Thermal Printers:
2 types of thermal printers are available in the market:
Thermal Line Printers. (Supported after UltimatePOS version > 2.19): Easy to Install & Use.
Thermal ESC/POS printers: Complicate to install & use, also some languages & curriences symbol may not be supported.
WE RECOMMEND USING A THERMAL LINE PRINTER FOR THE EASE OF SETUP AND GOOD PRINT QUALITY.
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Browser-based printing or Thermal Line Printers or Direct Thermal: (Recommended)
Thermal line printers also called as Direct Thermal, are easy to install & use. Also they supports browser based printing. For better result use paper with width 79mm.
To use a thermal line printer follow these steps:
Setup the printer on your computer with the appropriate driver which comes with the printer.
Go to Settings -> Business Locations -> Settings (green color button for each location). Here change the Receipt Printer Type to Browser based printing and save it.
In the invoice layout select the Design as Slim
To disable print dialogue preview, follow the steps mentioned here
You’re now ready to use the printer, no more steps required.
This printer is supportable with android and other handheld devices like tablets.
Thermal ESC/POS printers:
Setting an ESC/POS thermal printer involves 3 steps:
Adding a Printer
Configuring business location to use the added printer.
Installation Pos Print server.
Step1: Adding a Printer
Add a new printer from Settings -> Receipt Printer
Select the appropriate Connection Type:
For “Network” provide the IP Address of the printer.
For “Windows” map the printer to a file and provide the path of the file. You can do this by sharing the printer with your localhost.
The path will be in this format:smb://localhost/my_printer_nameORsmb://computer_name/my_printer_name (where my_printer_name is name of the printer)For “Linux” your printer device file will be somewhere like
/dev/lpsmb://localhost/my_printer_name OR smb://computer_name/my_printer_name (where my_printer_name is name of the printer)(parallel),
/dev/usb/lp1(USB),/dev/ttyUSBsmb://localhost/my_printer_name OR smb://computer_name/my_printer_name (where my_printer_name is name of the printer)(USB-Serial),/dev/ttySsmb://localhost/my_printer_name OR smb://computer_name/my_printer_name (where my_printer_name is name of the printer)(serial)
Select the capability profile and add character per line supported in the printer.
Save the Printer configuration.
Check the video below for more details on setting it.
Step2: Configuring Business Location to use printer:
Go to Settings -> Business Settings.
For a particular business location, go to “Settings” in actions column.
Change “Receipt Printer Type” to “Use Configured Receipt Printer“
Select the “Receipt Printers” from the list of Receipt Printers
Click on Update.
Step3: Installing POS Print Server
For printing via receipt printer, you will need to install a “pos print server” on your local computer from which UltimatePOS is used.
Download the server from this link. by clicking on “Download Repository”
Unzip the zip file.
Rename the unzipped folder to “pos_print_server”.
Move the pos_print_server to document root (which is htdocs in XAMPP).
Open Command Prompt or also called terminal. And go to the “pos_print_server” directory. You can go to this directory using “CD” command in the command prompt.
From the Command Prompt which is now inside pos_print_server directory run the below command:
php server.php
After running the command it will start the print server and show a message “Server started…”Now we are ready to go. Try creating a test sell from the pos screen and it should print in your thermal printer. If you haven’t added a printer then follow the steps mentioned in “Step1: Adding a Printer” and it should work.
Great, now we’re ready to print on a thermal printer.
Give it a test drive.
Devices like mobile phones and tablets can’t be used for printing if a thermal ESC/POS printer is used.