Android Badge Printing

Pieter-Jan Dries · · 6 min

In this article

Vizito prints a visitor badge automatically as soon as somebody signs in at the kiosk. This guide sets that up on an Android tablet: first switch badge printing on in the backoffice, then link the label printer over Bluetooth or WiFi.

The screenshots use a Brother QL-820NWB label printer and the Samsung Tablet A8 2022. For everything Vizito prints to, see our compatible label printers list.

Prerequisite: connect your tablet to your Vizito account first. Follow the steps on the Device activation help center page.

Only Brother printers. The Android app prints through Brother’s own printer software, and the “Search printer” step below only finds the Brother models on the compatible label printers list. A printer of another brand, however well it is paired in the tablet’s Bluetooth settings, never appears in Vizito. To use another printer, run the kiosk on a Windows PC instead: see Chrome Badge Printing.

Enable badge printing in the backoffice

  1. Go to the Vizito backoffice and select “Account settings” > “Visit types” in the left menu.

  2. Click “Edit” next to the visit type you want to print badges for.

    visit type

  3. Open the “Badge” tab and look at “Badge template” in the “Badge” section. A visit type can only print once it has a badge.

    • If it has one, you see a card with a preview of the badge, its name and its type.
    • If you see “No badge for this visit type yet”, give the visit type a badge first. Badge designer shows how. Until then the two switches in the next step stay locked.

  4. Under “Printing”, turn on “Print on sign in”, “Print from backoffice” or both.

    • Print on sign in prints a badge automatically as soon as a visitor finishes signing in on the tablet.
    • Print from backoffice lets you print and reprint badges yourself. You need this when you sign visitors in through Visitor sign in.

    enable badge printing

  5. Check “Print orientation” under “Printer”. It has to match the way your labels come out of the printer. For an HTML template, click “Landscape” or “Portrait”. For a designed badge the orientation is part of the design and shows “Set in the badge design.”: change it in the badge designer after you have saved the tab.

  6. Click “Save” at the bottom of the “Badge” tab. The print switches only take effect once you have saved.

To change what the badge looks like, click “Edit” under the badge card once you have saved the tab. Changes on the tab that you have not saved are lost when you edit the badge.

edit badge template

Which editor opens depends on the type shown on the card:

  • A “Designed badge” opens in the badge designer. See Badge designer.
  • An “HTML template” opens in the HTML editor. See HTML editor.

Both editors have their own “Save” button. Click it before you leave the editor: changes you have not saved there are lost, and “Save” on the “Badge” tab does not store them.

Click to skip to the correct section:

  1. Put your printer in close proximity to your tablet.

  2. Click on the power switch to turn the printer on.

  3. Enable Bluetooth on the printer:

    • Go to the Menu
    • Scroll through the options until you find “Bluetooth”
    • Turn Bluetooth ON

  4. Enable Bluetooth on the tablet:

    • On your tablet, go to Settings and look for Bluetooth.

    • Turn Bluetooth ON

    • Select the correct printer from the list.

      connect bluetooth

      *If you would like to know the Device name of the printer, you can search for it under the printer’s Bluetooth menu.

    • Click “Pair” to complete the device pairing

      pair request

    • The printer should now show under “Paired devices” if it is successful.

      paired device

      *If you cannot find the printer on the list of devices, try restarting the printer, then double-check that the Bluetooth option is ON in the printer settings.

  5. Open the Vizito app on your device. You should see a “Choose printer” window prompt. If you do not see this prompt, click on “Sign In” and then “Back” to refresh the Vizito app.

    choose printer

  6. Click on “Search printer”

    search printer

  7. The printer should be visible as an option under Bluetooth printers. Click on “Set printer to _______”.

    set printer

  8. Test the printer. In the backoffice, open the “Badge” tab of the visit type and click “Test print via kiosk” under the badge card: Vizito sends a badge with sample visitor details to a kiosk that has a printer selected, and tells you which printer it used. You can also do a test sign in on the tablet. With “Print on sign in” turned on, the badge prints automatically.

  9. Adjust the badge if it does not print the way you want. It can take some trial and error depending on your printer and label size. Change a designed badge in the Badge designer, and an HTML template as described in HTML editor.

Note: the Bluetooth connection drops when either the tablet or the printer is turned off, so re-connect the printer after either one has been off.

Note: most label printers accept one connection at a time, so an error while pairing usually means another device is still connected to the printer. Turn that device off, or disconnect the printer from it, and pair again. Once a kiosk has selected a printer, that printer is also listed under “Printers” at the bottom of the Devices page in the backoffice, where you can clear it, confirm with “Yes” and click “Save”. Before any kiosk has selected a printer that section is empty and only explains how to add one, so there is nothing to clear there yet.

  1. Put your printer in close proximity to your tablet.

  2. Click on the power switch to turn the printer on.

  3. Connect the printer to your WiFi network.

  4. Open the Vizito app on your device. You should see a “Choose printer” window prompt. If you do not see this prompt, click on “Sign In” and then “Back” to refresh the Vizito app.

    choose printer

  5. Click on “Search printer”.

    search printer

  6. Select the correct printer from the list.

    set wifi printer

  7. Test the printer. In the backoffice, open the “Badge” tab of the visit type and click “Test print via kiosk” under the badge card: Vizito sends a badge with sample visitor details to a kiosk that has a printer selected, and tells you which printer it used. You can also do a test sign in on the tablet. With “Print on sign in” turned on, the badge prints automatically.

  8. Adjust the badge if it does not print the way you want. It can take some trial and error depending on your printer and label size. Change a designed badge in the Badge designer, and an HTML template as described in HTML editor.

Check the printer in the backoffice

Once a kiosk has selected a printer, it is listed under “Printers” at the bottom of the Devices page in the backoffice. While that section is still empty it tells you what is missing: printing has to be enabled and a badge template defined before you can select the printer in the Vizito app on the tablet.