Slips & printing
Printing & thermal printers
How printing works in Todebaran, and what you can send to a receipt printer.
Todebaran prints to ESC/POS thermal receipt printers — the small roll-paper printers found at cafés and shops. This isn't ordinary document printing: output is a slip rendered to receipt commands, with text, images, QR codes and a paper cut.
This page explains how printing works. New to the idea? See Why print your tasks? first. To wire up a printer, see Setting up a printer; for models and buying advice, see Compatible printers.
Turn printing on first
Printing is off until you enable it. Open Settings → Printer and turn on Enable printing — that reveals the Print buttons and the print shortcut.
What you can print#
Everything printable is a slip — a template you design on a canvas. You can print:
- A slip directly, from its preview or the slip list.
- A task, which prints through a slip (see below).
- A task's note, as a quick paper copy.
How a task becomes a printout#
A task doesn't print by itself — it prints through a slip, which decides the layout. When you print a task, Todebaran looks for:
- The task's own slip, if one is attached, or
- Your default task slip — the one slip you've marked Set as default for tasks in the slip editor.
If a task has neither, printing tells you: "No default task slip set. Mark a slip as the default for tasks." So before printing tasks, build one slip and set it as the default. See Building a slip.
Printing#
- A slip — open its preview and press Print, or select it and press ⌘P.
- A task — select it and press ⌘P.
Either opens the print panel, where you pick a printer and send the job.
The print panel#
- A status light shows whether the selected printer is reachable. Click it to re-check.
- The printer menu lists your printers; it starts on your primary printer, and you can switch per job.
- The Print button fills as the job runs, and the Dock icon shows a matching progress bar.
- Jobs print one item at a time. If one fails, printing stops there and the button becomes Retry — fix the problem and retry just the failed items.
Complete tasks as they print
Turn on Mark tasks as completed after printing in Settings → Printer and a printed task ticks itself off when you close the panel — ideal for order tickets and checklists you action straight off the roll.
Print history#
Every successful print is saved to Slip History, so you can reopen exactly what came off the printer without running the slip again.
When something goes wrong#
Thermal printers are simple hardware, but network addresses change and cables come loose. If a print fails or the status light won't go green, work through Printer troubleshooting.