Diagnosis
The Brother Work Smart 1360 is a high-capacity inkjet designed for business workflows, but its "Booklet" functionality is not a native hardware setting; it is a software-driven command. When your printer outputs single-sided pages despite your intent to print a booklet, it is almost always because the generic Windows Class Driver or the basic AirPrint/Mac driver is active. These basic drivers only recognize "Single-Sided" or "Two-Sided (Duplex)" commands and cannot process the complex page imposition (reordering pages) required for a booklet. To confirm the cause, check your print dialogue. If you only see "Print" and "Properties" without a specific "2-Sided/Booklet" tab within the printer preferences, you are using a limited driver. The printer is simply following the "Single-Sided" default because it hasn't received the specific coordinates and page-mapping instructions that the Brother Print Support App provides to the hardware.
How to Fix It
To enable booklet printing, you must bypass the generic driver and use the full Brother software suite. Follow these exact steps:
- Download and install the Brother Print Support App (or the Full Driver & Software Package) from the official Brother support site. Restart your computer after installation to ensure the driver hooks into the print spooler.
- Open the document you wish to print (e.g., a PDF in Adobe Acrobat or a Word doc).
- Select File > Print, then select the Brother MFC-J1360W from the printer dropdown menu.
- Click on Printer Properties (or Preferences).
- Navigate to the Basic tab. Locate the 2-sided/Booklet dropdown menu.
- Change the selection from "Off" to Booklet.
- Click the Settings button immediately next to the booklet dropdown. Here, you must choose your binding type. For a standard project, select Left Binding for English-language booklets.
- Set the Paper Size to the exact size of your stock (typically Letter 8.5" x 11"). If you use a custom size, the booklet imposition will fail and print single-sided.
- Click OK on the settings window, OK on the properties window, and then click Print.
If That Didn't Work
- Check for "Print as Image" (PDFs): If you are printing a PDF and it still fails, go to the Adobe Print dialog, click Advanced, and check the box for Print As Image. Sometimes complex layers in a PDF confuse the booklet imposition driver, causing it to revert to single-sided printing.
- Verify Paper Source: Ensure you are using the main paper tray and not the manual feed slot. The duplexing mechanism required for booklets is only active when pulling from the primary cassette. If the printer prompts for "Manual Feed," it will disable automatic duplexing and print single-sided.
- Disable "Fit to Page": In your application's print settings, ensure Scale is set to 100% or "Actual Size." If "Fit to Page" is enabled, the driver may struggle to calculate the booklet margins, which can trigger a fallback to standard single-sided printing to avoid cutting off text.
- Clear the Print Spooler: If you previously sent a single-sided job that errored, the printer may be "stuck" in that mode. Go to Services.msc in Windows, right-click Print Spooler, select Stop, delete the files in
C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS, and then Start the spooler again.
Heads Up
- Ink Saturation: Booklet printing often involves heavy ink coverage on the "inside" pages. If you notice curling or smudging, change your quality setting from "High" to "Normal" to reduce ink saturation.
- Paper Weight: Use standard 20lb or 24lb paper. Using heavy cardstock (over 60lb) for booklets can cause the internal duplexer to jam, as the paper cannot make the tight 180-degree turn required to flip the page.
- Page Counts: For a perfect booklet, your total page count should be a multiple of 4. If your project is 10 pages, the printer will add two blank pages at the end to complete the signature.
- Orientation: Always double-check that your document is set to Portrait in the application before selecting Booklet in the driver; the driver handles the rotation to landscape automatically.