Selecting even pages prints only odd pages

Hello Dvardid,

welcome to Apple Discussions.

I cannot help you but confirm that I experience a similar issue. I'm not even able to print odd numbered pages or even numbered pages. Mac OS X (this also happens in Preview) always prints all pages, regardless if I state to only print odd or even numbered pages.

So, you might try if this happens also in other applications. If yes, we're at least sure that it's not a Pages issue.

Hullo Dvardid:

I find this problem in Preview - where it is a minor issue.

However my Canon ip90 can print odd or even pages - which I use in lieu of a duplex facility. It does have a glitch in that if I want to print a single page I have to choose "all" in "paper handling" or the printer hangs: I assume in trying to filter out non-existent pages. But in sum your problem would seem to be a printer driver issue, rather than a Pages or OS X malfunction.

Accordingly I suggest you contact HP, unless you may have inadvertently saved a "preset" in the Pages print dialogue for your odd pages, and are using that again for your even ones. You would need to start off with "standard" to have all choices available. Then after you've done that, you should be able to save, for example, a set of choices for odd, even, or all pages - remembering to switch between them as required.

Good luck.

PS: this post crossed with your last. It seems you have wrestled with this issue rather thoroughly, and an inadvertent setting would seem unlikely.

But I'm leaving my response to show that at least it's not universal.

What a challenge something like this is! Here's what I found: In the first printer dialog box set the starting page at the odd number preceding the even one you want to start at. Then in paper handling, choose "Even." The even numbered pages will then print properly. (At least they did for me.)

Hope this works for you.

Walt

Not that I agree with it, but in a way that makes sense. The count starts with the first page, whether it is page 1 of 100 or 2 of 5 or 100 of 551. The first page is odd even if its number is 2 & the paper handling option is logical.

Sorry, Walt, not on my computer.

I open a document with seven pages, choose File/Print (command-P), select Paper Handling and mark "Even numbered pages", then click on Preview. After some time, Preview comes up with all seven pages.

This also happens on my iMac, as a quick test just revealed.

Time to file a bug report?

Matthias,

I just did it again. I opened a 7 page document, in the print dialog I selected print "from 3 to [delete]" (blank box). Then in paper handling I selected print even numbered pages. In Preview it showed pages 3,4,5,6,7. I then selected "Print" and pages 4 and 6 printed.

If there is a bug, it must be with Preview.

Walt


iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Okay, Walt,

I just looked at the Preview and expected only to see the even numbered (or odd numbered) pages, but pages 3,4,5,6,7 show up, as you described. I'll test printing tomorrow when I can attach a printer to my PB.

Hullo All:

I've just put in my own bug report on the Preview issue (since I am not affected - or not much - by the printing one). I would suggest that others, whether affected in Preview, or in printing as well, might do the same.

Obviously those affected in printing might need to advise their printer makers too. Perhaps the Tiger print service is complicating things for all of us.

I have also noted in my submission that it would be more convenient if Preview retained the settings informing it for a following print. Presently they have to be redone, or else first saved as a preset.

Regards.

Just to elaborate on what Peggy was saying earlier, when you select a print range (or use the default "Print all) the app sees the first page selected as "Odd" even if it's an even numbered page. Therefore the next page is even, even if it's odd numbered. And the next is odd again and the next is even … and so on down the line. It matters not what your actual page number is, the app is just counting from the very first page of your selection which it sees as odd. So if you want to print even numbered pages from somewhere in the middle of the document you have to start the sequence with the odd numbered page preceding the first even numbered page you want printed. (When you "Print All" the first page is "odd," right?)

When printing even and odd pages from 19 to 28 as our original poster was trying to do, the choice in the first print dialog box must both times be set as "19 to 28" and not "19 to 27" and "20 to 28" because "20" will then become an "odd" number.

Preview apparently will show all the pages from the first one selected on (I don't know why), but the printer is taking its instructions from the Paper Handling selection and prints either odd or even as requested.

Like I tell my wife, all you have to do is figure out what the stupid computer wants you to do.

Happy days,

Walt

Hullo Walt:

Well let's see how the poster goes. But it's as clear as mud in the Help, and there's still that issue with Preview.

Maybe it can be better to just be gung-ho. I generally print whole documents, starting with the odd numbers first, and then the evens in lieu of duplex. The computer can only get fussy when I decide to reprint a single page.

But I wouldn't call it logic. These things are just plain dangfangled.

Cheers.

It depends on whether you're using a printer that outputs face up or face down. Most ink jet printers do face up, so printing odd & then even will result in the double-sided pages in the right order. For most laser printers at the default output, first print even pages in reverse order then the odd pages to get the printed pages in the right order. Of course, if you're using a face up output option, print in the order I described for ink jets.

If you have other printers, you might try them as well, as this sounds like a printer driver issue, and not an application issue.

Tulse,

thanks for the reply. I just tried two other printers, but printing behaves the same way -- Preview always shows all pages.