How can I enable two-sided printing on my Mac with OS Yosemite?

I have been trying to print double sided and watched many of the videos online about how to enable this option in Office, however, most of the videos were not from the latest OS and are outdated. Is there a different way to enable this setting on OS Yosemite? The option in Office is grayed out, and I need to figure out how to change the printer settings, but when I try to go through the System Preferences, and then Printers and Scanners, and Printer Queue, and Settings, there are no options relating to printing two-sided.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Sep 1, 2015 10:14 PM

Top-ranking reply

BobHarris

Level 9

56,819 points

Posted on Dec 29, 2017 5:30 PM

If your printer supports 2-Sided Printing, _AND_ the drivers tells the Mac, then it should be an available option in the Print dialog box, or maybe configuratble from System Prefernces -> Printers.

If the driver does not tell the Mac, you may be able to enable this via the Unix CUPS subsystem (Geekie stuff follows)

From a Terminal session enable the CUPS web interface:

sudo cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Now from a Web browser:

<http://localhost:631>

Click on the "Printers" tab
Select the Print from the list
There should be "Maintenance" and "Administration" buttons
Click "Administration" -> "Set Default Options"

Now things get printer specific. Look for something about Duplex printing, such as:

Duplex Unit (_) Installed (X) Not Installed

Click on (X) Installed

Click on "Set Default Options" at the bottom of the page.

Username: <your_Unix_side_Username>

Password: <your_Mac_password>

Now you can disable the CUPS web interface:

sudo cupsctl WebInterface=no

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21 replies

Lanny

Level 6

13,225 points

Sep 1, 2015 10:30 PM in response to poppyandsprout

Two sided printing is only available if your printer has the capability. Since you didn't provide any information about the make and model of your printer, there is now way that anyone can help you.

Feb 21, 2016 6:54 AM in response to theatermacker

Select Finishing here:

Select Two-sided here:

Jan 14, 2018 3:00 PM in response to jweaver74

Not sure if these are the same instructions for Sierra (not High Sierra) as they are for Yosemite, but no 'duplex' shows up under the options tab. Per the attached screen shot of my previous message, two sided printing shows up as off, but it's not active and can't be changed.

Feb 20, 2016 5:12 AM in response to theatermacker

In Adobe Reader; click the Printer button at bottom of print box, in the print driver window, select a binding option in the Two Sided dropdown menu

Apr 25, 2017 12:22 PM in response to Zara1985

This did it. thx. didn't need to do any extra steps, just the first one of resetting the printer. phew. canon MG

kenzy100

Level 1

4 points

Jul 17, 2017 3:56 PM in response to Zara1985

thanks!!!!

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How can I enable two-sided printing on my Mac with OS Yosemite?