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Help · Receipts and printing

Printing problems: blank paper, odd characters, cut-off

What to check when the receipt printer connects but prints nothing, accents come out wrong, the receipt is cut off, or the PDF won't open.

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In this section: Receipts and printing5

Most printing trouble with a portable receipt printer comes down to the printer, the paper or the connection. Here is what to check for each symptom.

"Couldn't reach the printer"

  • Check the printer is switched on, charged and close to the phone, then tap print again.
  • A printer usually takes one connection at a time. If another phone or a printer app such as RawBT or RTPrinter is connected to it, disconnect that first.
  • If you picked the wrong printer the first time, reload the receipt page and print again; you will be asked to choose.
  • If your printer never appears in the list, it may only speak the older kind of Bluetooth. On Android, use Print with RawBT.

It connects, but nothing comes out

  • A receipt takes a second or two to send over Bluetooth. Wait for Sent to the printer. before trying again.
  • If the paper feeds but stays blank, the roll is probably in the wrong way round. Thermal paper only prints on one side, so turn the roll over.
  • Check there is paper left and the printer is charged.

Accents or symbols come out wrong

The app sends the receipt in the character set almost every 58mm printer uses, and selects it at the start of each receipt. Lower-case accents, ñ, ¿ and ¡ print as they should. Capital letters with an accent, other than É, print without it (Á as A), and characters the printer can't show print as "?". That is expected. If ordinary accents still come out as other symbols, the printer uses a different character set. On an iPhone, printing through RTPrinter avoids this, because it prints from a PDF.

The receipt looks cut off or narrow

The receipt is laid out for 58mm paper, 32 characters a line. On an 80mm printer it prints at that width, narrower than the paper; that is normal. From a computer, the receipt prints through the browser's print dialog, so choose the printer's paper size there, and turn margins off if the dialog offers it.

The PDF doesn't open on an iPhone

  • Tap Print with RTPrinter on the receipt itself; the Share sheet only opens straight from a tap.
  • If the Share sheet doesn't appear, the PDF opens in a tab of its own. Use that tab's Share button.
  • If RTPrinter isn't offered, check it is installed, then look along the row of apps or under More.

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