Pros and Cons of All In One Printers
You would never want your point of sale system to be down because you ran out of paper. Receipt and remote printers are the parts of your point of sale system most prone to failure. They get the most use and have the most wear and tear of any part of your system. This is also true for pros and cons of all in one printers. Using the standard parallel printer connection for your receipt printer gives you the option to utilize the serial and USB connections for other peripheral devices that will not work on a parallel interface. Follow the money.
What this means for you is less cost of repairs but a longer down time. Which is similar to types of printers most of the time. Concerned about the burgeoning cost of printers ink, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have established testing standards for printers. In the 1990′s a group of printer manufacturers banded together to create the parallel interfaces.
You need only buy a serial printer to backup all printers in your system. In 2005, Lexmark won a suit that gives the company the authority under patent and contract law to enforce the “single use only” policy that’s written on the boxes in which their cartridges are packaged. These cables are also a big benefit because of their fast data transfer and reliable signal.
This makes many of them interchangeable with other makes and models. Shawn is presently working with TONIK – a mass provider of Inks and Toners. Usually this is the exact opposite of why buy an all in one printer. This helps greatly with receipt printers as it keeps the printer cable securely in place and difficult to accidentally come loose.
Note that I said most, as there are some printers that do have multiple interfaces. As always, check with your point of sale software vendor to make sure that they support parallel receipt printers. You are not as stressed by having your point of sale system be crippled by a down printer.