---
title: "Network Delivery"
description: "Network Delivery"
type: "docs"
category: "doc"
tags: []
authors: [Anonymous]
date: "2026-09-09"
last_update: "2026-09-09"
time_minutes: 2
draft: false
unlisted: false
url: "https://www.derafu.dev/docs/utils/escpos/network-delivery"
---

# Network Delivery

`EscposPrinter::end()`/`dump()` return a plain string of ESC/POS bytes. What to do with that string — save it to a file, return it from an API, or send it to a real printer — is up to you, using whatever your application already uses for that (file writes, HTTP responses, etc.). This package does not wrap trivial I/O like `file_put_contents()`.

Delivering bytes to a network thermal printer over TCP is a different matter: it needs connection timeout handling and clear error reporting, which is easy to get subtly wrong by hand (and it is the standard delivery mechanism for ESC/POS printers, not a generic file/API concern). `Derafu\Escpos\Transport\NetworkTransport` covers exactly that, with plain PHP streams — it has no dependency on `mike42/escpos-php` or any other ESC/POS library.

```php
use Derafu\Escpos\Transport\NetworkTransport;

$escposData = $printer->end();

(new NetworkTransport())->send($escposData, '172.16.1.5');
// Port defaults to NetworkTransport::DEFAULT_PORT (9100, the de facto
// standard raw ESC/POS printing port). Pass a third argument to override
// it, and a fourth to change the connection timeout (default 5 seconds).
```

If the connection fails, or not all bytes could be delivered, it throws `Derafu\Escpos\Exception\NetworkDeliveryException` with the real connection error — never a silently swallowed failure.

```php
use Derafu\Escpos\Exception\NetworkDeliveryException;
use Derafu\Escpos\Transport\NetworkTransport;

try {
    (new NetworkTransport())->send($escposData, '172.16.1.5');
} catch (NetworkDeliveryException $e) {
    // $e->getMessage() includes the host, port, and the underlying error.
}
```

## `bin/print.php`

The repository also has `bin/print.php`, a thin CLI wrapper around `NetworkTransport` used to quickly validate ESC/POS output against a real printer during development:

```shell
bin/print.php 172.16.1.5:9100 ticket.escpos
cat ticket.escpos | bin/print.php 172.16.1.5
php examples/full-example.php | bin/print.php 172.16.1.5
```

This is an internal development tool, not part of the package's public API: it is not registered as a Composer binary, so it will not appear in `vendor/bin/` when you require this package. It still physically exists inside the installed package, at `vendor/derafu/escpos/bin/print.php`, so it can be run from there if you know the path — but it is not documented or supported as something to build on. Use `NetworkTransport` directly in your own code instead.



---
Last updated on 09/09/2026