How to Scan a Double-Sided Document with a Single-Sided (Simplex) Scanner

ByGeorge Mylne

If you are working from home with a standard desktop printer—like a basic Brother, HP, or Canon model—you’ve probably hit this exact wall: You have a stack of double-sided documents to digitize, but your automatic document feeder (ADF) only scans one side of the page.

You don’t need to buy an expensive duplex scanner, and you definitely don’t need to manually scan and drag-and-drop pages one by one.

Here is the fastest, completely free way to scan a double-sided document using a single-sided scanner.

Step 1: Scan the Front Pages (The “Odd” Pages)

Take your stack of paper and place it face-up in your scanner’s document feeder.

  1. Open your scanning software.
  2. Hit Scan.
  3. Save this resulting PDF file to your desktop and name it “Odd Pages.pdf”. (This file now contains pages 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.).

Step 2: Flip the Stack and Scan the Backs (The “Even” Pages)

When your scanner finishes the first batch, the paper will be sitting in the output tray. Take that exact stack of paper, flip it over, and place it back into the feeder so the blank backs are facing the scanner glass.

  1. Hit Scan again.
  2. Save this second PDF file to your desktop and name it “Even Pages.pdf”.

Note: Because of how the paper stacks in the output tray, your scanner will likely scan the last page first. Don’t panic! Your “Even Pages” file will be backwards (e.g., 8, 6, 4, 2). We will fix this automatically in the next step.

Step 3: Combine and Interleave the PDFs Automatically

Now you have two separate files, and one of them is backwards. Instead of manually reordering the pages, use a free interleaving tool to zip them together.

  1. Go to the PDF Shuffler Tool.
  2. In the first box, upload your “Odd Pages.pdf”.
  3. In the second box, upload your “Even Pages.pdf”.
  4. Make sure the “Reverse second file” box is checked (this automatically fixes the backwards pages from Step 2).
  5. Click Shuffle & Combine.

The tool will instantly weave the two files together in the perfect chronological order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) and download your finished, double-sided document.

Is it safe to upload sensitive documents to merge them?

Most free online PDF mergers require you to upload your files to their remote servers to process them. If you are scanning bank statements, tax returns, or legal contracts, this is a massive privacy risk.

This is why we recommend using a client-side tool like PDF Shuffler. It processes the files entirely inside your own web browser. Your documents never leave your computer, no data is uploaded to a server, and there are zero file-size limits. It is 100% private.

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