Can't print duplex

[SnowLeopard2008]

I can't print duplex on my brother hl2170w wireless printer! It is networked, and the two sided option is greyed out. I know this printer is duplex, because it says so on brother's site and on the box. Could it be because I chose to not install printer drivers when I was installing Leopard? I unchecked that option, to not install any printer drivers. Could that be my problem? Please hurry because my report is due tomorrow!

EDIT: It is NOT automatic duplex, but rather manual duplex. How would I print duplex manually? I know it has that function. I don't want to print odd pages and then flip them around to print even. First, because it is a compact laser and I have no idea how to position the paper. It is monochrome, but it's just a rough draft, so no need for color. It has a slot to feed the paper in for manual duplex.

 

[Sun Baked]

Open tray, place an X on a bottom right corner on the top page of the paper tray.

Print a page to see how it prints, the X should indicate how you need to place the paper in the tray to reprint duplex manually depending on which side of the page is printed in reference to your mark.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Is there a way to have it do a semi automatic duplex?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I am so dumb. It has this back panel that you can pull out. It will sense that you want to print duplex and print the odd pages and that back panel serves as a tray. You take the pages that comes out the back panel and feed it through the front panel that can also be opened. So sorry! I was in a panic and didn't think properly. My group members in the project didn't do any work, so I had to everything which kinda added to my initial panic.

 

[hawkeye9935]

Bump!

So I just bought the hl-2170w and am also wondering how to manually duplex the pages. I opened the back compartment but it just printed one-sided and fired it out the back. I know that Preview doesn't support duplex printing per se but maybe the printer can "figure it out" on its own. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking.

Any thoughts would be welcome...

 

[nanofrog]

That printer doesn't have a true duplexer in it to print both sides without manual intervention. Those with a D in the back end of the model number are. For example, MFC-xxxCDN would mean Multi Function, model number, Color, Duplex, Network (W also exists for Wireless networking as well).

But if you install the drivers for it, it has a software duplexing option. It prints out one side of the pages for a document (starts with even pages IIRC, then you re-load the paper in the paper tray, and hit the soft key on the screen to tell it to print the missing pages. Manual intervention for loading the paper, but no where near as hard as trying to do it completely by hand.

It's still a bit of a PITA, but if you don't do it often, or with large documents, it's not that big a deal on occasion to save on costs.

 

[opally]

Here's Brother's instructions for printing duplex

Here are Brother's instructions for printing duplex for model HL-2170w.