Citizen makes several kinds of thermal receipt printers. They are best known for their quality, and efficiency in printing out receipts. Citizen receipt printers have a long life expectancy making it less costly over time and are one of the best manufacturers of receipt printers. They are composed of a thermal head to heat up the thermo-sensitive paper, a roller to feed paper into the Citizen thermal printer, a spring to push down on the thermal head, and a circuit board which contains the outputs and controls the machine.

The Citizen CT-S310 is a thermal receipt printer by Citizen which costs around $300 to buy for a new machine. A used or refurbished Citizen CT-S310 typically costs around $230 to purchase. It is possible to use it with a serial port interface, USB, parallel ports, and through 100 Mbps Ethernet, which gives you more options on which one you may want to use. It prints at a rate of 5.9 inches every second and is a high-resolution receipt printer at 230 DPI, fairly high for a thermal receipt printer. It has a long lifespan, as it can print approximately 62.13 miles before the receipt printer fails.

There is a cheaper alternative to the CT-S310, the two color CT-S300 only costs around $200 for a new one and $150 for a refurbished machine. It can be connected to your computer three ways: via USB, serial, and parallel ports. The CT-S300 is a little slower than the CT-S310, as it prints at 3.93 inches every second. It is also very portable and lightweight to carry around, the CT-S300 only weighs 2 and a half pounds. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative to the CT-S310, the CT-S300 is the way to go.

Another Citizen thermal receipt printer, the CMB1000II is a robust receipt printer that is spill resistant and easy to setup up with drop and load paper, built-in flash memory, and a user-replaceable interface board. It is only a little more expensive than the CT-S310, at the price of $310 for a new machine and $260 for a used one. It supports the serial, parallel, Ethernet, and USB interfaces and prints at the rate of 5.9 inches every second. The CMB1000II weighs 4.5 pounds, and is slightly bulkier than the CT-S300 and CT-S310, as it accommodates more features into the receipt printer. All of these Citizen receipt printers are good buys, they have long-term reliability, efficiency, and are cheap for many business owners.