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Set up a WooCommerce printer location for an Android station with BizPrint

This page shows you how to set up a WooCommerce printer location so its orders print well on a printer connected to the BizPrint Android app. It is for merchants who use the BizPrint plugin for WooCommerce with an Android phone, tablet or Sunmi device as their station.

Both output formats work with the Android app. This page helps you choose one and shows you which settings decide the paper size, margins and copies.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”

Choose HTML or Plain Text

Section titled “Choose HTML or Plain Text”

HTML prints the template as designed. Choose it when:

  • You want your logo and the template’s layout, with tables and different text sizes.
  • You print a template that has no plain text version, such as Invoice, Packing Slip, Pick List, Delivery Note or Dispatch Label.
  • You print on a label printer or a full-page office printer.

Plain Text prints simple text in fixed-width lines. Choose it when:

  • You print short receipts or kitchen tickets on a receipt printer and want them to print fast. On a receipt printer, plain text prints with the printer’s own fonts.
  • You do not need a logo. Plain text has no images.

Only these built-in templates have a plain text version: Customer Receipt, Customer Order Receipt, Order Receipt (no prices, good for kitchen or packing tickets), Address Labels and Shipping Label. When you choose another template, Plain Text is not offered in Output Format.

Set up the printer location

Section titled “Set up the printer location”
  1. Go to WooCommerce > Print Manager in WordPress.
  2. Click the Printers tab.
  3. Click the name of the printer location in the Description column.
  4. Select your Android printer in Printers. Each printer is listed with its station name, the name you gave it in the Android app, and its status.
  5. Choose a template in Template. See Choose a BizPrint template for WooCommerce printouts.
  6. Choose HTML or Plain Text in Output Format.
  7. Type the number of characters that fit on one line of your paper in Plain text format symbols width, if you chose Plain Text. The default is 40. To find the number, see Find how many characters fit on one line.
  8. Choose a paper size in Layout Size. You must choose one before you can save. The Android app uses it only in the case described in Where the paper size and margins come from.
  9. Click Save Changes.

If this location also has printers connected to a desktop station, those printers print the same output format. To use a different output format on each, create two printer locations, one for each.

Where the paper size and margins come from

Section titled “Where the paper size and margins come from”

On receipt, label and built-in printers, the Android app prints by default on the paper set for the printer in the app, with the printer’s own margins. This is the Paper setting on the printer’s page in the app, for example 80 mm roll, 58 mm roll or 4 inch roll (104 mm).

Office printers (Full-page printer (enter address) and Android print dialog) work differently. They start with Page size from job set to Use the job page size when sent, and print on a Letter, A4 or custom sheet with their own sheet layout. Margins from the app or the printer location do not apply to them.

On a receipt, label or built-in printer, to use the paper size and margins of the printer location instead, change the printer’s Page size from job setting in the app:

  1. Open the BizPrint Android app.
  2. Tap your printer under Printers on the main screen.
  3. Tap Advanced.
  4. Tap Page size from job.
  5. Choose Use the job page size when sent.

With Use the job page size when sent, the app uses the location’s Layout Size, Custom Width (mm), Custom Height (mm) and Custom Margins. The printout is never wider than the paper set for the printer in the app. With Use printer settings, the default on these printers, the app ignores those settings.

The paper size and margins apply to HTML, PDF and text printed as an image. Plain Text printed with the printer’s own fonts (the printer’s Plain-text jobs setting is Print as text) follows Plain text format symbols width instead.

For every printer setting in the app, see Change paper, cut and layout settings for a printer in the BizPrint Android app.

How the Android app uses the other settings

Section titled “How the Android app uses the other settings”
Setting in WooCommerce What the Android app does
Copies (on the General tab) Prints the number of copies set. See Print more than one copy of each WooCommerce order with BizPrint.
Page Orientation The printer’s Orientation setting in the app decides. With Auto, the default, the printout follows the orientation of the job. Landscape needs a page height, so it works on labels and sheets. On a continuous receipt roll, a landscape job prints in portrait.
Your logo Prints with HTML. Plain Text has no images.
Font sizes and weights Apply to HTML. For Plain Text on a receipt printer, the font settings of the printer in the app decide the text size. Support for those depends on the printer.

Find how many characters fit on one line

Section titled “Find how many characters fit on one line”

You need this number only for Plain Text on a receipt printer. The app’s test page shows how to count it. The test page is not an order, so it cannot print an order twice.

  1. Open the BizPrint Android app.
  2. Tap your printer under Printers on the main screen.
  3. Tap Test print while the printer is not printing a real order. The printer prints a long line of numbers that wraps where the paper ends, and a tip.
  4. Count how many characters fit on the first line. The tip shows how: multiply the number of zeros on the first line by 10, then add the last number on that line.
  5. Type that number in Plain text format symbols width in the printer location.
  6. Click Save Changes.

Check that it worked

Section titled “Check that it worked”

Test print in the printer location prints your store’s newest real order again, on every printer in the location. The button appears only after the location is saved and your store has at least one order. Clicking it does not save the form, so click Save Changes first. If the printer location uses Product Mapping, Shipping Mapping or Metadata Mapping (add-ons included with some plans), Test print still follows the location’s mapping rules, so an order that does not match those rules does not print there.

Before each test print, do these checks so you do not print an order twice by mistake:

  1. Look at the paper at each printer in the location for your newest order’s printout.
  2. Check that the printer has paper, shows no error, and is not in the middle of a real order.
  3. Check the status of the latest print jobs in the BizPrint dashboard.
  4. Wait for the station to finish anything it is still printing, whatever status the job shows.
  5. Go to WooCommerce > Print Manager in WordPress.
  6. Click the Support tab.
  7. Check Queue Status in Print Job Queue. If a print request could not reach BizPrint, the plugin may keep it in the Print Job Queue and try again later.
  8. Wait for any pending or processing jobs to finish.

Do not send a test while a job for that order is pending, connecting-to-printer or processing.

Then test the printout:

  1. Tell your staff the next printout is a test, so nobody prepares or ships that order a second time.
  2. Click the Printers tab.
  3. Click the name of the printer location in the Description column.
  4. Click Test print.
  5. Look at the printout.

If the printout does not look right, change the settings and test again:

  1. Change Plain text format symbols width in the printer location (Plain Text), or the printer’s Paper setting in the app (HTML).
  2. Click Save Changes, if you changed the printer location.
  3. Do every check in Check that it worked again.
  4. Click the Printers tab.
  5. Click the name of the printer location in the Description column.
  6. Click Test print.

If nothing prints, open the BizPrint Android app and look at the printer’s recent jobs for a message. See Fix common problems with the BizPrint Android app.

Section titled “Related pages”

Need help? Contact BizPrint support at https://getbizprint.com/support/.