Acrobat X: Lost default duplex print

Question

When I upgraded, I lost the ability to duplex print by default and would like to know if I can restore it. I'm working on a mac and there is no duplex option in Acrobat's print command. My printer settings are set on duplex and it operates just fine in other programs. In Acrobat, I have to go into its printer settings via Properties to select duplex. I just want Acrobat to not override my printer settings and default to single-sided when I want 2-sided. Is there way to at least change the default print settings in Acrobat without having to change the Properties setting for each and every file? What an odd feature for Adobe to put into this software and I hope a fix is imminent if there is no simple solution in the current version. One expects an upgrade to be an improvement only in areas where it improves the workflow, not detracts from it, yes?

Answer 1

Dov Isaacs wrote:
Please understand that this forum is absolutely not a means of communicating directly with Adobe. It s a User to User Forum primarily provided as a means of end users assisting each other. Adobe executives and management do not monitor these forums directly. Some Adobe employees do monitor these forums, pretty much on a volunteer basis and try to provide some assistance and feedback to decision makers.
The changes in Acrobat & Reader 10.1.2 associated with printing were clearly a big problem. As far as we know,  no one actually lost the capability of controlling simplex versus duplex printing, but rather, a very ill-conceived mechanism was introduced that assumed that if your printer has duplex capabilities of any type, you would or should use them.
The plans of record are to provide a fix for this issue in the next quarterly update to Acrobat and Reader due next month. There will be a control for duplex in the print dialog, but it will only reflect what you have already set in the printer properties (either on Windows or Macintosh). The dialog will allow you to change that setting while in Acrobat, but it will not make assumptions as to what you could or should do vis-a-vis duplex printing. In this respect, it will be similar to print dialogs in applications such as Microsoft Office in terms of allowing access to duplex printing, but not forcing it.
However, there is something peculiar in your particular situation. Normally, with Acrobat & Reader 10.1.2, if the printer supports duplex as determined by the printer's PPD file (for PostScript devices) or from the driver otherwise, you would see a duplex control in the print dialog itself. The fact that your printer supports duplex (correct?) and that you aren't seeing the duplex control in the print dialog is a problem we aren't currently aware of. You are seeing the forcing of duplex without the ability to control it from the print dialog? Correct? I'll send the report of this to the appropriate group within Acrobat engineering.
         - Dov
Hello Dov.
Thank you for your input. Can you confirm that these strange printing issues would also cause my PDF files to print in color and 1-sided even when the default in Control panel for my printer is 2-sided and B&W?
Thanks!
-cw