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Printers & the Print Bridge

Print receipts, kitchen and bar tickets, and open the cash drawer from a printer in your shop. Download the print bridge for Mac or Windows, pair it with a token, and choose what each printer prints.

The Print Bridge is a small program you run on the computer your printer is plugged into. Qvian runs in the cloud and cannot reach a printer sitting in your shop, so the bridge connects outward to Qvian and passes print jobs the last step — receipts, kitchen tickets, and the cash drawer. You only need it if your printer is connected to a till rather than to Qvian's own server.

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Why it is needed

Your printer is in your shop. Qvian runs on a server somewhere else. Nothing on the internet can dial into a printer on your counter — that is true whether the printer is plugged in by USB or sitting on your own Wi-Fi, and it is a good thing, because it is what stops strangers printing on it.

The bridge solves it from the inside. It runs on your till and opens a connection outward to Qvian, the same way a browser does. Qvian sends print jobs down that connection and the bridge hands them to the printer. No router changes, no port forwarding, no fixed IP.

One bridge serves every printer at that location — counter, kitchen, and bar.

You may not need this at all

If your receipts already print the way you want, leave this alone. Qvian falls back to your browser's normal print dialog whenever no printer is reachable, and that keeps working. The bridge is for printing straight to a thermal printer without a dialog, and for opening a cash drawer — which a browser cannot do.

Download

One file, nothing to install. Run it on the computer your printer is plugged into — not on any other machine.

Setting it up

How to Connect a Print Bridge (set up print bridge, install print agent, connect printer to cloud)

Do this on the computer the printer is plugged into, not on any other machine.

Required permission: Business unit settings

  1. In Qvian, go to Settings → Printing
  2. Under Print bridge, choose Pair a bridge
  3. Copy the pairing code it shows — it appears once and cannot be shown again
  4. Download the file above and put it in a folder of its own
  5. Double-click it. The first time, your computer warns that it does not recognise the program — see below
  6. On Windows, click More info, then Run anyway. On a Mac, open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the bottom, click Open Anyway, then double-click the file again
  7. It asks for the pairing code — paste it in
  8. Press Enter twice to accept the suggested name and address

Result: It says Saved, then lists the printers it can see and shows Paired. Back in Qvian, the bridge shows as Connected now.

Note: It only asks once. After that it connects straight away every time you run it.

Your computer blocks it the first time — this is expected

Both Windows and macOS warn about programs their makers have not countersigned, and we have not put the bridge through that step yet. It is not a sign that anything is wrong with the download. On Windows the message is Windows protected your PC — click More info, then Run anyway. On a Mac it says macOS cannot verify the app is free of malware — use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. Either way you only do it once for that file. If you would rather not click past a security warning, ask us and we will set the till up with you.

It saves your answers in a file called config.json next to the program. You do not need to touch that file — but if you ever want to move the bridge to a different till, copy it across, or delete it to start the setup again.

Keep it running

The bridge only works while it is running. Set it to start automatically when the computer turns on, or someone will have to remember to launch it every morning — and the first sign that nobody did will be a receipt that does not print.

Pointing Qvian at your printer

How to Add a Printer That Uses the Bridge (add usb printer, add network printer, configure receipt printer)

With the bridge running, Qvian can see the printers on that machine.

Required permission: Business unit settings

  1. Go to Settings → Printing
  2. Choose Add printer
  3. For a printer plugged in by USB, choose USB and pick it from the list
  4. For a printer on your network, choose Network and enter its IP address
  5. Give it a name you will recognise, like *Front Counter* or *Kitchen*
  6. Save, then use Test on that row

Result: A test page prints. The printer now appears in the Prints column showing what it is used for.

Note: A printer with nothing routed to it shows an amber Nothing routed here chip — that is a reminder, not an error.

Once a printer exists you can decide what comes out of it on the same page: the customer receipt, each kitchen or bar station's tickets, and which printer the cash drawer is cabled to. See Registers & Reconciliation for how the drawer fits into the day's cash.

Common questions

Do I need the print bridge?

Fix: Only if you want printing without a browser dialog, or you want the cash drawer to open. If your printer is plugged into the same computer Qvian runs on — which is unusual — you do not need it. Everyone using Qvian in the cloud with a printer in the shop does.

Does my printer need to be on the network?

Fix: No. A USB printer works, as long as the bridge runs on the computer it is plugged into. The bridge hands the job to that computer’s own print queue.

What happens if the bridge is not running?

Fix: Receipts fall back to your browser’s print dialog, so you can still give a customer their bill. The cash drawer will not open, because opening a drawer means sending a command to the printer directly.

Can one bridge serve several printers?

Fix: Yes. One bridge per location serves the counter, the kitchen and the bar. You do not need one per printer.

Is it safe to leave running?

Fix: It only makes an outward connection to Qvian and only accepts print jobs for your own business unit. It does not open any port on your computer and nothing can connect in to it.

The cash drawer does not open, but receipts print

Fix: The drawer opens through the printer it is cabled to, so check that the correct printer is chosen under Cash drawer in Settings → Printing. Some drawers also need a longer pulse than the default — raise the pulse width on that page to 300ms and try again.