How Printing Works in NX

Printing in NX is designed to be fast, reliable, and flexible, so that your kitchen and service teams always get the information they need — whether it’s a kitchen ticket, customer receipt, or order refire.

While there’s a lot happening behind the scenes, NX handles most of it automatically. This guide explains, in simple terms, how printing works and what happens each time an order is sent to a printer.

🖨️ The Printing Process — Simplified

When you print in NX, whether it’s sending a food order to the kitchen or a drink ticket to the bar, NX goes through a series of steps to make sure it’s printed correctly and reliably.

Here’s how it works from start to finish:

1. The Print Starts

Printing begins whenever:

An employee taps Send or Fire Items on an order. A check is saved or paid, and NX automatically prints as part of that process. An order is refired (resent to the kitchen).

At this point, NX figures out which items need to print and where they need to go — for example, which kitchen printer or bar printer.

2. NX Prepares the Print Job

Before printing, NX:

Marks the selected items as “committed” (meaning they’ve been sent to the kitchen).
Records the date and time they were printed.
Notifies any third-party kitchen systems (like a Kitchen Display System, or KDS) if connected.
Builds the print job — essentially a package that includes all the order details needed to print, such as item names, modifiers, table number, and any notes.

3. NX Routes the Job to the Right Destination

How Printer Routing Works in NX

Each menu item in NX belongs to a Routing Group (like “Kitchen,” “Bar,” or “Desserts”).

Routing Groups have one or more Routing Destinations — which represent specific printers or kitchen screens.

NX looks at each item’s routing destination and sends the job to the correct printer automatically.

Example:

Appetizer → Kitchen Printer
Drinks → Bar Printer
Desserts → Dessert Station Printer

If a printer isn’t available, NX can automatically reroute the print job to a backup printer or local POS printer.

4. NX Sends the Job to the Printer

Once the routing is determined:

NX connects to the designated printer (usually an Epson POS printer) through the network.
NX converts the job into printer commands (called EPos instructions) that tell the printer exactly what to print and how to format it.
The printer prints the ticket with all details — including headers, order times, modifiers, and notes.

If the printer is controlled by another POS device (for example, a shared kitchen printer), NX automatically forwards the print job to that device, which will handle the actual printing.

5. If Something Goes Wrong

NX includes built-in reliability tools to keep printing running smoothly:

Auto-Reroute: If a printer fails or can’t be reached, NX will try another available printer (like a backup or the POS terminal’s local printer).
Queue System: Print jobs are stored in a queue to ensure they’re retried if the connection drops temporarily.
Status Monitoring: NX keeps track of printer health, and if the printer comes back online, any pending jobs will automatically print.

6. Confirmation and Feedback

When printing is complete:

NX logs a success message confirming the job was sent.
For refires or special prints, NX may show which destinations received the print job.
Each print event is logged internally for traceability and support purposes. This gives NX a detailed picture of each print event.

🧠 In Simple Terms

Step	What Happens	NX’s Role
1️⃣ You press “Print”	NX identifies which items need printing	Decides what to print
2️⃣ NX builds the job	NX gathers item info and formatting	Prepares print instructions
3️⃣ NX routes it	NX decides which printer gets the job	Sends to kitchen, bar, etc.
4️⃣ NX sends to printer	NX connects to the device and prints	Talks to the printer
5️⃣ If it fails	NX retries or reroutes automatically	Keeps printing reliable
6️⃣ Done!	NX shows success and logs it	Confirms and records

🧩 Key Takeaways

You don’t need to worry about routing — NX automatically sends each item to the right printer or KDS. How Printer Routing Works in NX
Printing is resilient — if a printer is offline, NX can reroute or retry automatically.
Every print is logged for support and tracking.
Tip: Always ensure your printers are connected to the network and powered on to avoid delays.

💡 Example in Action

Imagine a guest orders a burger and a beer:

You ring in the order and press Send.
NX marks the burger and beer as “sent.”
NX sends the burger ticket to the kitchen printer and the beer ticket to the bar printer.
Both printers print immediately.
If the bar printer was offline, NX would automatically reroute the beer ticket to a backup printer or to the POS terminal so it’s still printed.

🏁 Summary

Printing in NX is designed to just work.

It automatically figures out:

What needs to print
Where it should print
And how to recover if something goes wrong

This smart, reliable printing system keeps your operations running smoothly — even when the network or a printer doesn’t cooperate.