[ttt_]

Currently it's the best way to serve labels for thermic printers that our clients need.

There is no direct input to the printer as a byte buffer, the browser will always print a markup document. Unless HTML5 comes up with Printer Sockets, we are stuck with Applets in order to be granted hardware access to the client machine.

[bragh]

The same problem applies to most point of sale hardware, the stuff we use doesn't mostly care about drivers at all. Receipt printers just want raw bytes sent to their port, no matter COM or LPT or LAN - OS is bit of an obstruction on the way. Kind of sad that web-based POS software can't take full advantage of the conveniences web brings (ease of updating the program, easier and prettier graphical designs) without losing the capability of interfacing properly with hardware.