Is it possible to print a reciept using a POS printer using jtexarea.print();?

Question

I'm building an application that has to use a POS printer to print a receipt on a button click.

I've never used a printer with JAVA before, so I have no idea, but I've done some research and I'm thinking of either formatting my receipt in a jtextarea and then printing it using the print() method,

or painting it to Graphics2D first using paint(g2d) and then printing it with a printer job using the Printable interface.

Which would be easier? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I've actually worked a lot with stuff like this. I've tried printing with with Graphics2D which works fine but is very slow on a POS printer. You usually want POS printers to be fast. POS printers have a serial communications interface for printing, which is how I'd recommend you to do it. Have a look at:

http://www.javapos.com

It's a library for interfacing with POS peripherals. The documentation isn't the best. You will need javapos libraries, javapos drivers for your specific printer, serial communication libs (RXTX) etc.