Building Printer Formats

A plain-English guide to designing what your receipts, kitchen tickets, and card slips look like — one drag at a time.

Who it's for: managers & staff · Reading time: ~10 minutes · Tech experience needed: none

What is a printer format?

A printer format is a template for a printed slip. It tells the printer what to put on the paper and in what order — the logo, the order number, the list of items, the total, a thank-you line, and so on.

You set it up once. After that, every ticket of that kind comes out the same way, automatically. Think of it like a rubber stamp: you carve the stamp one time, then it prints the same layout on every order.

The Printer Format Builder is the screen where you carve that stamp — by dragging pieces around and watching a live picture of the result. You don't type any code. You don't need to know how printers work. You just arrange the pieces you want.

✅ You can't break a printer from this screen. Nothing here prints until a real order happens. Explore freely — and if you don't press Save, nothing you tried is kept.

The one big idea

Almost everything you do in the builder is the same simple loop. If you remember only one thing, remember this:

Drag a piece → See it appear → Press Save

You drag a piece onto the paper, the picture updates instantly so you can see if you like it, and when it looks right you press Save. That's the job. Everything below is just detail on those three steps.

The screen has three parts

When the builder opens it can look busy. It isn't — it's just three columns, each with one job. Across the very top is a row of buttons called Format Type (more on that below).

What each part is for:

1. Blocks (left) is your box of parts — Logo, Items, Total, and so on. You don't type these; you drag them. This list can be long, so it scrolls on its own — spin the mouse wheel over it to reach the ones near the bottom.
2. Preview (middle) is a live picture of the slip as you build it. Drag a block here to add it. Click any line to select it for editing.
3. Settings (right) shows options. When nothing is selected, it shows options for the whole slip. When you've clicked a piece in the preview, it shows options for just that piece.

💡 Left builds it · Middle shows it · Right fine-tunes it.

There are only four things to do

Every layout you'll ever build is some combination of these four moves. Learn them once and you're done.

➕ Add a piece

1. Find the piece in the Blocks column on the left.
2. Press and hold it with the mouse.
3. Drag it onto the Preview in the middle and let go.
4. It appears on the slip right away.

✏️ Change a piece

1. Click the piece in the Preview. It highlights.
2. Look at the Settings column on the right.
3. Adjust its options there — size, bold, left/right, and so on.
4. The Preview updates as you change things.

↕️ Move a piece

1. Press and hold the piece in the Preview.
2. Drag it up or down to where you want it.
3. Let go. The rest shuffle to make room.

❌ Remove a piece

1. Hover the piece in the Preview.
2. Click the small ✕ on it — or click it, then use Remove in the Settings panel.
3. It's gone. Changed your mind? Drag it back from Blocks.

💡 Drag from the LEFT, click in the MIDDLE. The two most common mix-ups: trying to click a block in the left list to add it (you have to drag it), or trying to drag a piece out of the middle into a list (you drag it up/down in place). Drag to add, click to edit.

Pick the right format type first

At the very top is a row of buttons called Format Type. This is the most important choice on the screen, because it decides what kind of slip you're designing — and the builder changes to match. Set it before you start arranging pieces.

⚠️ Switching type changes the screen. Choosing a different Format Type swaps what you can build. If the Blocks column suddenly disappears, you've landed on KDS — that's expected, because a screen has no paper blocks. Switch back to a paper type and the blocks return.

The preview uses pretend data

The names, prices, and order numbers in the Preview — a sample venue, "Order #42," a burger and fries — are fake sample data. They're there so you can see the shape of the slip. They are not a real order and they won't print on anyone's receipt.

What you're designing is the layout: which lines appear, in what order, and how they look. The real order details get filled in automatically when an actual sale happens.

💡 So don't worry that it shows the wrong restaurant or price. You're arranging the boxes, not writing the words that go in them. Real names and totals appear on the real printout.

Editing the "Check Detail"

The Check Detail is the little summary near the top of a receipt — the order number, the table, the order type, the time it started. A lot of people want to change what shows up there, and it works a bit differently from a normal block, so here's exactly how:

1. Click the Check Detail block in the Preview to select it.
2. The Settings panel on the right now lists its fields — Order #, Table, Order Type, and so on.
3. Use + Add field to include another (e.g. Guests, Server), or the ✕ to drop one.
4. Use the up / down arrows to reorder them.
5. For each field, choose Left or Right (which side of the slip it sits on) and toggle Show label (whether it prints a caption like "Table:" or just the value).

✅ Empty means "use the standard set." If you've never touched it, the Check Detail shows a sensible default (Order #, Table, Order Type, Started). The editor shows you that same default so you can tweak it — your changes only stick once you actually edit something.

Kitchen tickets: Header and Footer

When the Format Type is Remote (a kitchen or bar ticket), the middle isn't a tall receipt — it's a short chit with two zones you control: a Header at the top and a Footer at the bottom. The list of ordered items sits between them automatically.

You fill the Header and Footer with fields — Order #, Table, Server, Time — by dragging them in from the Blocks column, exactly like adding a block to a receipt. Two handy extras:

• You can drag a field from the Header down to the Footer (or the other way) to move it between zones.
• Click any field to set whether it sits on the left or right, and whether it shows a label.

Nothing counts until you Save

Everything you drag and tweak is just a draft until you press the Save button (usually at the bottom of the panel). Before you save:

• Nothing has changed on any real printer yet.
• You can walk away and lose the draft with no harm done.

After you Save, the new layout is what prints from then on. If a change doesn't seem to appear on the actual printer, the first thing to check is whether you pressed Save.

Golden rules

1. Pick the Format Type first. It decides what you're even building. Change it later and the screen reshapes around you.
2. Drag to add, click to edit. Pieces come from the left. Options live on the right. The middle is the picture.
3. The preview is fake. You're shaping the layout, not the words. Real orders fill in the real details.
4. Save, or it didn't happen. No Save, no change. It's the last step every single time.
5. Nothing you do here can hurt a printer. Experiment. The worst case is you close without saving.

Common questions

• "I clicked a block in the left list and nothing happened."

  • Blocks in the left column can't be added by clicking — you have to drag them onto the Preview in the middle. Press and hold, drag across, and let go.

• "The Blocks column vanished." 

  • You're on the KDS format type. A kitchen display screen has no paper blocks to drag — you style it entirely in the Settings panel. Switch the Format Type back to Receipt, Voucher, or Remote and the blocks come back.

• "The receipt shows the wrong restaurant name and prices." 

  • Those are sample values for the preview only. Your real venue name and real order totals appear on the actual printout. You're designing the layout, not typing the content.

• "I changed something but the real printer didn't change." 

  • Check three things, in order: (1) Did you press Save? (2) Are you editing the same format the printer actually uses? (3) Did you print a fresh order — old tickets don't reprint themselves.

• "Some settings say 'Venue Override' or look locked." 

  • If your company has a head office and multiple locations, a format can be set at the company level and inherited by each venue. Editing it at your venue makes your own copy, so your changes don't affect other locations. If you only want the company default, leave it untouched. If a setting won't let you blank it out, that's usually because the company version sets it — ask your administrator.

• "How do I get the Check Detail summary to show the table number?" 

  • Click the Check Detail block in the preview, then in the Settings panel use + Add field and choose Table (if it isn't already listed). See Editing the "Check Detail" above.

• "I made a mess. How do I start over?" 

  • If you haven't saved, just close the format without saving and reopen it — your draft is thrown away and you're back to the last saved version. Nothing is permanent until Save.

Word list

Still stuck? Grab a manager or contact support.