Choosing a receipt printer for a small shop
Paper width, the connection, and where the printer stands matter more than the brand. A short guide to picking one you will not replace in six months.
80 mm or 58 mm
Eighty millimetres is the standard for a counter: room for longer item names, a VAT summary, and a QR code, and the paper is easy to buy anywhere. A 58 mm roll is cheaper and the printer is smaller, which suits a stall or a delivery bag, but a long order becomes a very long receipt. If you run a restaurant with multi-line orders, pick 80 mm and stop thinking about it.
Thermal paper is the running cost
Almost every counter printer is thermal: no ink, no ribbon, just rolls. Buy the width and roll diameter your printer takes, keep a spare box in the shop, and remember that thermal print fades. If you need to keep a copy for accounting, keep the digital record rather than the paper.
The connection decides where it can stand
USB is the simplest and the least flexible: the printer lives next to the till. Ethernet lets a kitchen printer sit where the work is and lets more than one device print to it, which is usually what a restaurant needs. Bluetooth sounds convenient, but pairing rules differ by platform and by model — check that the exact model works with the exact device you will use, before you buy.
A kitchen printer is not a counter printer
Behind the pass it deals with heat, steam, and grease. Look for a model rated for that, an auto-cutter, a buzzer so staff hear a new ticket, and paper that can be changed with one hand. Routing matters as much as the hardware: the hot kitchen, the bar, and the cold station each want their own queue.
ESC/POS is what makes it work with your till
Most counter printers speak ESC/POS, the command language tills use to print text, lines, barcodes, and a QR code, and to open a cash drawer through the printer port. A printer that ships only its own Windows driver may be unusable from a tablet. Ask about ESC/POS support explicitly before ordering.
Test it in the shop, then buy the second one
Print a real receipt with your longest item names, your VAT summary, and a payment QR code if you use one. Check the cut, the legibility, and the speed at the busiest moment rather than at nine in the morning. When it works, buy a second identical unit — or at least keep spare paper and a plan for the evening the printer dies.