Point of Sale Application Receipt Printing

Question

I am working on a small project for a Retail Management Software, which will be using a POS printer (I think that's what we call it). I need a create a bill for it in the end. But i am stuck here, and not able to proceed. So suppose if I generate my bill in a separate form with appropriate dimensions (of width of POS bills), will i be able to print it properly? I am using C# and .NET 4.0 framework. I don't have much knowledge about POS devices. I am working for really a small local client which needs a basic model of software. I am also a fresher so please help me out.

If my question is not clear, let me know i will try to elaborate my thought.

Answer 1

I know this is an old post, but for those still looking for a solution, I can tell you what I did.

After spending many hours messing with OPOS and POS for .Net, I ended up just abandoning those and just using the built-in System.Drawing.Printing libraries. The OPOS and POS for .Net ended up being a pain to get working and ultimately didn't work as well as the built-in libraries.

I'm using an Epson TM-T20II receipt printer.

Here's some code that worked well for me.

public static void PrintReceiptForTransaction()
    {

        PrintDocument recordDoc = new PrintDocument();

        recordDoc.DocumentName = "Customer Receipt";
        recordDoc.PrintPage += new PrintPageEventHandler(ReceiptPrinter.PrintReceiptPage); // function below
        recordDoc.PrintController = new StandardPrintController(); // hides status dialog popup
        // Comment if debugging 
        PrinterSettings ps = new PrinterSettings();
        ps.PrinterName = "EPSON TM-T20II Receipt";
        recordDoc.PrinterSettings = ps;
        recordDoc.Print();
        // --------------------------------------

        // Uncomment if debugging - shows dialog instead
        //PrintPreviewDialog printPrvDlg = new PrintPreviewDialog();
        //printPrvDlg.Document = recordDoc;
        //printPrvDlg.Width = 1200;
        //printPrvDlg.Height = 800;
        //printPrvDlg.ShowDialog();
        // --------------------------------------

        recordDoc.Dispose();

    }


private static void PrintReceiptPage(object sender, PrintPageEventArgs e)
    {
        float x = 10;
        float y = 5;
        float width = 270.0F; // max width I found through trial and error
        float height = 0F;

        Font drawFontArial12Bold = new Font("Arial", 12, FontStyle.Bold);
        Font drawFontArial10Regular = new Font("Arial", 10, FontStyle.Regular);
        SolidBrush drawBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Black);

        // Set format of string.
        StringFormat drawFormatCenter = new StringFormat();
        drawFormatCenter.Alignment = StringAlignment.Center;
        StringFormat drawFormatLeft = new StringFormat();
        drawFormatLeft.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;
        StringFormat drawFormatRight = new StringFormat();
        drawFormatRight.Alignment = StringAlignment.Far;

        // Draw string to screen.
        string text = "Company Name";
        e.Graphics.DrawString(text, drawFontArial12Bold, drawBrush, new RectangleF(x, y, width, height), drawFormatCenter);
        y += e.Graphics.MeasureString(text, drawFontArial12Bold).Height;

        text = "Address";
        e.Graphics.DrawString(text, drawFontArial10Regular, drawBrush, new RectangleF(x, y, width, height), drawFormatCenter);
        y += e.Graphics.MeasureString(text, drawFontArial10Regular).Height;

        // ... and so on

 }

Hopefully it helps someone skip all the messing around with custom drivers. :)