Printing both sides manually

[dick thompson]

I am currently using mostly Linux UBUNTU for my operating system with CUPS as the printing mechanism.  I really have a problem in understanding how to print on both sides of the paper.

When I was using WINDOWS I had 3 options on printing on both sides (off, automatically or manual).  I have an HP Officejet Pro K550 with manual double sided printing.  With Windows I just selected manual and it was good to go by printing odd pages, turning the paper direction from pointing out to pointing in, loading it back in the tray and hitting start and voila - double sided printing very fast.   I have not been able to replicate this in Linux at all.   In fact I have found that it is faster to attach the document to an email to my Windows email account, restart in Windows, read the email, print the document in Windows, restart back in Linux and go on with what I was doing.  There is something really wrong about this IMNSHO.  Something this common should be an integral part of the printing system but I have not found it yet in CUPS.   I have read about setting up separate files and going through a whole mess of stuff and possibly getting it to work but the last time I tried that I got a real mess with the printer printing the consecutive pages in alternate directions from page 1 to page nn, not what I was hoping for at all.

How can I do this so that I can finally get rid of Windows once and for all.  As it stands now the only time I visit Windows is to print double sided pages since CUPS does not seem able to handle it manually.  The only other option that I can see is to spend almost $100 to get an automatic double sided printing attachment for my printer and as a retired guy on Social Security, that is not a good option.