Kitchen Printers

Kitchen Printers for Australian Restaurants, Cafés & Bars

Kitchen printers - also called kitchen receipt printers, KP printers, or order printers — sit between your front-of-house POS and your back-of-house prep stations. When a server enters an order, the ticket prints instantly at the relevant station: grill, fry, salad, bar, or pass. Accurate, legible, time-stamped, and reprintable on demand.

Unlike standard front-counter receipt printers, kitchen printers are engineered for the heat, steam, grease, and noise of a working kitchen. They include audible buzzers so chefs hear new tickets above kitchen noise, auto-cutters so staff don't waste time tearing paper, and (in the case of impact models) ribbons that don't fade when exposed to heat from grills, ovens, and salamanders.

Impact vs Thermal Kitchen Printers - Which One Do You Need?

This is the single most important decision when buying a kitchen printer.

• Impact / dot-matrix kitchen printers (Epson TM-U220, Star SP742, Star SP712, Bixolon SRP-275III) use an ink ribbon to physically strike the paper. The print is permanent and unaffected by heat, steam, or grease. Use impact printers in hot kitchens, on grill lines, near fryers, and anywhere temperatures exceed 60°C. They are louder (a benefit when chefs need to hear tickets) and support two-colour printing — typically black for standard items and red for modifiers, VIPs, or allergens.
• Thermal kitchen printers (Sunmi NT311, and most 80mm thermal models) print faster and quieter using heat-sensitive paper. Use thermal printers in cooler prep stations, bars, dispatch counters, coffee stations, and dark kitchens where ambient temperature is controlled. Thermal paper will blacken and become unreadable if left near direct heat.

Rule of thumb: if the printer sits within arm's reach of a heat source, choose impact. Everywhere else, thermal is faster and cheaper to run.

Best-Selling Kitchen Printer Brands in Australia

Epson - The Epson TM-U220IIB is the most widely deployed kitchen printer in Australian hospitality. Nine-pin dot matrix, two-colour printing, drop-in paper loading, and available in Ethernet or Serial. The successor TM-U220II improves print speed and reduces power consumption versus the original TM-U220B.

Star Micronics — The Star SP742 prints at 8.9 lines per second with auto-cutter, while the SP712 with tear-bar suits lower-volume bars and counters. Available in USB, Serial (RS232), and Ethernet.

Bixolon — The Bixolon SRP-275IIIC is a triple-interface (USB + Serial + Ethernet) impact printer with auto-cutter — a flexible choice when you're not yet sure how the printer will connect to your POS.

Sunmi — The Sunmi NT311 is a modern 80mm cloud kitchen printer with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth — ideal for cloud kitchens, food trucks, and delivery-only operations that need wireless ticket routing from tablet-based POS or aggregator apps (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Menulog).

How to Choose the Right Kitchen Printer

• Interface: Match the printer to your POS. Ethernet is the most reliable for fixed installations; USB suits direct-to-terminal setups; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth suit tablet-based POS like Lightspeed, Square, Kounta, and Loyverse.
• Paper width: 76mm (3-inch) is standard for impact printers; 80mm thermal is standard for newer thermal models.
• Auto-cutter vs tear-bar: Auto-cutters speed service in busy kitchens; tear-bar models cost less and are fine for low-volume sites.
• Buzzer: Essential — chefs need to hear new tickets over extraction fans and kitchen noise.
• Two-colour printing: Useful for highlighting allergens, VIPs, dietary requirements, or rush orders.
• POS compatibility: Confirm driver support for your software. See our POS bundles for pre-matched kitchen printer and POS combinations.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a kitchen printer?

A kitchen printer is a POS-connected receipt printer installed in the back-of-house of a restaurant, café, or bar that prints food and drink orders sent from the front-of-house terminal. Most kitchen printers are impact (dot-matrix) printers because they tolerate heat, steam, and grease better than thermal printers.

Can I use a thermal printer in the kitchen?

Yes, but only in cooler areas — bars, dispatch counters, coffee stations, salad prep, and cloud-kitchen pickup zones. Thermal paper darkens and becomes unreadable when exposed to direct heat above roughly 60°C, so thermal printers should not be used on grill lines or near fryers.

Will a kitchen printer work with my POS software?

Most kitchen printers from Epson, Star, Bixolon, and Sunmi are ESC/POS compatible and work with Lightspeed, Square, Kounta, Loyverse, Hike, PosBoss, MYOB, Shopify POS, and Vend, among others. Check the interface (USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) your POS supports before ordering — or browse our POS-specific kitchen printer bundles.

What's the difference between the Epson TM-U220B and TM-U220IIB?

The TM-U220IIB is the updated generation of the TM-U220B. It prints faster, uses less power, and offers improved network configuration on Ethernet models. Both share the same 76mm impact print technology, two-colour printing, and auto-cutter footprint, so the IIB is a direct upgrade in existing installations.

Do kitchen printers come with paper rolls and ribbons?

Printers ship with a starter ribbon or roll. Ongoing consumables — 76mm and 80mm paper rolls, ink ribbons and cassettes — are sold separately and ship next-day across Australia.

How many kitchen printers do I need?

One per prep station that needs its own ticket flow. A typical mid-size restaurant runs three: grill/hot line, cold/salad, and bar. Cafés often run two: barista and kitchen. Dark kitchens running multiple brands typically need one printer per brand or per aggregator channel.

Buy Kitchen Printers Online in Australia

POS Sales Australia ships kitchen printers Australia-wide from our Sydney warehouse with next-business-day dispatch on in-stock items. All prices shown include GST. For help matching a kitchen printer to your POS software or venue layout, contact our team by phone, email, or live chat.