Anyone With Experience Using A Receipt Printer and Laptop/PC?

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Anyone With Experience Using A Receipt Printer and Laptop/PC?

using a receipt printer with a laptop or PC

php_dave

8:31 am on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

Hi.

Does anyone on here have experience with using a receipt printer connected directly to a laptop or PC?

I've made a website for a shop and they want to be able to print out orders to use as receipts for the till and for the delivery guy. I will make the order appear on an otherwise blank page on the website so they can select "Print Page" but they will be printing a lot of orders so it would be highly impractical to use a normal inkjet A4 printer.

The obvious answer is a receipt printer. However, I have never worked with one and so I was wondering, do they plug into the laptop like a normal printer and just print whatever they're told to i.e. the page on display? Or will there be some complication where they only work with special POS software or something?

Anyone with any knowledge, please tell me what you know :) Thanks!

J_RaD

1:47 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

plug it up, install the drivers, make sure your receipt are within its print specs.

php_dave

5:08 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

So it really is as simple as that? Do I have the J_RaD Guarantee on that one? ;) It's just the printers are around Ł130 minimum so I don't want to get it wrong.

If this is the case then thanks very much. Truly you put the rad into J_RaD!

J_RaD

5:25 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

can you send me a PM link to the printers?

I've had dealing with all kinds of printers from that kind to label printers, it really isn't that much trouble the biggest hassle i've had was with a UPS label printer and a x64 bit OS....had to hack some 3rd party drivers to get it functioning.

php_dave

6:11 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

Oooh, actually, now you mention it... I have a label printer (DYMO Label Writer 450) as the guy I'm making the site for went and bought it. However, after looking at the instructions it would appear that it simply prints label designs from the software provided. I had presumed that it wouldn't just print whatever is on a web page so I didn't bother going any further than taking it out the box.

Are you saying that label printers can work just the same as normal printers i.e. you select "Print Page" and they'll print whatever is on the web page? If this is the case then I should probably use that printer rather than buy a receipt one (although obviously recepit printer makes much more sense and isn't print-out-length limited like a label).

The receipt printer I'm looking at is this one...
[thebarcodewarehouse.co.uk...]

Please tell me what my best options are, oh wise anonymous e-friend :)

J_RaD

7:21 pm on Sep 1, 2011 (gmt 0)

I'd say since you already have the dymo give that a shot 1st, if it works and fits your needs go for it.

but I don't think its going to work as easy as "print webpage" at the very least the output webpage would have to fit the dimensions of the printer output....then i'd do a print preview with those dimensions and test test test.

It will be trial and error but im sure after awhile you can make it work just like you want. You know how some of this stuff is...sometimes you just gota dig in and screw around :-P

im 90% sure that epson thing is going to need its native software to drive it for correct printing.