How to connect your thermal printer
La Comanda prints receipts and kitchen tickets on 58 mm and 80 mm ESC/POS thermal printers. This guide covers everything from knowing whether your printer works to leaving it printing on its own.
Will it work with my printer?
Almost always yes. La Comanda doesn't talk to the printer directly: it sends the commands to your operating system, so any printer your computer already knows how to use works for us too.
Works
- Any ESC/POS-compatible thermal printer, any brand
- Printers already installed on macOS, Windows, or Linux
- USB connection
- Network or Ethernet connection
- Bluetooth already paired with the operating system
- 58 mm and 80 mm paper
- A single printer, or one for receipts and one for the kitchen
Doesn't work
- Tablets and phones: thermal printing needs a computer
- Printers with no driver installed on the operating system
- Direct IP and port 9100 connections with no driver: install the driver and it works
- Laser or inkjet printers for tickets
The short rule: if your computer can already print a test page on that printer, La Comanda can too.
How the ticket reaches the printer
There's a piece in the middle you may not know: QZ Tray, a free application that installs on the computer and is what can actually talk to the printer. The browser alone cannot.
- 1
La Comanda
Builds the ticket in your browser
- 2
QZ Tray
Receives the ticket inside the same computer
- 3
Your system
Sends it to the printer you picked
- 4
Your printer
Cuts the paper and you're done
None of this goes out to the internet. La Comanda hands the ticket to QZ Tray inside your own computer.
1. Install QZ Tray
It's free and installs on the computer that will print, not on all of them. Download it from the official site and install it like any other program.
When it finishes, QZ Tray keeps running in the background. Confirm it appears in the menu bar on Mac or the system tray on Windows: if it isn't open, nothing can print.
2. Authorize La Comanda
Out of the box, QZ Tray asks permission every time something wants to print. This step installs a certificate telling it to trust La Comanda, so the prompt never comes back. It's done once on each computer.
Download and install the La Comanda trust certificate. It's a standard macOS installer — just double-click and follow the steps.
Download installer- Double-click the downloaded "La Comanda Printer Setup.pkg" file.
- Click Continue, then click Install when prompted.
- Enter your Mac password to authorize the installation.
- Wait for the installation to finish. QZ Tray will restart automatically.
When the installer finishes, continue to step 3.
3. Pick your printers in La Comanda
Go to Settings, to the Printer card. The printer list comes from the ones your operating system already has installed: there is no IP address, port, brand, or model to enter here.
- QZ Tray status
- It should say Connected. If it says Disconnected, press Connect.
- Paper size
- 58 mm prints 32 characters per line; 80 mm prints 48. Pick the one your roll uses or tickets come out badly wrapped.
- Receipt printer
- The one that hands the customer their ticket when the order closes.
- Kitchen printer
- Optional. Leave it blank and kitchen tickets come out of the receipt printer.
- Auto-print receipts
- Prints the receipt on its own as soon as payment completes.
- Auto-print kitchen tickets
- Sends the ticket to the kitchen as soon as the order is placed.
4. Run a test print
On the same card, press Test print. A ticket like this one should come out, with the text aligned and the paper cut at the end.
If nothing came out, or it printed strange characters, find your case in the next section.
The configuration lives on each computer
The paper size and the printers you picked are saved in that machine's browser, not in your account. If you have two registers, you configure each one separately, and clearing browser data means picking them again. That's deliberate: each register has its own printer in front of it.
When something doesn't print
Still stuck?
Send us your printer model and your operating system, and we'll tell you exactly what's missing.