Create a PDF that defaults to flip on short edge when printed double-sided

Question

We're creating a 2-page PDF brochure with a target audience who will print it on their regular office or home printers.

If it is printed on a double-sided printer (common in offices), it'll come out correctly if set manually by the user to "Flip on short edge", but will come out with the second page upside down if default settings are used (flip on long edge).

Our target audience aren't very tech-literate, and we've found that even within our own office network there is variation in the location of the 'Flip on short edge' setting - so it isn't realistic to give everyone who downloads the PDF instructions on how to change this setting or to expect everyone to find out how to change the setting off their own backs.

So, when creating a PDF (ideally using Adobe InDesign or Acrobat, but if other software or hacking is needed that's fine...), is there a way to configure the PDF file itself so that when printed double-sided with default settings, it flips on the short edge?

If possible, it'll be useful supplementary info to know how reliable any such methods are across different PDF readers (e.g. Adobe Reader, Acrobat, Mac Preview, inbuilt browser readers (e.g. chrome), FoxIt, etc).

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If questions about content creation like this aren't a great fit here, feel free to migrate it to the graphic design stackexchange site - this question seems to fall half way between the two sites

Solution

Not with consumer-grade technology, i.e. not for Adobe Reader or other typical applications. It may be technically possible with JDF, but that's not something you can produce or your audience can handle.

Comments

[Scott]

Were you able to configure the PDF file so that when printing on both sides that it flips on the short edge?