Epson POS

The ESC/POS is a set of instructions for thermal paper printers communicated over serial, parallel, or USB.

Instructions

See the command reference list below for a detailed list of instructions.

Epson's command list shows the command with ASCII names rather than the hex values, so sending 1B 40 to initialize a printer is equivalent to ESC @.

Here are some common instructions:

• 1B 40 Initialize the ESC/POS printer
• 1C 70 01 00 = Print first bit image stored in NVRam
• 1B 64 05 1D 56 01 = Epson cutter command
• 0A = Line feed

Sending Bit Image

To store a bit image to NVRam, use the 1C 71 01 command, followed by 5 arguments:

1. xl - image width in bytes (ie. Ceiling of Image Width in Pixels / 8). Must be between 0 - 255
2. xh - image width as multiples of 256. Must be between 0 - 3.
3. yl - image height in bytes (ie. Ceiling of Image Height in Pixels / 8). Must be between 0 - 255
4. yh - image height in multiples of 256. Must be between 0 - 1.
5. bit image data. Length must be (xl + yl + ((xh + yh) * 256)) * 8.

The image bitmap data is sent to the printer ordered from top to bottom, left to right. 8 pixels per byte.

For example, sending a 4x4 black bitmap image would result in 8 bytes of data:

1. 1111 0000 - 1st column, 4 black, plus 4 blank pixels
2. 1111 0000 - 2nd column
3. 1111 0000 - 3rd column
4. 1111 0400 - 4th column. Last byte at the end of the image ends with 04. see below.
5. 0000 0000 - 5th column, outside of the original 4x4 image
6. 0000 0000 - 6th column
7. 0000 0000
8. 0000 0000

It also seems like the end of the image is terminated with a 04 code... but i'm not sure if this is true as it isn't documented. It is sent by the logo utility though.

See Also

PHP Library:

• https://github.com/mike42/escpos-php

Epson's 'official' documents:

• https://download.epson-biz.com/modules/pos/index.php?page=prod&pcat=3&pid=21

Epson's Logo Utility:

• https://download.epson-biz.com/modules/pos/index.php?page=single_soft&cid=2346&scat=44&pcat=3

Command References:

• http://www.smartlab.at/tabshop-pos/escpos-codes/
• http://www.starasia.com/Download/Manual/escpos_cm_en.pdf
• http://content.epson.de/fileadmin/content/files/RSD/downloads/escpos.pdf
• http://www.aures-support.fr/DE/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/ESCPOS-command-manual20160428.pdf
• https://reference.epson-biz.com/modules/ref_escpos/index.php?content_id=72