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Printers
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:Last Reviewed: 2017-01-25

As of now there are 5 different type of printer implementations.

USB
---
The USB-class uses pyusb and libusb to communicate with USB-based
printers. Note that this driver is not suited for USB-to-Serial-adapters
and similiar devices, but only for those implementing native USB.

.. autoclass:: escpos.printer.Usb
    :members:
    :special-members:
    :member-order: bysource
    :noindex:

Serial
------
This driver uses pyserial in order to communicate with serial devices.
If you are using an USB-based adapter to connect to the serial port,
then you should also use this driver.
The configuration is often based on DIP-switches that you can set on your
printer. For the hardware-configuration please refer to your printer's manual.

.. autoclass:: escpos.printer.Serial
     :members:
     :special-members:
     :member-order: bysource
     :noindex:

Network
-------

This driver is based on the socket class.

.. autoclass:: escpos.printer.Network
      :members:
      :special-members:
      :member-order: bysource
      :noindex:

Troubleshooting
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Problems with a network-attached printer can have numerous causes. Make sure that your device has a proper IP address.
Often you can check the IP address by triggering the self-test of the device. As a next step try to send text
manually to the device. You could use for example:

    ::

            echo "OK\n" | nc IPADDRESS 9100
            # the port number is often 9100

As a last resort try to reset the interface of the printer. This should be described in its manual.

File
----
This printer "prints" just into a file-handle. Especially on \*nix-systems this comes very handy.

.. autoclass:: escpos.printer.File
      :members:
      :special-members:
      :member-order: bysource
      :noindex:

Dummy
-----
The Dummy-printer is mainly for testing- and debugging-purposes. It stores
all of the "output" as raw ESC/POS in a string and returns that.

.. autoclass:: escpos.printer.Dummy
      :members:
      :member-order: bysource
      :noindex: