Duplex printing (was Re: XyWrite 3+ Printer Driver for HP2100)

[Jane Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

Proleptic apologies for straying off-topic ...

On 9/13/00 3:06 PM Nathan Sivin wrote (in part)

>... the HP 2100 ... is a neatly designed printer and remarkably good for
the
>price. But it has one limitation that for me was fatal: it is no good at
all
>for printing on both side of a sheet of paper, unless you are willing to
>wait an hour or so in between. Its manual provides in veiled language
>a warning of potential trouble, but I found that when duplexing the
>printer invariably jams. ...

I discovered (the hard way) that this description applies to every laser
printer I've ever used (to be sure, all have been budget-conscious, i.e.
bottom-of-the-line, choices).

With my current laser (LaserJet 5L), the HP service people in the UK have
advised me that I should be able to get away with duplexing as a way of
re-using the blank versos of scrap paper. But that's on the assumption that
the discarded recto sides were printed many weeks or months earlier; even
then, their only on-the-record advice to me is to buy a more expensive
printer that is explicitly designed for duplexing.

Can anyone in this group expand on Master Sivin's "wait an hour or so"?
i.e., in an (as it were) illicit duplexing operation, what time interval is
really "safe" to let the toner "set" on side 1 before printing side 2? and
has anyone any advice to offer about how to handle the already-printed
first sides to improve second-side results (e.g. should the printed pages
be allowed to cool? should they be fanned out to get exposure to air?)?

Cheers
Eric Van Tassel

e-mail: EricVT@xxxxxxxx