v4.0

This change updates the supported PHP versions, and contains some breaking changes to improve compatibility with newer PHP installs.

Breaking changes to users who are upgrading:

• Support for PHP 7.0. 7.1 and 7.2 has been removed. PHP 7.3 or higher is required from this version.
• Source files now use declare(strict_types=1), which will cause errors for callers which are not using the correct scalar types.

Bug fixes:

• Using the GD library to load images would result in an error on PHP 8. This was due to a change to the GD interface from PHP 8.0.
• The example scripts now refer to vendor/autoload.php, so they will work if this repository is checked out and used standalone.
• PHPUnit has been updated to version 9.0.

v3.0

Breaking changes for developers who are upgrading:

• Support for PHP 5.x and HHVM has been removed. PHP 7.0 or higher is required from this version.
• The intl PHP extension is now required (see docs). This replaces the use of mbstring and iconv, which are no longer used.
• composer is now required to correctly load dependencies, where it was previously optional.
• Printer::text() will now throw an Exception if invalid UTF-8 is supplied. Use Printer::textRaw() if you are encoding text manually.
• Printer-specific sub-classes of CapabilityProfile have been removed (eg. StarCapabilityProfile). Use a named profile with CapabilityProfile::load() instead.
• The API now uses scalar and return type hinting in some places, which makes it more strict than it was previously.

New features:

• Inclusion of new printer profiles from escpos-printer-db.
• gfx-php has been added as a dependency, which allows image processing to work without gd or imagick being present in most cases.
• A new MultiplePrintConnector has been added, which allows developers to route identical print data to multiple printers simultaneously.

Experimental features:

• A new UnifontPrintBuffer, which uses glyphs from a GNU Unifont hex file as an alternative to the on-board printer fonts. See the included unifont-print-buffer.php example for usage.

Bug fixes:

• Added checks where temporary files are created, to give clearer error messages on setups where the temp directory is misconfigured, see #362

v2.2

New features:

• A RawBT connector and example

Newly tested printers:

• Bixolon SRP-350Plus
• CHD TH-305N
• Elgin i9
• Everycom EC-58
• Gainscha GP-2120TF
• SAM4S GIANT-100DB
• SEYPOS PRP-96
• Solux SX-TP-88300
• SNBC BTP-R880NPIII
• TVS RP45 Shoppe
• Zjiang ZJ-8250

v2.1

New features:

• Upside-down printing is now implemented #615
• Include updates from escpos-printer-db

Bug and code fixes:

• Modify validation code in WindowsPrintConnector for PHP 7.3 compatibility
• Add to type hints where possible, replace old usages in examples, and correctly label the namespace for some exceptions

Newly tested printers:

• OKI RT322
• ithaca ITherm 280
• Rongta RP80USE
• Sewoo SLK-TS400
• Approx APPPOS80AM
• QPOS Q58M
• HOIN HOP-H58
• Xeumior SM-8330
• Birch PRP-085III
• 3nStar RPT-008
• POSLIGNE ODP200H-III-G

v2.0.2

Bug and code fixes:

• FilePrintConnector throwing warnings if it was closed twice. #595
• Typo in Printer.php, fixed by @wavoe

New printers tested:

• Bematech LR2000E
• DR-MP200
• Partner Tech RP320
• Xprinter XP-365B
• Zjiang ZJ-8220

v2.0.1

This point release includes an updated copy of receipt-print-hq/escpos-printer-db, so that character encoding improvements are accessible on these printers:

• TM-T88IV
• TM-T88IV-SA

v2.0

You must have PHP 5.4 or HHVM 3.21 or higher to upgrade to this version.

New features:

• UriPrintConnector helper for initializing connectors based on a URI. Contributed by @evsar3 #314

Bug fixes:

• WindowsPrintConnector on Linux will now use SMB2 due to SMB3 compatibility issues affecting printing to newer Windows versions. Contributed by @1dal #488

Tested on new devices:

• Senor TP-100
• 3nStrat POS-08
• Black Copper BC-85AC
• Nyear NP100
• Star BSC10
• Sicar POS-80
• Bematech-4200-TH
• Xprinter XP-90, XP-58 Series
• Dapper-Geyi Q583P
• Epson EU-T332C

v1.6

New features:

• Release paper function for Epson TM-U295 #417
• Allow + character in passwords for Windows shared printers #392

Tested on new devices:

• Citizen CT-S310II
• Epson TM-T20II
• Epson TM-T81
• Epson TM-T88II
• Epson TM-U590 and TM-U590P
• Epson TM-U295
• Equal (EQ-IT-001) POS-58
• Metapace T-25
• Nexa PX700
• Orient BTP-R580
• Star TSP100III FuturePRNT
• XPrinter XP-Q20011
• Xprinter XP-80C

This is expected to be the final release in the 1.x series. Newer versions will drop support for some end-of-life PHP versions.

v1.5.2

This release includes the addition of a timeout parameter to NetworkPrintConnector.

Tested on new devices:

• Rongta RP58-U

v1.5.1

Changes are limited to build and documentation fixes.

Bug fixes:

• Dependency introduced in 1.5 broke installation for some users #300
• Requirement for imagick to be installed for some features was not documented #262

Tested on new devices:

• gprinter GP-U80300I
• gprinter GP-U80160I
• SPRT SP-POS88V
• Xprinter F-900