Printing · Receipt Glossary
Thermal Printer
A printer that uses heat instead of ink. Used at virtually every retail point-of-sale to print receipts.
A thermal printer applies localized heat to thermal paper, darkening the coating to form characters and barcodes. Two variants exist: direct thermal (the most common, used for receipts) and thermal transfer (used for shipping labels because the print is more durable).
Direct thermal printers — the kind that prints your Walmart, CVS, or Starbucks receipt — are mechanically simple. There’s no ink cartridge, no toner, no ribbon. Just a heating element, a print head, and paper.
Common manufacturers include Epson (the TM-T88 series is iconic), Star Micronics, Bixolon, and Citizen. Most run at 200-300 dpi and can print roughly 200-300mm per second.
Thermal printers connect to point-of-sale (POS) systems via USB, Ethernet, or Bluetooth. Most retailers run them with ESC/POS commands — a printing protocol Epson defined in the 1980s that remains the industry standard.
See this in action
Brands whose receipts demonstrate thermal printer.
Related terms
Ready to create a receipt?
Apply this knowledge with our free online receipt maker.
Open the generator