Trouble printing double sided on prepunched A5 paper from my M254dw printer.

[Stosie2417]

Hello All, 

So, I'm trying to to create a Planner/organizer and print out some custom pages onto A5 paper.   I have set up the pages in a way that would allow proper formatting so that when you flip certain pages, it will open to a monthly planner with the backside of the page with the left side of the calendar and the right front would be the right side of calendar. 

Anyways,  I have inserted the A5 prepunched paper as suggested in my printers manual but when I press print, one side comes out perfect and the other side comes out backwards.  Like the words literally look like you are looking at them from behind and upside down.  I thought maybe it was just the printer but it prints double sided on Letter sized paper just fine.  

I have played around with so many setting options and inserted the paper in every way imaginable that i have honestly forgotten what way i haven't tried.  

Does anyone have any insight or suggestions?  Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thank you!

[Valsimot]

Are you using automatic or manual duplex for printing?

I am not 100% sure about your printer model, but automatically duplex printing on A5 is not supported. Standard size papers like A4 and letter will work.

[evmd]

Yeah, same problem. Did you manage to figure it out? 

I don't have time to try to sort this out right now so I'll just figure out how to do it manually, but it's extremely frustrating. 

Especially since there's no warning or alternative in the dialogue window - if I choose A5 and "print on both sides" it goes ahead and attempts duplex printing. It's fine on A5 paper, and it's obviously not incapable of automatic duplex printing. The paper doesn't jam, the text is all in the correct location, it's just... upside down, mirrored, and the lines are either doubled up or cut off in height.

Automatic vs manual duplexFront page is fine

[evmd]

UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with HP Support. First Line had to send it on to senior staff (he'd been working with this stuff for 20 years and never seen anything like it, go figure), and he had no idea why this happens. They tested the same driver in their lab without issue, but it just wouldn't work for me. 

We went through all troubleshooting, un- and re-installing, and driver-updating imaginable, and after over an hour on the phone we found a solution.

TLDR: Uninstal original drivers, install  HP Color LaserJet Pro M252 PCL-6 driver instead. 

Long version:

My OS is in Swedish, and I don't know the names/words for all the tabs  in English. I've just translated the Swedish term as best I can, which usually works out. If someone needs screenshots to clarify anything, just let me know.

Go to Control panel -> Hardware and sound -> Devices and printers 

Right click on the icon/image for M254dw, open "printer properties".  Open the Advanced tab, and click the "New driver" button.

Hit Next, and you'll get a list of brands and drivers. I had to update the list first, by clicking the Windows Update button.

Once updated, find HP in the left-hand window. That'll give a long list in the right-hand, one. Find the one called HP Color LaserJet Pro M252 PCL-6. 

And then, finally, I had to open the "Unit settings" tab (far right of the Advanced tab), and under "Installable options" switch duplex from not installed to installed. 

-- 

It's weird. There's no reason this should happen, but it does. I don't know what file format OP was printing from, but I had no issues printing .docx or web pages - but PDF files had this problem both when printing through Adobe Acrobat Reader and through Chrome. Obviously there's some kind of issue with the original driver, 

I'll be keeping an eye on the printer for a few days, just to make sure there's no incompatability issue with the alternate driver. There shouldn't be, though, and the tentative printing I've done so far has not revealed any issues. Automatic A5 duplex printing works just fine for now, though!