POS Printing Service — Overview

What Is the POS Printing Service?

The POS Printing Service lets you print labels directly from Galley to thermal receipt printers in your kitchen, prep area, or anywhere else in your operation. Whether you need to label prepped ingredients, tag menu items with dates and quantities, or print recipe labels during production, the POS Printing Service handles it all without leaving the Galley platform.

Instead of manually writing labels or switching between applications, you can print with a single click right from the recipe, menu item, or ingredient page you are already working in. Labels are fully customizable, so you control exactly what information appears — recipe name, date prepared, expiration date, quantity, allergens, and more.

Types of Printing Supported

Galley supports two types of printing services, each suited to different needs:

POS Thermal Printing

POS Thermal printing uses standard thermal receipt printers — the same kind you see printing kitchen tickets and receipts in restaurants. These printers use heat-sensitive paper and produce labels quickly and affordably. They are ideal for day-to-day kitchen labeling tasks like date marking, ingredient identification, and prep tracking.

POS Thermal printers connect to Galley through Epson ePOS Cloud (also called Server Direct Print). Your printer connects to the internet and automatically polls Galley for new print jobs, so you can send labels from anywhere — whether you are on-site or managing operations remotely.

NiceLabel Cloud Printing

NiceLabel Cloud printing is designed for operations that need professional-grade labels — think branded packaging labels, nutrition fact panels, or barcode labels on custom die-cut stock. NiceLabel printers connect through the NiceLabel Cloud service and use pre-designed label templates created in the NiceLabel Designer application.

If your labeling needs are primarily for kitchen prep, date marking, and daily operations, POS Thermal printing is the right choice. If you need polished, customer-facing labels with logos and complex layouts, NiceLabel Cloud is the way to go. Many operations use both.

What Can You Print?

The POS Printing Service supports printing labels for several types of items in Galley:

• Recipe Labels — Print labels for any recipe in your system. Labels can include the recipe name, prep date, expiration date, quantity, batch number, storage instructions, and more.
• Menu Item Labels — Print labels for items on your menus. Useful for labeling plated items, grab-and-go products, or buffet stations.
• Ingredient Labels — Print labels for individual ingredients, helpful for receiving, storage, and inventory management.

Each label type uses customizable templates, so you decide exactly what information appears on the printed label. You can create multiple templates for different use cases — for example, a simple date label for prep and a detailed label with allergens for customer-facing items.

How Printing Fits Into Your Daily Workflow

Printing is integrated directly into the pages you already use in Galley. There is no separate printing application to open or switch to. Here is how it works in practice:

1. Navigate to any recipe, menu item, or ingredient page in Galley.
2. Click the Print button on the page.
3. Select your printing service, template, printer, and quantity — or use a Print Trigger to skip this step entirely with a one-click preset.
4. Galley sends the print job to your printer. The label prints within seconds.

You can also print in bulk from menu pages, sending labels for multiple menu items to the printer in a single batch. The Print Jobs page lets you track the status and history of everything you have printed.

Key Concepts at a Glance

Before diving into setup and configuration, here are the core concepts you will encounter when working with the POS Printing Service:

Printing Services

A Printing Service is a configured connection between Galley and your printing setup. Think of it as the container that holds your printers, templates, and settings. Most operations will have one POS Printing Service, but you can create multiple if needed (for example, separate services for different facilities).

Each printing service has its own default settings for things like print timeout, retry behavior, paper width, and character encoding.

Printers

Printers are the physical thermal printers connected to your Galley account. Each printer belongs to a printing service and can be assigned to a specific location in your organization.

Printers connect to Galley through Epson ePOS Cloud (Server Direct Print). Your printer connects to the internet and periodically polls Galley for new print jobs. When a job is waiting, the printer downloads and prints it automatically. This cloud-based approach means the printer does not need to be on the same network as the person sending the print job — it works across locations, remote sites, and anywhere with internet access.

Galley tracks each printer’s status, including whether it is online, has paper, and has its cover closed.

Templates

Templates define what your printed labels look like. Each template is a customizable layout that specifies the content, formatting, and arrangement of information on the label.

Templates use variables — placeholders that are automatically filled in with real data when you print. For example, a template might include variables for RECIPE_NAME, PRODUCED_DATE, EXPIRATION_DATE, and QUANTITY. When you print a label for a specific recipe, Galley fills in those variables with the actual values.

You can create templates for different label types (recipe, menu item, ingredient) and include elements like text, barcodes, QR codes, and images. Galley also provides a library of global templates you can use as starting points.

Print Triggers

Print Triggers are one-click preset configurations that make printing fast and consistent. Instead of selecting a service, template, printer, and quantity every time you print, you create a trigger that pre-configures all of those choices.

Triggers can be set up to:

• Always use a specific printer or the primary printer at a location
• Auto-fill the date or prompt the user to enter one
• Use a fixed quantity, the recipe’s yield, or ask the user each time
• Apply to all recipes (general) or just a specific recipe

Triggers are available directly on recipe pages, so your team can print labels with a single click.

Print Jobs

Every time you print, Galley creates a Print Job to track the request from start to finish. The Print Jobs page shows you the complete history of your printing activity, including:

• Which labels were printed and for which recipes or menu items
• Who sent the print job
• The current status (queued, in progress, printing, done, or error)
• When the job was created and last updated

This makes it easy to verify that labels were printed, troubleshoot issues, and maintain an audit trail of your labeling activity.

Transaction Console

The Transaction Console is a real-time debugging dashboard for your printers. It shows a detailed log of every interaction between Galley and your printers, including job events, status polls, and cloud protocol messages.

The Transaction Console is especially useful when:

• A print job is not reaching the printer and you need to see where it got stuck
• You want to verify that a cloud printer is actively polling and connected
• You need to diagnose paper, cover, or connectivity issues

Think of it as the “activity monitor” for your printing setup. For most day-to-day printing, you will not need it — but when something goes wrong, it is the first place to look.

How Cloud Printing Works

Galley uses a cloud printing model powered by Epson ePOS Cloud (Server Direct Print). Here is how the process works:

1. You configure your Epson printer to poll a unique Galley URL — this is a one-time setup done through the printer’s built-in web settings page (called TM-i Settings).
2. Once configured, the printer automatically connects to Galley over the internet at regular intervals (typically every few seconds) to check for new print jobs.
3. When you send a print job from Galley, it is queued on the Galley server.
4. On its next poll, the printer picks up the job, downloads the print data, and prints the label.
5. The printer also reports its status back to Galley (online, paper level, cover status), so you always know the current state of your printers.

Because the printer communicates with Galley over the internet, it does not matter where the printer is physically located. As long as it has an internet connection, it can receive print jobs from any Galley user in your organization — whether they are standing next to the printer or managing operations from a different city.

Supported Printer Brands and Models

The initial release of the POS Printing Service supports Epson thermal receipt printers with ePOS Cloud (Server Direct Print) capability:

• Epson TM-T88VII — Industry-standard kitchen receipt printer with built-in ePOS Cloud support.
• Epson TM-m30III — Compact thermal printer with ePOS Cloud support and linerless label compatibility, ideal for smaller spaces.
• Epson TM-L100 — Thermal label printer with ePOS Cloud support and linerless label compatibility, ideal for kitchen and prep labeling..
• Other Epson models that support Server Direct Print (SDP) — Check your printer’s specifications or TM-i Settings page for Server Direct Print capability.

When you add a printer in Galley, select your model from the dropdown and Galley automatically applies the correct default settings (paper width, encoding, resolution) for your hardware.

What’s Next

Now that you have an overview of the POS Printing Service, here are the next articles in this series to help you get set up and printing:

1. Getting Started with POS Printing — Step-by-step guide to creating your first printing service, adding your first printer, and configuring your Epson printer for cloud printing.
2. Adding and Managing Printers — How to add, configure, and organize your printers by location.
3. Cloud Printers — Epson ePOS Cloud Setup — Detailed setup guide for cloud-connected Epson printers.
4. Creating and Managing Print Templates — Design custom label templates with the visual template editor.
5. Print Triggers — One-Click Printing Setup — Create preset configurations for fast, consistent printing.
6. Printing from Recipes, Menu Items, and Ingredients — How to print labels from the pages you use every day.
7. Print Jobs — Monitoring Your Print History — Track and manage your print job history.
8. Transaction Console — Debugging Print Issues — Use the real-time transaction log to diagnose printer problems.
9. Troubleshooting Common Printing Issues — Solutions for the most common printing problems.