Any printer can produce a double-sided document manually, even without automatic duplex hardware — the part people get wrong is the flip direction, which depends on whether you want the finished pages to bind along the long edge (like a book) or the short edge (like a notepad).
In your print dialog, look for a page range or "Print on both sides manually" option, and select to print only odd pages (1, 3, 5...). Most modern print dialogs have this built in — search for "Odd pages only" in the settings if it's not immediately visible.
Long-edge binding is what most people mean by "double-sided" — like a book, where you flip pages up and over the long side, and the back of the page reads right-side up when you turn it. Short-edge binding flips like a flip-calendar or notepad, along the short side — this is less common for documents but standard for things like some presentation handouts.
For long-edge (book-style) binding: after the odd pages finish printing, take the stack, flip it over left-to-right (like turning a page in a book), and reinsert it into the tray so the blank side faces the direction the printer feeds from. For short-edge (notepad-style) binding: flip the stack top-to-bottom instead. Getting this backward is what causes pages to print upside down or in the wrong reading order relative to each other — if your first attempt comes out wrong, it's almost always the flip direction that needs reversing, not a deeper print setting.
With the flipped stack loaded, select "Even pages only" (or the equivalent option) and print. The even pages should now land on the reverse side of each corresponding odd page.
Depending on your application, even pages might print in ascending order (2, 4, 6...) or descending order (matching how they need to stack against the already-printed odd pages) — check a couple of test pages on a short document first if you're doing this for something long, since getting the order wrong wastes an entire print run rather than just a sheet or two.
Manual duplexing is only necessary if your printer lacks automatic double-sided printing, or if the automatic option has gone missing from your print dialog. Check whether it's simply hidden under "More settings" or "Printer properties" before assuming you need to do this manually every time.
See the dedicated guide for getting the built-in option back.
See the duplex troubleshooting guideGetting the automatic option back if your printer has it.
Read the article →Aligning the document, print dialog, and tray so all three agree.
Read the article →Extra copies or extra blank pages, and the fix for each cause.
Read the article →