How to select a mobile printer

This article will show you how to select a mobile printer that will work with the ESC Mobile Client for Windows and the ESC Mobile Tech app for iOS and Android. 

ESC Mobile Laptop Client for Windows

Full Page Printers

The Laptop Mobile Client will work with any full page (8.5" x 11") printer you can connect to the computer, provided the printer has a valid Windows driver.

The mobile client will allow you to print on any of the forms you designed in the office. This gives you the ability to customize the look of every form printed. This is nice because you can print a quote for one customer, an invoice for the next, and an acknowledgment of work (without prices) for the third. Each of these forms can come complete with your logo and standard disclaimers (such as restocking fees, warranty information, etc.).

Receipt Style Printers

The Laptop Mobile Client for Windows will work with any receipt style printer (typically 3" - 4" roll of paper) you can connect to the computer, provided the printer has a valid Windows driver. Be careful when purchasing a receipt printer because a lot of them do NOT have standard Windows drivers.

When using a receipt style printer you can print out a standard preformatted receipt in any version of ESC. This receipt cannot be modified and only displays the first 14 characters of each item's description. It does not differentiate between a normal invoice and a quote, so although you can create a quote on the mobile client it will still look identical to an invoice when printed.

Note: Long invoices printed using receipt forms could cause several pages of receipts to print, each with its own header just like it would in the office. Since most receipt printers use a roll of paper instead of precut sheets of a fixed length, this could look a little different from what you are expecting.

ESC Mobile Tech for iOS and Android

These clients do NOT have a print option built in, but instead can produce a PDF version of the quote or invoice which can then be printed by any printer app you have installed on your device. Printer capabilities and compatibility will be determined by the third party app used to print the quote or invoice and not by ESC Mobile. When printing quotes or invoices from ESC Mobile, only the default form will be used. ESC Mobile for iOS and Android does not have the ability to store multiple forms for printing.

Additional Information:

When picking a printer be aware of the environment where the printer will be stored. If the temperature ever gets very cold in your trucks and you are considering an ink jet printer you might want to look at the freezing point of the ink it uses. Likewise, if the temperature gets extremely hot, you may want to look closely at the storage requirements on the paper for thermal printers.