support when I
couldn't get these facilities on a Photosmart 2610 - was to install the
driver for a Deskjet 6500. This worked fine with the 2610 and gave me
back the facilities I'd lost.

Earlier I'd done a similar thing with the Deskjet 1120. When WIN XP
didn't have a fully featured driver for it I installed the driver for
the Deskjet 1280.

So it's a question of finding a driver for a newish printer from HP with
similar specs to the one you want a driver for and installing that. Nine
times out of ten it will work. And if it doesn't there's no harm done;
uninstall it and try another.

David

 

[Boskey]

With Windows XP I used to be able to select two sided printing. The
odd or even pages would print, then the printer would wait for the
pages to be flipped and inserted into the manual feed tray. The
opposite pages would then be printed. With Vista if I select "Duplex
unit" in the device settings all the pages from first to last print.
If I do not select "Duplex Unit, two sided printing is not an option.

Sounds like HP has removed manual duplexing from their Vista driver for this
printer. You might checkout FinePrint if you can't find a suitable HP
driver. I used FinePrint when I was running XP x64 and an old Samsung ML
1450; worked well for me. A trial version is available.
http://www.fineprint.com/products/fineprint/index.html

 

[TJ]

With Windows XP I used to be able to select two sided printing. The
odd or even pages would print, then the printer would wait for the
pages to be flipped and inserted into the manual feed tray. The
opposite pages would then be printed. With Vista if I select "Duplex
unit" in the device settings all the pages from first to last print.
If I do not select "Duplex Unit, two sided printing is not an option.

I don't have any experience with Vista, but I've heard here and there
that the HP driver that's built into Vista isn't as full-featured as the
ones HP provided for XP. If I were you, I'd try looking for the latest
driver at hp.com first.

Just a thought if that doesn't work...try looking for an option that
prints just odd-numbered or even-numbered pages, instead of a "duplex"
option. Some software, like Adobe Reader, provides that option separate
from the printer driver. Print the odd pages first, then the even ones.

Or you could look on Ebay for a duplexer for your printer. I found one
for my Deskjet 5650 there for $20 just last month.

TJ