evince doesn't print duplex on duplex-able printers

[Leander Jedamus]

I have a postscript-printer, which can print on both sides of the paper (duplex). When I print a file with "lpr -Pduplex file.pdf", everything is o.k., when I do that in evince (selecting printer duplex), it prints every page on a single sheet, so it acts not the same as lpr does. This happens with Ubuntu 10.04.3. evince is in 2.30.3-0ubuntu1.2.

Greetings,
Leander Jedamus

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Matt 6:27 (goffice)]

My experience is similar, but have just learned something that may help narrow the issue. It appears the duplexing will not work whenever I use a media that is borderless (e.g., 8 1/2 x 11" borderless doesn't print on both sides). When I change the setting for the same PDF to print standard US Letter size, the duplexing works and it prints double-sided. I can duplicate this effect. Hope this helps in the debugging.

[Matt 6:27 (goffice)]

I should add that this only occurs when using Evince. Acrobat Reader and other apps will print double-sided with the borderless setting engaged.

[Julian Foad (julianfoad)]

I confirm this bug with evince 3.4.0 on Ubuntu 12.04.3.

On my system, if one of the following paper sizes was selected PRIOR TO opening the Print dialogue, then the "Two-sided:" drop-down list control is populated with only a "One Sided" option:

  Letter Small Margins 8.5x11in
  A4 Small Margins 210x297mm

If one of the following paper sizes was selected PRIOR TO opening the Print dialogue then it is populated with three options: "One Sided", "Long Edge (Standard)", "Short Edge (Flip)".

  US Letter
  A4
  Letter Borderless 8.5x11in
  A4 Borderless 210x297mm

Changing the paper size while the Print dialogue is open does NOT CHANGE the set of options in the "Two-sided" control. If an option is included and selected then it works: two-sided printing is performed on the selected paper size. Therefore I conclude that this appears to be (at least partly) a bug in the operation of the Print dialog rather than a bug in the printing itself.

One work-around is to select a paper size such as A4, cause that setting to be "saved" (e.g. click on "Print Preview" and close the preview) and then re-open the Print dialogue. The "Two-sided:" control will then contain three options. Select the desired paper size and two-sided option and select Print. In my tests, by this means two-sided printing then proceeds successfully on any of the paper sizes I have tried.

[Christian Reis (kiko)]

For the record, I had run into a similar issue where the duplex dropdown in the print options dialogue never showed any duplexer option. It turns out that I was missing enabling a "Duplexer Installed" option in the CUPS control panel administration page for the printer -- once I turned that on the dialogue became healthy again.

[LanceHaverkamp (lance-thehaverkamps)]

Yes, this is a bug:

My OKI 331dn now installs with duplex defaulting to off. Problem is, when that's the case, the printer dialog can't be set to duplex on--it's greyed-out.

If I change the default to duplex on, then the user can change the setting.

Setting the default behavior to simplex shouldn't eliminate user choice; but it does.

[Peter Flynn (frisket)]

Yes, this is still a bug, and still unfixed. My new HP duplex printer works fine from lpr on the command line with the right options for double-sided, and qpdfview can also print both sides, but because the printer default for duplex is Off, Evince's drop-down is stuck on One-Sided and refuses to admit that the printer is capable of both sides.

Setting the default behavior to simplex shouldn't eliminate user choice; but it does.

Can someone please fix this?

[Dave Jones (waveform)]

Still an issue on the current LTS (jammy, 22.04), and the current devel series (lunar, 23.04)