Receipt Printer Suggestions

[Kent Searight]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any recommendations on a receipt printer (roll-feed) to use with FileMaker?

Also, any other suggestions or tips that I might find useful with regards to page setup? I've never tried printing to a receipt printer before.

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Kent

[iMarcW]

Dymo LabelWriters work just fine with rolls of receipt tape. That's what we use. www.dymo.com.

Page setup is not really an issue. When the Dymo is selected, there are Continuous Narrow and Continuous Wide settings. The tape stops spitting out wherever the layout ends vertically.

Edited June 10, 2008 by Guest

[Kent Searight]

Thanks, iMarkW!

They seem reasonably priced also.

[jstaphse]

If you need a more durable (and expensive) product, Zebra Mobile Printer would work also. We use these for tagging job materials. We print labels in these devices that are direct thermal.

[Kent Searight]

Thanks, jstaphse!

The demands on the printer will not be very great (small, rural school district), but I'll keep your recommendation in mind if I require something more durable.

-Kent

[mr_vodka]

Kent,

I have worked with both Zebra and Dymo printers. They are both good printer companies.

In your case I also would recommend the Dymo.

[Kent Searight]

An update that might be helpful.

I purchased a DYMO LabelWriter 400 Turbo. It's very quiet and fast.

After setting it up and printing receipts with it successfully for several days, all of a sudden my "Print" script step that calls for that printer kept changing the step's settings to the default printer (hp LaserWriter).

Turns out there's a known issue with DYMO printers that requires temporarily changing the default printer to the DYMO printer to get the script step to point to the right printer. Here's the link to the Knowledge Base article.

Hopefully it'll save someone the two + hours I spent trying to figure it out.

Edited June 18, 2008 by Guest

[iMarcW]

I think when I've used databases to print on-the-spot labels (in one case I used a database just to take the place of the Dymo Label app, because no one else could get the hang of editing the text without losing the formatting), what I did was had the Print script show the dialog the first time it was used after opening, so the user could specifically select the Dymo printer, then print without dialog after that.

[Kent Searight]

....what I did was had the Print script show the dialog the first time it was used after opening, so the user could specifically select the Dymo printer, then print without dialog after that.

I do that too and that usually works, but apparently some DYMO brand printers just won't print via the Print step under OS 10.5x unless it's set as the user's default printer. In this particular database's environment there are many printers on the network, but this problem only occurs with the DYMO.

Other than that minor inconvenience, it is a nice little printer. Thanks for suggesting DYMOs to me!

Edited June 25, 2008 by Guest