Receipt printers & hardware
Two ways to print, and the right one depends on what you already own.
Printing: the two paths
| Windows driver | Network ESC/POS | |
|---|---|---|
| How it connects | USB, through a driver you install | Ethernet or Wi-Fi, straight to the printer |
| Setup | Install the driver, pick it in Settings | Type the printer's IP address |
| Needs a driver | Yes | No |
| Best for | One till, printer on the desk | Several tills sharing a printer, or no driver for your model |
Windows driver (the default)
Install the printer's driver, then choose it in Settings. SBB Desktop prints silently — no print dialog between the customer paying and the receipt appearing.
Network ESC/POS (driverless)
ESC/POS is the common wire protocol for thermal printers — the Epson TM-T88 family and most generic 80mm and 58mm network printers speak it.
Put the printer's IP address in Settings and SBB Desktop talks to it directly. No driver at all, which is the answer when Windows has never heard of your printer or when three tills share one printer in the corner.
Finding the IP address
Most thermal printers print their own network settings if you hold the feed button while powering on. That slip has the IP on it.
Barcode scanners
No setup. A USB scanner is a keyboard as far as Windows is concerned: it types the barcode and presses Enter, which is what the till's search box expects.
Plug it in and scan. If nothing happens, the search box has lost focus — click it once.
Both handheld and fixed scanners work, and so does a scanner in keyboard-wedge mode on a phone.
Cash drawers
Most cash drawers open from the printer, not the computer — a cable from the drawer into the printer's DK port, and the printer pulses it when a receipt prints. If yours is wired that way it opens on a cash sale with nothing to configure.
Customer display
A second screen the customer watches, showing each item as it is rung up and where to send the money. Any HDMI screen will do; it does not need to be a purpose-built pole display.
See the till for what it shows and why it is worth the cable.
Touch screens
F11 puts the till into fullscreen kiosk mode. The layout is built for fingers as well as keys — the product grid is the fast path when nobody is typing.
Choosing hardware, if you are starting from nothing
| You have | Buy |
|---|---|
| One counter | An 80mm USB thermal printer and a USB scanner |
| Two or more counters | An 80mm network thermal printer, one scanner each |
| A busy shop | Add a customer display — it settles more disputes than it costs |
Avoid 58mm printers for anything but the smallest receipts; the line wraps and a wrapped receipt reads badly.
Related
- Selling at the till
- Working offline
- SBB Desktop — the manual