How to print kitchen tickets automatically

What kitchen printing is

Printing kitchen tickets means turning on one more output, alongside the display. Each kitchen you create on the Dashboard has its own printing settings: you turn on Print orders, choose the paper width and how many copies you want, and qmen.us starts putting together one ticket per prep station each time the waiter sends an order — with the same items that show on that station's display, grouped the same way. Turning it on for one station changes nothing for the others.

The paper itself comes from the print app, a small program that runs inside the restaurant. It identifies itself with that kitchen's token, fetches the tickets in the queue, prints them and tells qmen.us they're out. When the order is a follow-up, meaning items added to an order that had already been sent, the ticket prints marked as additional items, so the station doesn't redo what's already done.

Why paper on top of the screen is worth it

• Each prep station gets only its own items. The item lands in the kitchen set on the Menu, or in the one the waiter chose for a Custom item. The grill doesn't waste paper on caipirinhas, and the ticket comes out with the station's name already printed.
• Nobody has to click anything. The waiter taps Send to kitchen on the phone and the paper comes out. There's no print button, no one watching the queue waiting to send it to the printer.
• Paper doesn't get lost when the printer hiccups. If there's an error, the paper runs out or the device restarts, the ticket goes back into the queue and prints later. A duplicate copy is much less of a nuisance than an order that vanished.
• Follow-up items arrive marked. Items added later print on a new ticket, flagged as additional items for that same order, with its number at the top.
• The screen still counts. Printing is one more output, not a replacement: the station's display keeps getting items live and the READY button is still what alerts the waiter.

How to print kitchen tickets in 6 steps

There are six steps, from the toggle on the Dashboard to the printer spitting out tickets on its own every time the waiter sends an order.

1. Turn on the station's printing

   On the Dashboard, open Kitchens. Each prep station is a card, and in the middle of it there's the Printing block. When it's off, it says Prints orders on a thermal printer. Tap Set up: the Kitchen printing window opens, with the Print orders toggle at the top. Turn it on. This setting is for this station only — the others stay as they were.

2. Choose the paper width and how many copies

   Right below are two fields. In Paper width you pick 80 mm or 58 mm, depending on the paper roll your printer uses — that's what makes the text fit on the line instead of wrapping badly. In Copies you say how many copies print for each order sent, from 1 to 5. Two copies is common when one stays at the station and the other goes with the dish.

3. Copy the address and the token

   Still in the same window there's the Details for the print app block: an address and a token, each with its own copy button. Before you save, the token shows as (created when you save); afterwards, it's hidden, and the eye icon reveals it. Tap Save. The station's card now shows On with the width and copies you chose. If that token ever leaks, the Generate a new token link creates another one and kills the old one instantly.

4. Get the print app running at the restaurant

   qmen.us runs in the cloud and your printer is on the network inside the restaurant, so you need a small program in there acting as the bridge: the print app. It runs on a PC, a Raspberry Pi or an Android phone that stays on at the restaurant. In its settings you paste the station's address and token and say where the printer is — its IP on the network, the USB port, the serial port, the Windows queue or, on Android, Bluetooth.

   Tip: On Windows, set up the printer as a Generic / Text Only queue, plain text. A driver that renders the page scrambles the commands and you get that mess of weird characters on the paper.

5. Send an order and check the ticket

   Ask the waiter to enter an item and tap Send to kitchen. Within a few seconds the paper comes out: the table at the top, nice and big, then the order name (when there is one), its number and a line with waiter, prep station and time. Then come the items, each with the quantity and name in larger type, the add-ons on the line below and the guest's note highlighted. A Custom item typed by the waiter prints just like the others.

6. Leave it all running on its own

   Set the print app to start along with the device — on a kitchen Pi, that's what brings printing back on its own after a power outage. If the printer jams or runs out of paper, qmen.us puts the ticket back in the queue and tries again; only after several failures in a row does it give up on that ticket. And if the same device also shows the station's display, the Open the display without a password switch in this window lets it open the display directly, without anyone typing anything.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Print app

The program that keeps running on a device inside the restaurant, fetches the prep station's tickets from qmen.us and sends them to the thermal printer.

Kitchen token

The long password that lets that kitchen's print app fetch tickets. Generating a new one makes the old one stop working instantly.

Paper width

The paper roll the printer uses, 80 mm or 58 mm. It sets how many characters fit on each line of the ticket.

Copies

How many copies of the same ticket print with each send, from 1 to 5.

Kitchen

The display where orders show up and move from Preparing to READY.

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