> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Set up your receipt printer

> Connect an 80mm thermal printer, pick the paper form its driver understands, and fix receipts that print blank or cut short.

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['pharmacy']} plans="All plans" roles="Any staff member at the till" />

Receipts are 80mm thermal. In the [desktop app](/pharmacy/hardware/desktop-app) they print silently through your operating system's printer driver; in a browser you get the normal print dialog and choose the printer yourself.

The one setting on this page — **Receipt printer paper** — is the fix for the single most common counter fault: receipts that come out **blank or cut short**.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'POS', 'the printer settings control']} />

<TaskHeader before="An 80mm thermal printer installed on this computer over USB or the network, and the desktop app" time="2 minutes per till" after="Receipts printing silently at full length on this machine" />

## Set the paper form

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install the printer in the operating system first">
    ClinikEHR prints through the driver, so the printer has to be reachable over USB or your network and working from the OS **before** you start. Print the driver's own test page if you are unsure.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the printer settings control on the till">
    In the desktop app, the till header carries a settings control labelled **Printer settings**. It does not exist in a browser — a browser picks paper in its own print dialog.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read what it is asking">
    The popover is headed **Receipt printer paper**:

    > If receipts come out blank or cut short on this machine, pick the paper form its printer driver understands. Saved for this computer only.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose a Paper handling option">
    The **Paper handling** select offers:

    * **Auto (recommended)** — lets the app pick per printer.
    * **80mm × A4 form** — matches the "80mm x A4" paper form. The verified choice for Star TSP100-family drivers.
    * **3-inch × Letter form** — matches the "3 inch x Letter" form some thermal drivers enumerate instead.
    * **Custom roll (cut after content)** — an exact-height 80mm page. Best on Epson-class drivers, where the cut lands right after the receipt.
    * **Driver default form** — whatever paper form the driver is configured for in the OS.

    Each option explains itself underneath the select. Start on **Auto**; only change it if receipts misprint.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Print a receipt and check the paper">
    Reprint a recent sale rather than ringing one up — see [Print and reprint receipts](/pharmacy/pos/receipts).
  </Step>
</Steps>

**This setting is saved for this computer only.** It is a property of the machine's printer driver, not of your pharmacy — the same business can run one till that needs a custom roll and another that only prints on its own enumerated form. **Every till has to be set separately**, and a new or reimaged machine starts again on **Auto**.

## Why the paper form matters at all

A thermal driver decides what it will accept. Some enumerate a fixed list of paper forms and silently discard a job whose page size is not on it — the paper feeds, nothing prints, and the till reports success because as far as the app is concerned the job was accepted. Others cut best on an exact-height page and leave a hand's length of blank roll on anything else.

There is no heuristic that covers every driver, which is why the choice is made once, on the machine, by the person standing in front of the printer.

## Check it worked

* The receipt prints **at full length**, with the total and the footer on the paper rather than past the cut.
* Nothing feeds blank before or after it.
* In the desktop app you get the toast **"Receipt sent to printer"** and no print dialog appears.
* In a browser, the print dialog opens instead and there is no toast — that is correct behaviour, not a fault.

## Two things about what prints

* **A real sale's receipt number prints as a scannable barcode**, so you can scan a customer's receipt to pull the sale back up on the [sales list](/pharmacy/money/sales).
* **A receipt printed while offline carries a provisional number and no barcode.** There is no server-issued receipt number yet, and a barcode for a number that does not exist would scan to nothing. See [Selling when the internet is down](/pharmacy/pos/offline).

<Note>
  **Receipts use no grey text, and that is on purpose.** A thermal head is one-bit — it can burn a dot or not — so grey is dithered into sparse dots and the lines a customer most needs become the faintest ones on the paper. Ranking is done with size and weight instead. If you are designing anything that ends up on this paper, do the same.
</Note>

## If something goes wrong

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The receipt is blank, or cut short">
    This is the fault this page exists for. Open **Printer settings** › **Receipt printer paper** and work down the list: try **80mm × A4 form** first on a Star TSP100-family printer, **Custom roll (cut after content)** on an Epson-class one, then **Driver default form**. Print a test receipt after each change.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="'Direct printing unavailable — using the print dialog'">
    The app could not reach the printer directly and fell back to the dialog, so the receipt is still printable. Check the printer is powered, has paper, and appears as ready in the operating system, then try again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A print dialog opens on every sale">
    You are in a browser, not the desktop app. Silent printing is the desktop app's job — see [Install the desktop app](/pharmacy/hardware/desktop-app).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="It printed on the wrong printer">
    Silent printing uses the machine's printer. Set the thermal printer as the default in the operating system, or in a browser choose it in the print dialog.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A new till prints badly even though the old one is fine">
    The paper form is stored per computer. Set it again on the new machine.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="No toast appeared, but the receipt printed">
    Only the silent desktop path toasts. In the dialog path you are already looking at the dialog, so there is nothing to tell you.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="receipt printing" />