Lawrence╒s Little Printing Helpers #1: Duplex Helper
Duplex Helper is a printing extension for use with QuickDraw GX, to make it easier to print double-sided pages on printers that only print one side of the paper at a time.
To use Duplex Helper, you must have QuickDraw GX installed. To install Duplex Helper, simply drag a copy to your Extensions folder. You don╒t need to restart. To make full use of it, you will need an application that supports QuickDraw GX printing. When you do a ╥Print...╙ from such an application, you will see a window that looks something like this:
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(If you don╒t see the scrolling list of icons down the left, click the ╥More Choices╙ button. Then look down the list for the Duplex Helper icon, and click that to bring up its panel, like you see above.)
The options that Duplex Helper offers are very simple: ╥All Pages╙ means to print all pages of the job, as normal; ╥Even Pages Only╙ means to print only the even-numbered pages (2, 4 and so on), while ╥Odd Pages Only╙ means to print only the odd-numbered pages (1, 3 and so on). In addition, the ╥Reverse Order Printing╙ checkbox causes the chosen pages to come out in reverse order.
The procedure for doing double-sided printing depends on the kind of printer you have. Your printer could be of one of three kinds:
Ñ It prints on the upper side of the paper as fed from the input stack, and stacks the paper in the output tray printed side up;
Ñ It prints on the upper side of the paper as fed from the input stack, and stacks the paper in the output tray printed side down;
Ñ It prints on the lower side of the paper as fed from the input stack, and stacks the paper in the output tray printed side down.
(Actually, there could be a fourth kind, but I╒ve never heard of any printers like that.)
In each case, you will need to print your document twice, once doing just the even-numbered pages, and the second time just the odd pages. The following sections detail the procedure:
Ñ Printer Prints on Upper Side, Stacks Output Printed Side Up
(eg Apple StyleWriter, original LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus)
1) Print the even-numbered pages of your document in reverse order.
2) Flip the output stack over so the blank side is up, and place it in the input tray,
3) If your document has an odd number of pages, place an extra blank sheet on top of the stack in the input tray.
4) Print the odd-numbered pages of your document in reverse order.
Ñ Printer Prints on Upper Side, Stacks Output Printed Side Down
(eg LaserWriter II family using face-down paper tray)
1) Print the even-numbered pages of your document in reverse order.
2) Place the output stack in the input tray, blank side up. If your document has an odd number of pages, make sure there╒s an extra blank sheet beneath.
3) Print the odd-numbered pages of your document in forward order.
Ñ Printer Prints on Lower Side, Stacks Output Printed Side Down
(eg LaserWriter Pro family using paper cassette)
1) Print the even-numbered pages of your document in forward order.
2) Place the output stack in the input cassette, blank side down. If your document has an odd number of pages, make sure there╒s an extra blank sheet beneath.
3) Print the odd-numbered pages of your document in forward order.
Tip: you may want to practise with small documents of 3-4 pages, to get the procedure right before attempting a big one.
Single-Sided Printing Tip: even if you don╒t intend to do much double-sided printing, you can still make use of Duplex Helper╒s Reverse Order Printing setting, if your printer is such that this is more convenient. If your printer is of the first kind (prints on the upper side, stacks output printed side up), then it is usually preferable if the pages come out in reverse order. You can make this the default very easily if you know how to use ResEdit.
To make reverse-order printing the default, open Duplex Helper with ResEdit, and look for the ╥PREF╙ resource with ID 128. I have provided a template for this, so if you double-click this resource, you should automatically see a window containing the legend ╥Default to reverse-order printing╙, with radio buttons marked ╥True╙ and ╥False╙. Select the appropriate default setting, and save your changes. It appears you need to restart for the new default to take effect. Note: to avoid accidents, do not do this with your only copy of Duplex Helper.
Further to the above tip: one nice side-effect is that the default Duplex Helper settings apply even to applications that don╒t know about QuickDraw GX printing╤it╒s just that these applications give you no way to change the default. Thus, if you set reverse-order printing as the default, you will get pages coming out in reverse order in all your applications!
Duplex Helper is copyright ⌐ 1994 by Lawrence D╒Oliveiro. It may be copied and distributed freely, but not for direct commercial gain.
Bug reports, comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
