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Choosing a receipt printer for your till

4 November 2026 · 4 min read · Acuity Business Solutions

A receipt printer is the cheapest part of a till and the one that stops the queue when it is wrong. These are the choices that matter, in the order you will meet them.

80mm or 58mm paper

80mm is the standard counter receipt. It has room for a fiscal receipt's details and QR code without squeezing, and rolls are easy to find. 58mm printers are small and often run on a battery over Bluetooth, which suits a phone or tablet till at a market stall or a delivery, but long receipts get long. Buy paper that fits the printer you choose: the two sizes do not swap.

How it connects

  • USB: one printer for one PC at the counter. Simple and reliable.
  • Network (LAN): plugged into the router, so any till can print to it. The right choice for kitchen and bar printers that several tills send orders to.
  • Bluetooth: for Android phones and tablets. Pair it once with the device that uses it.

ESC/POS

Most till printers understand a command language called ESC/POS. A printer that does will work with most till software; one that only prints through its own Windows driver may not work from an Android tablet at all. Ask before you buy, or ask your till supplier which models they have tested.

An auto-cutter

A cutter finishes each receipt cleanly. Without one, cashiers tear paper by hand all day and receipts come out ragged. It is worth the small extra cost on any counter that serves a queue.

The cash drawer port

Most cash drawers plug into the receipt printer, not the PC, through a small phone-style socket on the back. The till tells the printer to open the drawer when a cash sale is paid. Check the printer has the port if you want the drawer to open by itself.

QR codes for ZIMRA

Fiscal receipts carry a QR code that customers and ZIMRA scan to check the receipt. Print a test receipt with a QR code and scan it with a phone before you buy a batch of printers.

Printers in the kitchen

Thermal paper darkens with heat, so a printer next to the grill can turn tickets grey. Put the kitchen printer away from the heat, or use an impact printer there. Give the kitchen and the bar their own printers so each only gets its own orders.

Keep a copy

Thermal receipts fade over months. Do not rely on paper for your records: your till should keep every receipt and tax invoice so you can reprint one when a customer or ZIMRA asks.

With Syncro POS

Syncro POS prints to ESC/POS printers over USB, the network and Bluetooth, sends orders to kitchen and bar printers by print station, and keeps every tax invoice under the customer's name for reprinting.

Syncro POS for restaurants and bars →

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