80mm for counters, 58mm for mobile. The width is fixed by the printer, so it commits you to a roll size for the machine's life — which makes it the one specification worth thinking about carefully before buying rather than after.
What the numbers mean
The figure is the paper's width in millimetres. An 80mm printer cannot take 58mm rolls usefully — the paper wanders, tears and misfeeds — and 80mm paper simply will not fit a 58mm mechanism.
80mm
The counter standard for shops, restaurants, pharmacies and supermarkets.
- More characters per line — full product names print without truncation, which matters when customers check receipts against items.
- Room for a logo and a readable header with your address and tax details.
- Shorter receipts — more content per line means fewer lines, which partly offsets the wider paper.
- Widely stocked in Egypt, so you are never stuck for a roll.
58mm
Narrow, light and cheap to run. It suits mobile and space-constrained use.
- Handheld and Bluetooth printers — delivery, field invoicing, market stalls.
- Ticketing and queue numbers, where content is a few lines.
- Lower roll cost and a much smaller printer footprint.
Its limitation is line length. On a receipt with many items and long Arabic or English product names, text wraps or truncates, and a long receipt is harder for a customer to check than a wide one.
Roll diameter, the specification people forget
Width is not the whole story. Rolls also vary in outside diameter, and a printer's paper compartment has a maximum it will physically close over.
A larger-diameter roll holds more paper and is changed less often — genuinely useful in a busy shop — but only if it fits. Check the printer's stated maximum diameter, not only the width, especially when switching supplier.
Running cost in practice
The honest comparison is cost per receipt, not cost per roll. An 80mm roll costs more but fits more content per line and often per metre of paper, so the gap narrows considerably once you account for receipt length.
Where 58mm genuinely wins on cost is short receipts: tickets, queue numbers, single-item sales.
Don't mix widths across a business
Running both widths means two stock lines, two reorder points, and staff loading the wrong roll into the wrong machine. Where you need both — a counter printer and a delivery printer — keep them physically separated and label the storage.
Paper quality applies to both
Whichever width you choose, buy consistently. Poor-grade thermal paper prints faintly, fades within weeks, and leaves residue that wears the print head early. The saving per roll is trivial next to a print head.
See 80mm printers, 58mm printers and the full Xprinter range.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use 58mm paper in an 80mm printer?
Not reliably. The paper wanders and misfeeds. Use the width the printer is built for.
Which is cheaper to run?
58mm per roll, but per receipt the gap is smaller because 80mm fits more per line.
Does width affect print quality?
No. Quality comes from the print head and the paper grade.