CUTTING PAPER - IDEAS - What are Duplexing Rates?
 

What are Duplexing Rates?

Counting paper can become confusing, so at this web site we use ‘sheets’ to mean the paper itself, and ‘images’ for the content on one side of a sheet.  A sheet copied on both sides has two images on it.  Since a ‘page’ could be an image or a sheet, we try to avoid that term.

"Duplexing" is copying or printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.  The duplexing rate is the percentage of images that are duplexed.  Thus, imaging at the maximum 100% duplexing rate uses half the paper that a 0% duplexing rate does.

The following formulas show how to convert among sheets, images, and duplexing rates.

As an example, suppose you are copying a three image document.  On three separate sheets the duplexing rate is 0%.  With two images on one sheet and the third by itself on a second sheet, the duplexing rate is 67% and paper use drops 33% (from three sheets to two).  Because there is an odd number of images, you can’t get to a 100% duplexing rate.

With four images, no duplexing takes four sheets; 50% duplexing takes three sheets (one with two images and two with one image each), and a 100% duplexing rate takes two sheets.

When you start from no duplexing, paper use drops by half the duplexing rate.  In the four image example above, paper use drops by 25% (four sheets to three) when duplexing goes from 0% to 50%.  However, when you start with some duplexing, paper use drops faster on a percentage basis.  Moving from 50% to 100% duplexing reduces paper use from three to two sheets, and so reduces paper use by 33%.

‘Half-used’ paper has been used on one side, with the other side blank.  Some people successfully use half-used paper in fax machines and laser printers designated for ‘draft’ printing.  Using the back side of a sheet is an example of "reuse" and so is even better for the environment and the economy than simply recycling the sheet.

"Automatic Duplexing" on a printer or copier means that it turns the paper over and prints on the backside by itself. Moving sheets of paper by hand from the output tray to the paper feed is called "manual duplexing" and takes extreme dedication to reducing paper use.
 
 
      Successful Duplexing