Collating pages was an intensely guide course of. A printer–a human being, not a tool–would produce many copies of the identical pages and employees would collate or collect these into the precise order for ultimate meeting, whether or not to turn into a guide or a stapled stack. Collating by way of printing software program is lots simpler. But it surely’s additionally a bit of murky because the time period doesn’t describe an act most of us stay acquainted with.
In Apple’s Print dialog, the Collation possibility below Print Dealing with has a exact which means once you select to print two or extra copies: print your complete doc from begin to end for every copy earlier than beginning the subsequent. When you disable Collation, every web page is printed the variety of instances you laid out in order from begin to end.
When you’ve got a five-page doc and print three single-sided copies, right here’s how that differs:
- Collation on:Â 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Collation off:Â 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5
There’s an asterisk required for the Collation order, nonetheless: with some printers, outputting pages 1 to five so as would end result within the mistaken order, with 1 on the underside of a stack and 5 on the highest. Apple supplies a separate perform to deal with whether or not a printer outputs face down or face up: Sheet Order. The three choices for Sheet Order are Computerized (the default), Regular, and Reverse.
macOS determines face up or face down from the printer driver, so leaving Sheet Order set to Computerized ought to accurately print collated pages within the order 1 to five for face-down printing and 5 to 1 for face-up. With face-down printing, you choose up the stack and switch it over, and the pages are within the appropriate order; with face-up printing, taking the stack off the printer’s output tray is all that’s wanted to see them within the appropriate order.
In case your Mac doesn’t accurately collate to your printer, the next extra elaborate set of guide choices might help you kind out what to choose:
- Collation on, Sheet Order set to Regular (face down):Â 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Collation on, Sheet Order set to Reverse (face up):Â 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
- Collation off, Sheet Order set to Regular (face down):Â 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5
- Collation off, Sheet Order set to Reverse (face up):Â 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1
Glenn Fleishman
In case your printer affords two-sided (duplex) printing, Collation will deal with that, too. Nonetheless, if it’s very gradual at that job (as my outdated printer is) or you will have a single-sided printer, first print collated with Sheets to Print set to Odd Solely, then flip the stack, put it again in with the unprinted facet going through the print head, and select Even Solely.
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