Thermal receipt printers are capable of printing only on thermally treated (heat sensitive) paper. Thermal paper receipts are susceptible to the background going dark grey if the paper is exposed to heat or strong direct sunlight and will be easily marked if the paper surface is rubbed with, say, a fingernail. Some thermal receipt printers can print in two colours if you use special thermal paper that reacts to different print-head temperatures to produce different colours, such as black/red, black/green or black/blue. However, this special thermal paper is very expensive compared to thermal paper that only reacts by creating black print. If you wish to use two colours (or more) on your receipts, perhaps you should consider an ink-jet receipt printer.

Impact receipt printers are capable of printing "carbon" copies of documents using special NCR (no carbon required) papers. If you need more than one copy of a document (such as a receipt), you will need an Impact printer.

Ink-jet receipt printers are capable of printing in multiple colours, the advantage over thermal printers being that the non-black ink is only consumed when printing those parts of the receipt that needs to be highlighted in colour.

Receipt and Journal receipt printers are capable of printing a receipt for the customer, plus, they print onto a separate paper roll to provide you with a printed journal of all receipts.

Receipt and Slip receipt printers are capable of printing a receipt for the customer, plus, they can print onto a separate sheet of paper (a slip).