Thermal printer buying checklist for a POS

The printer is the visible foot of a POS system. The right model prints in two seconds; the wrong one drops Turkish letters, will not pop the drawer, or prints half a ticket.

1) Buy 80 mm — 58 mm is too small for food

58 mm is for tiny shops. Food tickets need the product, the table and notes — 80 mm is the legal minimum of readable space.

2) ESC/POS and open port 9100

ESC/POS is the de facto language. For a direct network connection the printer must answer on TCP 9100; without that the POS cannot push a ticket.

3) Turkish CP857 code page

Letters like ş, ğ, ı only print correctly if the printer supports CP857. Otherwise every ticket substitutes a question mark — hard to fix after purchase.

4) Prefer Ethernet (RJ-45) over USB

An Ethernet printer sits on the same LAN as the till and needs no driver or cloud agent. It even prints when the Internet is down. USB costs less but can re-enumerate on every boot.

5) The 6-pin RJ-12 drawer port

Match the printer to a standard RJ-12 cash drawer cable: one ticket → one automatic drawer kick. No manual fumbling.

6) Quiet and ≥ 220 mm/s

Anything below 150 mm/s queues up in a busy kitchen or bar. 220+ mm/s keeps the flow smooth.