The Browser Printing Problem
If you've ever tried to print a receipt from a web app, you know the pain: window.print() opens a print dialog, renders the page as a PDF, and has zero support for ESC/POS commands like auto-cut or custom paper width.
For thermal receipt printers, this is a dealbreaker. You need:
- Silent printing — no dialog, no user interaction
- ESC/POS commands — for auto-cut, bold text, alignment, barcodes
- Reliable encoding — UTF-8 to the correct code page for your printer
- Cross-platform support — Mac, Windows, Linux
The solution is a local WebSocket bridge — a small background app that runs on the user's computer, accepts print jobs from your web app, and sends raw ESC/POS commands to the printer.
How the WebSocket Bridge Works
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