Booklet printing problems with Canon iRC3220

[m.mcandrew]

The booklet printing feature provide by PDFViewer is not printing with the correct orientation. The problem is experienced on a iRC3220 Canon printer with duplex printing capability. The resultant printed page is printing the front side of the paper correctly but the back of the page is upside down (needs a 180 page rotation to have correct orientation with respect to the front page).
I have spent some time looking at the printer driver options but can’t achieve a satisfactory result.
To Assist with the explanation of this problem, the following files are included:-
• Test PDF file – a simple file with a single number on each page
• A copy of the printer driver information from the Canon printer
• Since it is difficult to send a printer piece of paper over the internet I have created a simulated jpeg image of the printed paper showing the front page view in Black and the rear of the page in grey (just as if I was looking at the paper with a strong light source behind).

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hello m.mcandrew,

I presume this is due to the way the printer rotates the paper to allow for the duplex printing.
It is rotating it along the long side of the sheet - if it was along the short it would have been OK.

As the pages you are printing now are perpendicular to the direction of the rotation the observed mirroring is happening.
The only automatic solution I can think of is if there are some mirroring modes in your printer driver which you can apply to every other page.

The solution that will work is to print only the front sides of the booklet (not in Duplex mode) then to rotate the printed sheets manually along the right axis and print the backs - you will also need inversing the page order here.

Regards,
Stefan

[m.mcandrew]

Thanks for the advice.

Afer a like more study, I found that the Canon printer driver does booklet format!
Problem solved
Regards
Mark

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Mark,

Glad that you found the solution.

Best,
Stefan

[Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team]

Hi, Mark

You may try to change the [Canon iRC3220/Preferences/Finishing/Binding Location] parameter.

HTH

[bege]

Hi,
same problem with Canon MP530 here.
The "solution" is no solution but a work-around.
Using the printer driver booklet option works correctly and using Adobe Reader booklet option works correctly, but the PDF-XChange Viewer booklet option gives the wrong page orientation.
Would you, please, see how Adobe Reader manages this task and try to make PDF-XChange Viewer do it the same way?
Thank you very much.
Regards

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

HI bege,

you may try:
1. setup the duplex mode with custom duplex-orientation in the printer's driver in the system (not through our app).
2. our new beta V25 viewer will be available later today - it may solve his problem..

hth

[bege]

Hi Paul,
thanks for your answer

1. setup the duplex mode with custom duplex-orientation in the printer's driver in the system (not through our app).

Doesn't make a difference.

2. our new beta V25 viewer will be available later today - it may solve his problem..

Unfortunately not.

Regards

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

When you check "Duplex mode" on the viewer's print dialog, the viewer activates duplex mode on the printer and choose "Long side" as binding side for duplex.
When printed page is landscape (as in case when you print booklets), you need to change binding side to "short side" in printer's preferences.

HTH

[bege]

When printed page is landscape (as in case when you print booklets), you need to change binding side to "short side" in printer's preferences.

This works, thank you.
Now - can you make PDF Viewer make this automatically when booklet printing is chosen, like the printer driver and Adobe Reader do?
Regards

[Ivan - Tracker Software]

like the printer driver and Adobe Reader do

Maybe I'm wrong, but are you sure Adobe Reader has "Duplex" option on print dialog ?

[bege]

like the printer driver and Adobe Reader do

Maybe I'm wrong, but are you sure Adobe Reader has "Duplex" option on print dialog ?

When Adobe Reader is set to booklet printing it prints in duplex mode automatically.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi bege

it is not something that we will likely be implementing I'm afraid.

[BobM]

When you check "Duplex mode" on the viewer's print dialog, the viewer activates duplex mode on the printer and choose "Long side" as binding side for duplex.
When printed page is landscape (as in case when you print booklets), you need to change binding side to "short side" in printer's preferences.

HTH

Whilst this workaround does as you say, it's not a solution - if the user is expected to modify default printer settings for the special case of booklet printing, he may as well use the printer's own booklet printing functionality (assuming it's available). The point of the Pdf Xchange booklet option is that it is supposed to interface to the printer for the print requirements of the current pdf. Additionally, although the print preview shows the correct orientation, the physical out does not correspond with the preview.

BTW I experience the issue on a RICOH Aficio MP 4000 RPCS printer.

It is frustrating that this problem was reported 2 years ago and still hasn't been fixed.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi Bob,

Did I understand correctly that you are having problems with activating the "Duplex Mode" checkbox in our Viewer while trying to print in booklet mode?

As I see this option is available with my printer, and if it's not with yours - we might need to investigate.
Please do make sure you have build 2.5.201 of our Viewer, and then if the problem is still there - do send us a screenshot of your Print dialogue and a link to the printer drivers you are using.

Best,
Stefan

[BobM]

Duplex mode works fine for all non booklet modes, but for booklets, the printout on the reverse side of each sheet is upside down - a problem reported here and in other posts on the forum.
A workaround (also described here) has always been to enter the printer properties dialog and changing the default settings to Duplex-Open to Top. But since this setting affects all print jobs, it has to be reversed after printing the booklet, rather than it only applying to the PDF Xchange application.
Since this setting also contains the print driver's own booklet printing functionality, it currently makes more sense to use that rather than the Open to Top option just bypass the PDF Xchange bug.
I'm using 2.5.201.

Bob

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Thanks for the update Bob,

So can we please have a link to the drivers you are using for your RICOH Aficio MP 4000 RPCS printer and we will check if we can recognize this Open-to-Top option in printers like yours and support it in a future build.

Best,
Stefan

[BobM]

The driver is:

Ricoh RPCS Printer Driver Version 7.68 (64 bit for Windows 7, 32 bit for XP)

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Thanks Bob,

Discussing this with my colleagues now and we will advise here later.

Best,
Stefan

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Hi again Bob,

After discussing this problem we've made a ticket in our internal system:
#1516: Booklet printing problems with Canon iRC3220
and are aiming at fixing this for the next build.

Best,
Stefan

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi Bob,

this was resolved in the last build. can you confirm that for us please?

regards

[BobM]

It was, sort of. The addition of the long edge/short edge button for duplex printing now allows the user to select the appropriate choice when printing brochures or books. So thanks for introducing the fix.

Unfortunately though, the preview window doesn't show any difference between the 2 modes, which is incorrect.

Also, the difference between printing A4 pages and A4 booklets correctly is not automated and a little counter intuitive, due to differences in understanding between the physical page and the smaller (A5) virtual pages. Specifically, printing A4 portrait pages (with scaling set to fit to page or none) requires the duplex setting to be long edge, but when scaling is set to booklet, those same A4 pages now require the duplex setting to be short edge, for a correct printout. However, without the preview window showing which method produces upside down pages, printing booklets correctly remains trial and error.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]

Thanks for the update BobM,

I have updated the ticket with your latest comment and we will check the Preview Pane and see to resolve that too.

Best,
Stefan