Cannot Print Multiple Pages Per Sheet on PostScript Printer

ID: Q239592

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98

SYMPTOMS

When you print from a program that uses Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) to send a print job to the printer, choosing to print multiple pages per sheet may still result in just one page being printed per sheet.

CAUSE

The PostScript version 5 driver does support "N-up" printing (printing multiple pages on one sheet), but EPS Printing Applications may bypass the necessary setting by sending raw PostScript code with POSTSCRIPT_PASSTHROUGH. This effectively bypasses the operating system's settings.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, try using a Printer Control Language (PCL) driver for the printer.

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

The ability to add and print multiple pages to a single sheet of paper is an option available with most PostScript drivers, although Windows did not incorporate this feature until Windows 2000. If you are using an EPS Printing Application and printing to a PostScript printer, you may be unable to increase the number of pages per sheet. Some common programs known to use EPS printing as their normal print method include:

Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Illustrator
CorelDraw

FreeHand and QuarkXPress are not EPS Printing Applications, but they use pass-through PostScript data, which strips the "N-up" configuration, so they exhibit this behavior also. The third-party products discussed in this article are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Additional query words:

Keywords : kb3rdparty kbprint
Version : WINDOWS:2000,95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb