In short: Pick the width from your type of shop (58 mm for small shops, 80 mm for supermarkets and kitchens), pick the connection from the device you sell on, and do not buy until you have seen a real Arabic receipt with a scannable QR come out of your own app.
In this guide
Walk into an electronics shop in Amman or scroll a listings site and you will find dozens of receipt printers at similar prices with model names that mean nothing to you. The differences that matter do not show in the photo: paper width, how it connects, whether it prints Arabic with joined letters, and whether it works with your phone at all. This guide covers what to check before you buy, in shop-owner terms rather than technician terms, and then how to connect the printer to Ghalleh.
Why thermal, specifically
Almost every shop receipt printer is a thermal printer. There is no ink and no ribbon: the paper itself has a coating that darkens when a heated head passes over it. That makes thermal printers fast, quiet and low-maintenance, and paper is the only thing you ever buy for them.
The one real drawback is that the print fades over time, faster in sunlight or heat. That does not hurt you as long as your invoices live in your cashier app. The paper receipt is the customer's copy and your real record sits in your account. Just do not treat a stack of receipts in a drawer as your shop's archive.
58 mm or 80 mm
This is the first decision, and the kind of shop you run decides it more than the price tag. The number is the width of the paper roll. The printable width is a little narrower because of the margins.
| Width | Roughly fits per line | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| 58 mm | About 32 characters in the normal font | Small groceries, mobile phone shops, selling on the move, small portable printers |
| 80 mm | About 48 characters in the normal font | Supermarkets, café order slips, auto parts shops, any shop with long item names or long receipts |
Character counts vary by printer and font. The figures above are rough, for comparison only.
What the width means on the receipt
On a 58 mm receipt, a long item name wraps onto two lines and the name, quantity and price get squeezed together. That is fine in a shop where each customer buys a few things, and irritating in a supermarket where a receipt runs to twenty items. An 80 mm receipt is easier to read, and the QR code on it prints bigger and scans more easily.
That QR matters in Jordan now. If your shop uses JoFotara, every receipt carries the e-invoicing QR code, and it has to print crisp, not faded, to be readable. Test it on the actual printer before you commit: print a receipt and scan the code with your phone camera.
Bluetooth, USB or network
The connection follows the device you sell from, not the other way round. Start with one question: does your cashier sell from a phone or from a PC?
| Connection | Works with | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | Phones and tablets, some PCs | A shop that sells from a phone, or selling on the move at a fair or on delivery | Some Bluetooth printers work with Android but not with iPhone. Ask before you buy |
| USB | The PC at the counter | A fixed counter with a Windows PC | Needs a cable run and sometimes a driver on Windows |
| Network (cable or Wi-Fi) | Several devices on the shop's network | A printer shared by several devices, or a printer away from the counter | Needs a stable router, and check that your cashier app supports network printers before you buy |
| Built into a POS terminal | An Android device with an internal printer | Anyone who wants one device for selling and printing | Check the device lets you install the cashier app you choose |
Arabic printing: the test you cannot skip
This is where most shops lose time. Many cheap printers carry no Arabic font inside, so when the app sends Arabic text, the letters come out disconnected, reversed, or as question marks. Some cashier apps get around this by sending the whole receipt as an image, which the printer reproduces exactly.
So do not judge a printer by the English test page the seller prints. Ask to print a real Arabic receipt from the app you will actually use: your shop name, an item with a long name, amounts with decimals such as 18.500 JOD, and a QR code. If that comes out readable and tidy, the printer has passed the hardest test.
Ghalleh is one of the apps that draws the whole receipt as an image and sends that to the printer, so Arabic prints joined and tidy even on a printer with no Arabic font, and the same goes for barcode and price labels.
Paper rolls
- Buy the exact width your printer takes. An 80 mm roll will not fit a 58 mm printer, and a 57 or 58 mm roll in an 80 mm printer prints off the edge.
- Check the roll diameter. Every printer has a maximum the paper compartment can hold. Bigger rolls last longer but may stop the lid from closing.
- If the receipt comes out completely blank, the roll is almost certainly in upside down. The coated side has to face the print head.
- Cheap paper sheds dust onto the print head and fades faster. The price gap is small, the lifespan gap is not.
- Store paper away from sun, heat and damp. Not on top of the fridge, not in the shop window.
- Always keep at least two spare rolls. Running out on a Thursday evening is the worst possible timing.
How many rolls you need, and printer care
Work it out from your own counter. A café printing 150 receipts a day at about 15 cm each uses 22.5 metres of paper a day. An 80 mm roll 70 metres long covers about 466 receipts, or three days, so that café needs around 10 rolls a month. Read the roll length on the box before comparing prices: two rolls of the same width can differ a lot in length.
Clean the print head now and then with a soft cloth and a little alcohol, with the printer off. Dust leaves white lines on the receipt and can run right through the QR code so it will not scan. And never treat paper receipts as your archive, because thermal paper fades with heat and time: the invoice lives in your cashier app, and the receipt is the customer's copy.
Eight questions before you pay
- Does it connect to the device I will actually sell from: an Android phone, an iPhone, or a Windows PC?
- Does it print a readable Arabic receipt from my app, not the seller's demo app?
- Does the printed QR code scan with a phone camera on the first try?
- Does it have an auto-cutter, or will I tear receipts by hand? At a busy counter the cutter saves seconds per customer.
- Does it have a cash drawer port, if I want the drawer to open with each sale?
- For portable printers: how long does the battery last through a working day, and how does it charge?
- Does it come with a warranty and a dealer or repair shop in Jordan, or am I buying something nobody can fix?
- Are rolls in its size easy to find at stationery shops near me?
Order slips for the kitchen in a café
If your café has a kitchen or a bar, whoever prepares the order needs a clear slip to read while working. Kitchen conditions are different: heat, steam, and distance from the counter. 80 mm printers with an auto-cutter are common here because a slip has to be readable from a step away. Keep the printer clear of direct heat and steam.
In a café on Ghalleh, each order prints a slip for the kitchen and another for the bar on the café's one printer, with add-ons and changes such as 'no sugar', and a tablet in the kitchen can show orders as they are sent, so preparation starts before the bill is closed.
Connecting a printer to Ghalleh
On a phone or tablet, Ghalleh works with a Bluetooth thermal printer (58 or 80 mm) and with the built-in printer of Android POS terminals such as Sunmi, iMin and ZCS. On a Windows PC it works with a USB printer once its driver is installed, or a Bluetooth printer that shows up as a COM port. Switch the printer on, choose it in the print settings, and print a test receipt. The receipt prints in Arabic, with the JoFotara QR code when your shop is connected to e-invoicing.
If you plug a cash drawer into the printer and turn it on in the printer settings, Ghalleh opens it on every cash sale and leaves it shut for card, CliQ and credit. No printer yet? You do not need one to sell. Send the receipt to the customer on WhatsApp or show it as a QR code they scan, and buy a printer once you know what your counter needs.
Ghalleh is available now on Google Play, with the Windows version on the download page. The trial is 14 days free with every feature and no card, so test the printer you have, or the one you plan to buy, before paying anything. Thinking about a device with a built-in printer? Read the guide to Android POS terminals.
Common questions
What is the difference between 58 mm and 80 mm receipt printers?
The number is the paper width. A 58 mm printer is smaller and suits small shops and selling on the move, with about 32 characters per line. An 80 mm printer fits about 48, which suits supermarkets, cafés and long receipts, and prints a clearer QR code.
Do Bluetooth receipt printers work with iPhone?
Not always. Some Bluetooth printers are built for Android and an iPhone will not see them. Ask the seller about iPhone directly, and ideally print from your own phone before you pay.
Why does Arabic print with separated letters on my receipt printer?
The printer has no Arabic font inside, so it prints the letters as they arrive without joining them. The fix is a cashier app that sends the receipt as an image, as Ghalleh does, or a printer with Arabic support. Test a real Arabic receipt before you buy.
Can I sell without a receipt printer?
Yes. Send the receipt to the customer on WhatsApp or show it as a QR code they scan. Many customers still ask for paper, though, especially in supermarkets and electronics shops, so the printer usually follows a few weeks after you start.