Printing on both sides of the sheet, commonly known as duplex printing, reduces costs because you use less paper. It also saves time because you don’t need to go to the store to replenish your printing supplies as often as someone who prints on one side.
Some printers allow automatic duplex printing, such as the Brother HL-L3270CDW.
With such printers, you only need to tweak your printer settings to automatically print on both sides of the sheet.
However, other printers don’t support automatic double-sided printing. Instead, you need to set the drivers to print manually on both sides.
Read on to learn how to print double-sided on Brother Printer.
How To Print Double-Sided on Brother Printer
There are Brother printers that support duplex printing and others that do not. We will discuss how to print double-sided on each kind separately.
Printing Double-Sided on Brother Printer That Supports Duplex Printing
Follow the steps below to print double-sided on a Brother printer that supports automatic duplex printing:
For Windows Users:
- Open the document to print.
- Click File.
- Choose Print on the drop-down menu.
- Select your Brother printer in the model section.
- Click Properties or Preferences, depending on your Windows version.
- Choose Duplex under Duplex/Booklet.
- Click Duplex Settings.
- Choose your preferred Duplex type.
- Click Binding Offset to set your preferred inches and millimeters.
- Select OK.
- Customize any other printing settings as you please.
- Click OK or Print.
- The document automatically prints on both sides of the sheet.
For Mac Users:
- From your document’s page, click File.
- Select Print in the drop-down menu.
- Choose your Brother printer under the model option.
- Tick the Two-sided option under Copies.
- Click Print. The document automatically prints on both sides of the sheet.
- For applications such as the PDF reader, you may not see the Two-sided option automatically in the settings.
- In that case, click Printer at the bottom of the print settings window.
- Tick the Two-sided option.
- Click the Media & Quality option.
- Select Layout from the drop-down menu.
- Choose your preferred orientation.
- Select Print.
- The document automatically prints on both sides of the paper.
Manually Printing Double-Sided on Brother Printer
If your Brother printer does not support automatic duplex printing, you can still manually print on both sides of the sheet by tweaking some printing settings on your device.
For Windows Users:
- Navigate to your computer’s Control Panel.
- Select Hardware and Sound.
- Click View devices and printers.
- Select your printer.
- Select the Basic tab.
- Tick the Reverse Order option.
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Click on Other Print Options.
- Select Print Odd Pages.
- Click OK and let the printer print the pages.
- Remove the sheets from the output paper tray.
- Put the printed pages back on the output paper tray. Here’s how to do it:
- The top page goes first
- The printed sides face up
- The sheets should be completely flat
- For portrait orientation, the top edges of images should be at the back of the tray
- For landscape orientation, the top edges of images should be at the right-hand side of the tray
- Go to the Basic tab.
- Uncheck the Reverse Order option.
- Go to the Advanced tab.
- Select Other Print Options.
- Select Print Order.
- Tick the Print Even Pages option.
- Click OK.
For Mac Users:
- Open the document you want to print.
- Click File.
- Select Print in the drop-down menu.
- Select Paper Handling.
- On the Page Order option, select Reverse.
- Under Pages to Print, choose Even Only. On some Mac versions, the option may be Even numbered pages.
- Select Print and let the printer print the pages.
- Remove the papers from the output paper tray.
- Put back the sheets with the printed pages facing up. Follow these directions:
- The top page goes first
- The printed sides face up
- The sheets should be completely flat
- For portrait orientation, the top edges of images should be at the back of the tray
- For landscape orientation, the top edges of images should be at the right-hand side of the tray
- Select Paper Handling.
- Under Page Order, choose Normal.
- Select Odd Only under Pages to Print.
- Click Print.
How To Set Double-Sided Printing As Default on Brother Printer
You can set your Duplex-printing-enabled Brother printer to always print on both sides of the paper. Here’s how to do it:
For Windows:
- Open the Control Panel.
- Select Hardware and Sound.
- Click View Devices and Printers.
- Select your printer.
- Click the Advanced tab.
- Check the Duplex box.
- Select Use Duplex Unit.
- Choose your preferred Duplex Type.
- Select Binding Offset.
- Set your preferred inches and millimeters.
- Select OK.
For Mac:
- Click the Apple menu.
- Select System Settings or Preferences.
- Choose Printers and Scanners.
- Select your printer.
- Click Layout on the pop-up menu.
- Choose Long-edge binding or Short-edge binding.
- The Two-sided printing option automatically turns on.
- Select Paper Handling.
- Select All Pages under Pages to Print.
- Select Print.
Best Brother Printers That Support Duplex Printing
As mentioned earlier, not all Brother printers support duplex printing. If your printer does not support duplex printing, you need to manually print on both sides by printing on one side, remove the sheets from the tray and flip them over, and then print on the other side.
However, double-sided printing is automatic in Brother printers that support duplex printing. Below are the best Brother printers that support automatic double-sided printing:
Brother Monochrome Laser Printer DCPL2550DW
Brother MFC-J1010DW Wireless Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer
Brother Compact Monochrome Laser Printer HL-L2350DW
Conclusion
Printing on both sides of the paper saves on operational costs because you use fewer printing sheets. It also saves you time because as you save on printing sheets, you won’t have to purchase printing supplies as often as someone who prints on a single side.
The double-sided printing process on a Brother printer varies, depending on whether the printer supports automatic duplex printing. If the printer supports automatic double-sided printing, you only need to enable the feature in the printing settings. On the other hand, you need to manually operate the printer to print on both sides in a Brother printer that doesn’t support duplex printing.