Printer Content Profile

 

To work with printer content profiles, click the icon, enter Kitchen Printer Content Profile, and select the relevant link.

The Printer Content Profile lets you design the layout that is used when an order is sent to a physical printer from the Web KDS. It is set up the same way as the existing Chit, Card, and Line content profiles, and sits alongside them in the Web KDS profile setup.

Instead of writing a JSON layout file by hand, as was previously required (v.28 and earlier), you build the layout directly on the profile card: choose what each line should contain, how wide it is, where it starts, and how it is aligned. The profile can then be attached to a printer's kitchen station, and optionally overridden for individual print operations (for example, a specific print button).

A profile is made up of three parts:

Note: If you have just updated to version 29 and have no profiles you can import default profiles from the Kitchen Printer Content Profile List or from the Kitchen Station Card. The action button Insert Default Printer Content Profiles can be found in the header of these pages and will import a default layout for order printing, individual items and a ticket with customer address information for deliveries.

General

These fields identify the profile and describe the physical printer it targets

Fields Description
ID A unique identifier for the profile.
Description A free-text name to help you recognize the profile in lists.
Print Method The kind of printer the profile is designed for: Thermal or Dot Matrix.
Slip Character Width The maximum number of characters that fit on one printed line. Used as the default line width for the whole profile.

Header and Footer

The Header prints above the item lines (for example, order number, table, date); the Footer prints below them. Both sections use the exact same set of fields.

Each line in the Header or Footer has a Data Type, which decides what is available to print on that line:

 

Fields Description Extra field shown
Text A fixed caption you type in yourself -- nothing else is looked up.  
Date Today's date.  
Order Data A value taken from the order, such as table number, order ID, or number of guests. Order Data -- pick which order field to print.
Customer Data A value from the customer/delivery details on the order. Customer Details -- pick which customer field to print.
POS Tag Transaction A value stored against the transaction under a POS tag. POS Tag Transaction -- pick the transaction POS tag to print.
Custom Data A free-form value you supply yourself for this line. Custom Input -- the value to print.

Note: Only the extra field that matches the selected Data Type is enabled -- the others stay blank and disabled.

 

Formatting

Fields Description
Column Name The caption printed in front of the field's value (for example 'Table: ' before the table number). Leave it empty to print the value with no caption.
Character Height The print height of the characters on this line.
Character Width

The print width of the characters on this line.
Start Character Position

Indicates at what place in the whole line the field starts. It is used to indent a line or line up columns. This does not reduce the number of characters available to Length of Field (see Field Behavior Notes below).

Start Character Position only adds leading space before a field -- it does not eat into the number of characters the field itself can use. For example, a field with Length of Field = 25 and Start Character Position = 10 still prints up to 25 characters, offset by 10 spaces; it does not shrink to 15.

Length of Field

The maximum number of characters this field is allowed to print.
Line Number (Sequence)

The print order of the line within its section, starting at 0.
Break on Space

When Break on Space is turned on and a value is longer than Length of Field, the text wraps onto additional printed lines instead of being cut off:

  • Words are never split across two lines -- if the next word does not fit in the remaining space on the current line, the whole word moves to the next line.

  • Each wrapped line still respects the same Length of Field limit.

  • Printing continues onto as many lines as needed until the full value has been printed.
Fill Character

A character used to pad out the remaining width of the line (for example, dashes or dots). When a character is entered here, the rest of the field is filled with it.

 

Set a Fill Character to pad the unused width of a field with a repeating character (for example, to create a dashed separator or dotted leader). Leave it blank for normal spaces.
Alignment

Left, Center, or Right -- how the value is positioned within the field.

 

Item Lines and Modifier Lines

Item Lines print one line (or set of lines) per ordered item; Modifier Lines print underneath each item for its selected modifiers. The two sections are configured separately but share the same fields, and mirror the columns already available in the Chit Content Profile:

Fields Description
Column ID Which piece of item (or modifier) data this column prints -- chosen from the same list of columns used in the Chit Content Profile.
Caption / Column Name The caption printed before the column's value, same behavior as in the Header/Footer.
Character Height / Character Width The print size of the characters, same as Header/Footer.
Start Character Position Leading space before the column starts, same as Header/Footer.
Length of Field Maximum number of characters the column prints.
Line Number (Sequence) Print order of the column, restarting at 0 for each line.
Break on Space Word-wrap behavior, same as Header/Footer.
Fill Character Padding character, same as Header/Footer.
Alignment Left, Center, or Right.