Printers

Get Started: Part 5

The last part of the Get Started Guide will concentrate on printer setup, allowing you to print a variety of information, including invoices, quotations, reservations, and receipts.

Tap on the Settings button from the homepage, located in the bottom right-hand corner.

Printers

You will see the various categories on the left-hand side of the page. Expand the General category, followed by tapping on Printers.

Tip

After adding a printer on one iPad, all iPads on the same branch will have that printer as a selectable option.

Tap the New Printer button, prompting a small window to appear with printer options.

Star Network Printer

Star is a brand of printers more commonly used for small label and receipt printing, many of which being able to facilitate printing from mobile and cloud-based devices.

After tapping the Star Network Printer option, a pop-up window will appear, enabling you to enter a Printer Name (e.g. Kitchen, Office Backup, Warehouse, etc.), Printer Model (e.g. mC-Print3), Printer Kind (e.g. Thermal or Dot Matrix), and Printer Network Address (The printer’s IP address).

See here for a list of Star printers, filtered by their kind. If you’re not sure what kind your printer is, make note of its model number and find it in the list.

Tip

Thermal: Thermal printers do not require ink, instead utilise a special paper that blackens when the thermal print-head applies heat to its surface. Not suitable for high-heat environments (e.g. Kitchens).

Dot Matrix: Dot Matrix printers use ink to print receipts. The quality may not be as good as a thermal printer, particularly if you are using custom templates with images and specialised or small fonts.

Dot Matrix (Fixed Settings): When this option is selected the printer will not print receipts based on your custom templates, and will print only the text data from the receipt. We recommend using this setting for Dot Matrix printers.

After tapping the Find Printer button the system will scan across Wi-Fi, LAN, USB, and Bluetooth and display all detectable printers.

After tapping on the printer you wish to add, the fields will auto-fill the printer’s information. Tap the check mark to save the printer.

Important

The Printer Kind field will not be auto-filled - you must select this. If you choose the wrong printer kind the printer will not print (e.g. If your printer is thermal and you select dot matrix, or vice versa).

Printer Status (Star Micronics only)

A status icon will appear next to each Star printer in your list of printers. This is refreshed every time you visit this page.

A green check mark indicates the printer is connected, whereas the warning icon indicates the printer is not connected.

AirPrint Printer

AirPrint is a feature in Apple’s macOS and iOS operating systems for printing via Wi-Fi, directly to AirPrint-compatible printers. Almost all new printers are compatible with AirPrint technology.

After tapping the AirPrint Printer option, a pop-up window will appear, enabling you to enter a custom Printer Name (e.g. Warehouse, Main Office, Kitchen, etc.), Paper Size, and Printer Network Address.

Tap the Find Printer button.

The pop-up window will display all available printers. Tap on the one you wish the iPad to connect to.

All printers which have been added will appear underneath the Printers heading.

To edit or delete a printer, select one and, with your thumb or finger, swipe to the left, revealing two icons. Tap the Orange Pencil Icon to edit, or the Red Bin Icon to delete.

Devices’ Default Printer

After adding your printers, you can set the default printer for this device (and others if you have sufficient access privileges).

All devices/iPads will be displayed in the Devices’ Default Printer area, along with their assigned default printer.

Change the Default Printer

Select the device for which you wish to change the default printer and, using your thumb or finger, swipe left, revealing an Orange Pencil Icon. Tap it and you will be able to set the default printer for this device.

Default Send Order Printer for All Devices / iPads

This option allows you to set which printer should be connected to the Send Order button in the point of sale. By tapping the Send Order button, the order will be printed to whichever printer has been selected here.

If no default second printer has been selected, the Send Order button in POS will print to the devices’ default printer.

An example of this would be having a printer in the kitchen set as the default second printer, allowing orders to be sent directly from the POS, which may be based upstairs in order to better serve customers, to the kitchen, informing the chef of what to prepare.

Specify the Send Order Printer for Each Device / iPad

Here you are able to specify the default Send Order printer for each device.

Tip

The system prioritises this setting over the option above (Default Send Order Printer for All Devices)