Unfortunately, doing duplex printing (i.e., two-sided printing) to an HP LaserJet printer from the command line is not trivial. So, using the GSview documentation as a guide, I put together a small bash script (available for download as hplj_duplex_print) that does the trick.
#!/bin/bash
declare -a input_file
if test $# -eq 0; then
input_file=("-")
else
input_file=("$@")
fi
( echo -e "\e%-12345X@PJL JOB"
echo "@PJL ENTER LANGUAGE = POSTSCRIPT"
echo "<< /Duplex true /Tumble false >> setpagedevice"
gs -sDEVICE=psmono -sPAPERSIZE=letter -q -sOutputFile=- \
-dNOPAUSE -dBATCH "${input_file[@]}"
echo -e "\e%-12345X@PJL EOJ"
echo -e "\e%12345X"
) | lp -d your_HP_printer_spool_nameRegarding tweaking:
- Again, make sure to change your_HP_printer_spool_name to your spool name. You may also want to change lp to lpr, but you will likely have to change -d to -P then.
- You may want to change the gs (GhostScript) options to suit your purposes. For example, you can change the psmono device to one of the other GhostScript devices like psgray or psrgb.
- The Tumble switch determines whether to do short-edge (true) or long-edge (false) duplex printing, and so this script defaults to the latter case. If you prefer vertical flipping, change the /Tumble false to /Tumble true. You might also make this a configurable command-line switch on the script.
