Printing and thank you

After the customer pays (or skips the payment screen in Free Play), the booth queues the print job and shows a printing screen while the photos come out. Then a thank you screen, then back to the welcome screen ready for the next customer.

Who this is for: Operators who want to know what's happening during the print phase and how to handle print problems.

The print thank-you screen

Right after payment, the customer sees a "printing your photos" screen. It shows:

• A friendly message ("Printing your photos!" or similar)
• An estimated time for the print
• An animated print progress indicator (a bar or counter)
• The customer's order summary
• A picture of the printer or pick-up icon

In the background, BoothIQ:

• Sends the print job to the printer
• Retries up to 3 times with 3-second delays if the printer hiccups
• Handles the original print and any cross-sell print in parallel
• Sends both jobs as separate prints

The customer doesn't have to wait for the printer to be finished. The booth uses a fire-and-forget pattern. After about 30 seconds the screen advances to the thank-you screen even if printing is still in progress, so the customer can move on while the printer catches up.

The thank you screen

A short, celebratory final screen with:

• A "Thank you!" message
• An invitation to come back
• Maybe your business logo
• An automatic return to the welcome screen after a few seconds

This is the customer's cue to walk around to the printer and pick up their photos.

What happens at the printer

The DNP DS-RX1hs prints borderless prints in a few seconds each. The customer sees the print(s) eject from the printer slot and can pick them up.

For multi-copy orders, all copies print one after another. For cross-sells, both products print sequentially (e.g. strips first, then 4×6).

After the customer leaves

The booth automatically:

1. Returns to the welcome screen ready for the next customer
2. Records the transaction in the Sales table (visible in the Sales & Analytics tab afterwards)
3. Updates the credit balance (deducting the spent credits)
4. (If cloud sync is enabled) Pushes the transaction to the cloud queue

What you control

You don't control much about this phase. It's mostly automated. What you can do:

• Monitor the Print Supply card in the Sales & Analytics tab to know when to swap rolls (see Sales tab (coming soon))
• Keep the printer service door accessible for emergency intervention
• Train customers to not block the printer slot

What can go wrong during printing

Printer jams

The booth stops the print job and shows a hardware error or out-of-order screen. The customer's session has already deducted credits, so:

1. Open the printer service door and clear the jam (see your printer manual)
2. Power-cycle the printer if needed
3. Wait for the Printer pill in admin to go green
4. Manually add credits to comp the failed session if appropriate (see Credits tab (coming soon))

Out of paper

The printer reports "out of media" and stops. Same recovery: change the roll (see Changing the print roll (coming soon)), and comp the customer if needed.

Printer goes offline mid-print

A USB or power blip can cause this. Power-cycle the printer, wait for it to come back online (Printer pill turns green), and the queued print should retry automatically thanks to the 3-retry logic.

Print comes out blank or with wrong colors

The dye-sub ribbon may be misaligned or the media may be defective. Open the printer, reseat the ribbon and paper, and run a test print from the Diagnostics tab to confirm before letting more customers run sessions.

For deeper troubleshooting, see Printer issues (coming soon).

What to tell customers

• "Your photos are printing! Walk around to the printer slot to pick them up."
• "It only takes a few seconds. They'll come out warm to the touch."
• "Be careful, the prints are dye-sub. They're durable but sticky if you handle them right after printing."

If a print comes out badly:

• "Sorry about that. Let me give you a free retry. Just walk around to the screen and start a new session, the booth has been credited."

Common operator questions

Customer says they didn't get all their copies.

Check the order summary on the print thank-you screen (or in the Sales tab afterwards). If they ordered 3 and got 2, the printer probably failed mid-job. Comp them another print.

The booth went back to the welcome screen but printing isn't done yet.

Normal. BoothIQ uses a fire-and-forget print pattern so the booth can serve the next customer while the printer is still working on the previous one. The customer can still pick up their print when it finishes.

Print supply bar in admin shows the wrong number.

The bar is calculated from the printer's reported media level. If it's off, the printer's internal counter may be confused. Change the roll and the counter resets.

Two customers' prints came out at the same time and got mixed up.

Print jobs are sequential, so this shouldn't happen. But if your printer queue is configured differently, it might. Tell customers to check who's holding which print before they walk away.

Next steps

• Phone upload feature. The alternative flow for Smartphone Print.
• Maintenance › Changing the print roll (coming soon). When the bar gets low.
• Sales tab (coming soon). Where you'll see the completed transaction.