> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.eat-now.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Printers

> How EatNow reaches a printer sitting in your restaurant, the two ways to connect one — network or cable — and what each means day to day.

EatNow prints your reservation slips on an **Epson TM** thermal printer, 80mm
paper. This page covers how the chain works and how to connect a printer. For
what triggers a ticket, routing by room and the print queue, see [Receipt
printing](/operations/receipt-printing).

***

## How it works

The printer is in your restaurant; EatNow's servers are in the cloud. The two
cannot talk to each other directly: **a device in the room bridges them.**

<Steps>
  <Step title="A reservation changes status">
    You mark a table *Showed up* or *Seated*, from the app or the back office.
  </Step>

  <Step title="EatNow prepares the ticket">
    The server composes the full slip — guest, table, allergies, notes,
    payments — and queues it. The ticket is **frozen at that moment**: if it
    comes out five minutes later, it still describes the reservation as it was
    when the table was seated.
  </Step>

  <Step title="A device in the room takes the ticket">
    EatNow devices that relay printing watch the queue. The first one available
    takes the ticket; the others leave it alone. No risk of a double print, even
    with five tablets on the floor.
  </Step>

  <Step title="That device sends it to the printer">
    Over the restaurant's network, or down the cable if it has one. The outcome
    goes back to the queue: printed, or the exact error.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **With no relay device awake, nothing prints.** A ticket nobody takes waits ten
  minutes and then expires — a slip landing on the pass half an hour after the
  table sat down gets in the way rather than helping.

  In practice: leave one tablet on and plugged in during service.
</Warning>

***

## Two ways to connect a printer

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Network" icon="wifi">
    The printer is on your network, over Ethernet or Wi-Fi. **Any** tablet or
    phone in the restaurant can send it a ticket.
  </Card>

  <Card title="USB cable" icon="cable">
    The printer is plugged straight into an iPad or iPhone. **Only that device**
    can send it a ticket.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

|                        | Network                     | USB cable                        |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Devices that can print | Every one in the restaurant | Only the one the cable runs into |
| If a device dies       | Another takes over          | Nothing prints                   |
| Depends on Wi-Fi       | Yes                         | No                               |
| Address to manage      | Yes (see the DHCP lease)    | None                             |
| Supported devices      | iPhone, iPad, Android       | iPad and iPhone only             |

<Tip>
  **When in doubt, choose the network.** It is the only option that survives a
  flat tablet, one left on a charger, or one that went home in someone's bag.

  A cable earns its place when the restaurant's Wi-Fi is unreliable, or when a
  fixed station — the pass, the host desk — has its iPad and its printer side by
  side and neither ever moves.
</Tip>

***

## Connecting a network printer

<Steps>
  <Step title="Put the printer on the network">
    Connect it over Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and make sure it is on **the same
    network** as your tablets.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Search for it from the app">
    In the EatNow app, open **Settings → Printers** and tap **Search for
    printers**. Every printer found shows up with its address and a **Network**
    label.

    Tap **Add** on yours. Its address and model come across automatically —
    nothing to copy off the back of the machine.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Ask for a fixed address">
    <Note>
      A printer's IP address can change on its own when your router reshuffles
      addresses. EatNow recovers from that: when a ticket cannot reach the
      printer, the device searches for it on the network and remembers the new
      address for everything that follows. The first affected ticket simply takes
      a few seconds longer.

      A **static DHCP lease** — ask whoever manages your network — removes that
      delay at the source.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn on relaying on the floor tablets">
    Still under **Settings → Printers**, turn on **This device relays printing**
    on the devices that stay in the room.

    Leave it off on a phone that leaves the restaurant.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test">
    Tap **Test** on the printer's row. A ticket should come out within a few
    seconds.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## Connecting a printer over USB

<Info>
  **iPad and iPhone only.** USB is not available on Android today.

  You also need a printer fitted with Epson's **Apple-certified Lightning/USB
  interface** — an ordinary USB port on the back of the machine is not enough. If
  you are unsure, your Epson reseller can tell you whether your model has it.
</Info>

<Steps>
  <Step title="Plug in the cable">
    Connect the printer to the iPad. If iOS offers to open EatNow, accept.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Search from that same iPad">
    Open **Settings → Printers** and tap **Search for printers**. The plugged-in
    printer appears with a **USB** label.

    <Warning>
      This search has to be run **from the device the cable runs into**. No other
      device, and not the back office, can see a USB printer — which is also why
      it cannot be added from the web.
    </Warning>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm the binding">
    The app asks you to confirm before adding. This matters: adding a USB
    printer binds it to that device **permanently**. No other tablet will ever
    be able to send it a ticket.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Leave that device relaying">
    Check that **This device relays printing** is on for that same iPad, and
    that it stays on during service.

    If that device is not relaying, the printer's row says so in orange —
    nothing will come out until it is active.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test">
    Tap **Test** on the printer's row.
  </Step>
</Steps>

***

## What to know about a USB printer

<Accordion title="The iPad must not leave the restaurant">
  A USB printer can only be reached by the device it is plugged into. If that iPad
  goes into a bag, is switched off, or runs flat, its tickets wait and then
  expire — and no other tablet can step in.

  That is the trade-off of a cable: no dependency on Wi-Fi, but no redundancy
  either.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Signing out of the iPad puts it on hold">
  A USB printer belongs to the device it is plugged into. If someone signs out of
  that iPad, or leaves the restaurant, EatNow no longer knows that device: the
  printer stays in the list, with its settings and its history, but is flagged as
  waiting for a device.

  To bring it back: plug the cable in, sign in on that iPad, and run a new search
  from **Settings → Printers**.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="It cannot be added or moved from the back office">
  The back office shows a USB printer, which device it belongs to, and lets you
  change its name and paper. It cannot add one, or give it an address: it has no
  way of seeing what is plugged into an iPad.

  To move it elsewhere, delete it and run a new search from the new device.
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Mixing network and USB is fine">
  Nothing stops you having a network printer on the pass and a USB one at the host
  desk. Routing by room works the same for both.

  Just think through what happens if the host desk's iPad goes off: that room's
  reservations stop printing, while the pass carries on.
</Accordion>

***

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Receipt printing" icon="printer" href="/operations/receipt-printing">
    Which statuses print, routing by room, the print queue and reprinting.
  </Card>

  <Card title="When nothing comes out" icon="triangle-alert" href="/operations/receipt-printing#when-nothing-comes-out">
    Reading the print queue and knowing what to do with each error.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>