advice on printer specs

SchWartz

I need to buy a new printer and wonder if anyone who knows about printers can tell me whether the feature I want is available. I'd like to be able to easily print long documents out of page number sequence, for pages to be read in "book" form. Here is the situation: I have a, say, 4 page manuscript. I'd like to be able to set up a printed page so it is double sided, with two pages of the manuscript per side. On the first side, I'd like pages 1 and 4 of the manuscript to print, and on the second side, pages 2 and 3 of the manuscript. The printed page will be folded in the middle, so the finished product is like a pamphlet or book with pages that "face" one another, and when you flip through it from front cover to back, the pages are in sequence, pages 1-4. OK, here's the issue: the manuscript is actually 200 pages long. I'd like to be able to set the printer one time to print all the pages following the sequence described above 1,4/2,3, so the second printed page will be manuscript pages 5,8/6,7, the third is 9,12/10,11, etc. The older printer that I now have can't do this. Every single printed page has to be set. I'd like a new printer that can be set to follow this sequence in printing the entire manuscript, so I don't have to baby-sit the printing. Is this ability available in today's printers? If so, do you know what it's called or what I should be looking for in printer specs? I've talked to three different printer sales people and received three different answers to these questions, so any help would be much appreciated.

BlackHawk

I may be wrong but AFAIK, the only thing that could possily do that would a be photocopier. I have yet to see a home printer where you can custom set the order of the pages. If it's a one time thing, you could try checking with Office Max or Kinkos.

primesuspect

You don't need any special printer for this. What you need is page layout software like InDesign or QuarkXPress. Any printer can do this, it's the page layout software that makes the layout like that.

BlackHawk

I stand corrected. One thing is for sure. Printing 200 pages is gonna be a b!tch.

SchWartz

OK-make that five opinions so far... An HP salesperson insisted that this ability is in the "language" used by all new HP printers. Another sales person insisted that all printers less than a couple of years old have this ability because the modern drives are so improved. Prime, I'll be looking at alternative software for future manuscripts--that's a good suggestions, thx--but this one has to go out the door in Word!