🖨️ ESC/POS Virtual Printer Emulator

ESC/POS virtual printer emulator built in Rust
Transform your computer into a virtual receipt printer for testing and development

Supported Paper Widths

Width	Characters	Dots	Use Case
50mm	48 chars	384 dots	Small receipts, tickets
78mm	72 chars	576 dots	Standard receipts
80mm	80 chars	640 dots	Large receipts, invoices

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Rust 1.70+ - Install Rust
• Windows 10/11 or Linux with CUPS
• Administrator privileges (for printer installation)

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/escpos-virtual-printer-emulator.git
   cd escpos-virtual-printer-emulator

2. Build the project

   cargo build --release

3. Run the emulator

   cargo run --release

4. Install virtual printer

   • Go to Settings tab
   • Click "🖨️ Install Windows Printer" (requires admin)
   • The printer will appear in Windows "Devices and Printers"

Basic Usage

1. Start the emulator - The GUI will open with the server running on port 9100
2. Install the printer - Use the Settings tab to install the virtual printer
3. Print from any application - Select "ESC_POS_Virtual_Printer" as your printer
4. View results - Check the Receipt tab for live preview

ESC/POS Commands Supported

Command	Description	Example
ESC @	Initialize printer	\x1B@
ESC M n	Select font	\x1BM0 (Font A)
ESC a n	Justification	\x1Ba1 (Center)
ESC E	Emphasis (Bold)	\x1BE
ESC - n	Underline	\x1B-1
ESC 4	Italic	\x1B4
ESC 3 n	Line height	\x1B324
ESC ! n	Font size	\x1B!16
ESC m	Cut paper	\x1Bm

Development

Project Structure

escpos_emulator/
├── src/
│   ├── main.rs              # Application entry point
│   ├── lib.rs               # Library exports
│   ├── escpos/              # ESC/POS command handling
│   │   ├── commands.rs      # Command definitions
│   │   ├── parser.rs        # Command parsing
│   │   └── printer.rs       # Printer state management
│   ├── emulator/            # Core emulator logic
│   │   └── mod.rs           # Emulator state
│   ├── networking/          # Network server
│   │   └── server.rs        # TCP server implementation
│   └── gui/                 # User interface
│       ├── app.rs           # Main application
│       ├── receipt_viewer.rs # Receipt display
│       ├── command_log.rs   # Command monitoring
│       └── settings_panel.rs # Settings and printer management
├── Cargo.toml               # Project configuration
└── README.md                # This file

Building

# Development build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Check code
cargo check

Dependencies

• eframe/egui - Modern GUI framework
• tokio - Async runtime and networking
• serde - Serialization/deserialization
• image - Image processing
• tracing - Structured logging
• anyhow/thiserror - Error handling

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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