How to enable duplex printing on HP 7610 with Linux (Ubuntu 13.04)

Question

I have equipped my HP 7610 printer with the duplex extension, but the configuration dialogs of Ubuntu and Kubuntu still have the duplex option greyed out. Even re-installing the printer does not help. It seems the printer doesn't tell the computer that it is capable of duplex printing now, still the same configuration is used.

Is there a way of enabling duplex printing for this model?

Would it help to add somethig to the PPD file? What would this extension look like?

Answer 1

I found a solution by copying parts of my old HP930C ppd-file to the ppd-file of the HP7610.

First I added the following before the line "*OpenUI *InputSlot/Media Source: PickOne":

*OpenUI *Duplex/Double-Sided Printing: PickOne
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *Duplex
*DefaultDuplex: DuplexNoTumble
*Duplex DuplexNoTumble/Long Edge (Standard): "<</Duplex true/Tumble false>>setpagedevice"
*Duplex DuplexTumble/Short Edge (Flip): "<</Duplex true/Tumble true>>setpagedevice"
*Duplex None/Off: "<</Duplex false/Tumble false>>setpagedevice"
*CloseUI: *Duplex

Then I added the followoing before the line "*DefaultFont: Courier":

*OpenGroup: InstallableOptions/Installable Options
*OpenUI *OptionDuplex/Duplexer Installed: Boolean
*OrderDependency: 10 AnySetup *OptionDuplex
*DefaultOptionDuplex: True
*OptionDuplex False/Not Installed: ""
*OptionDuplex True/Installed: ""
*CloseUI: *OptionDuplex
*CloseGroup: InstallableOptions

That enabled me to tell the CUPS system that the duplex option is installed and to select duplex printing in applications. Unfortunately, all output came out "short edge/flip". I had to add the following after the line "*RequiresPageRegion All: True" to make CUPS turn one side of the page so that the output now is perfect:

*cupsEvenDuplex: True
*cupsBackSide: "Rotated"
*cupsFlipDuplex: True

Additionally, I reordered the page size entries to have all relevant ISO-standardized sizes at the top of the list. The result of the whole process can be downloaded.

Answer 2

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupportComponentsPrintersHp Here the list doesn't mentions officially supporting about your printer HP 7610. Which driver did you installed to make it detected by ubuntu.

Thanks & Regards,
Alok Thaker