How to enable Manual Duplex on Brother DCP-1610W

I installed the drivers for the printer here and it works, but Manual Duplex is greyed out. How can I enable Manual Duplex?

1 Answer

I use a Brother HL-2240 and had this same problem. Although I have never figured out how to get the Manual Duplex option working, I found out you can manually print duplex without a Manual Duplex option. You simply manually go through all the steps a Manual Duplex option would require by printing only the even sheets, then only the odd sheets.

Since we have different models, the exact steps will probably vary, but for me the process is:

1. Press Control+P (or otherwise go to the print dialog), then go to "Page Setup"
2. For the "Only Print" option, select "Even sheets" and "reverse order". Printing the even sheets first ensures that if there is a final single-sided sheet, it will occur at the end instead of the beginning. NOTE: I have not personally used "reverse order," so I can't speak to its use, though it sounds helpful. I do always print even sheets first, which is imperative. The suggestion to use reverse order, as well as some clarification on why printing even sheets before odd sheets is needed, are taken from a suggestion by DS Justice in a comment and suggested edit.
3. Press "Print"
4. After the even sheets have printed, re-insert the paper in the paper tray, so that the printed text is facing up and will look upside down from your point of view. De-select "reverse order".
5. Press Control+P and go to "Page Setup"
6. For the "Only Print" option, select "Odd sheets"
7. Press "Print"

So you may have to modify that list somewhat to fit your model, but if you follow all the steps that a Manual Duplex option would have made you do, you should be alright.