Hardware setup
This article is a complete walkthrough for connecting an onsite badge printer to Greet: pull dedicated PrintNode credentials, install the client on your onsite laptop, add the printer at the OS level, and print your first test badge.
✓Before you start
Have these five things ready before you touch a single setting. Skipping the driver is the single biggest reason printer setups stall.
- The onsite laptop. Install everything on the exact machine that will run printing at the event, not a different one. PrintNode ties a printer to the device it's installed on.
- Your badge printer, powered on and connected to the same network the onsite laptop will use during the event.
- The printer driver, from the disc that shipped with the printer or downloaded from your printer's site (zebra.com/support for Zebra). Don't skip it. A printer added without a driver won't print and won't show up in PrintNode.
- Admin access on the laptop, to install PrintNode and add a printer at the operating-system level.
- Access to Greet with permission to view Printer Settings.
iHow printing works
Greet sends every print job to the cloud from whatever device your team is checking people in with, iPads included. The PrintNode client on your onsite laptop picks up those jobs automatically and routes them to your badge printer on the local network.
Keep PrintNode running on the laptop, and keep the laptop and printer on the same network. Do both and printing runs smoothly through the whole event.
1Get your PrintNode credentials from Greet
Sign in to Greet and go to Printer Settings. This is where you manage printers and cloud printing for the account.
Scroll to the PrintNode Cloud Printing section. If you haven't set up cloud printing yet, you'll see a message that it's unavailable. Click Set up dedicated account. Greet provisions a fresh, isolated PrintNode account in a few seconds.
Once the account is active, a Client connection credentials panel appears. Click Show credentials on the right side of that panel.
Three fields appear: Email, Password, and API key. Copy the email and password with the small copy icon next to each field, then paste them into a password manager (1Password, LastPass, Bitwarden) or your own secure notes. Treat them like any other login: don't send them over unencrypted email or paste them into a public chat.
You only need the Email and Password for this setup. The API key is for advanced integrations and isn't required for the standard onsite flow.
2Install PrintNode on the onsite laptop
PrintNode is a small desktop app that connects your laptop to the PrintNode cloud. Greet sends print jobs to that cloud, and PrintNode routes them to your printer. On the onsite laptop, open a browser and go to printnode.com/en/download.
Pick the download that matches your laptop:
-
Windows 10 or 11: the PrintNode
.exefile (the one with a Windows logo). -
Mac, Apple Silicon (M1–M4) on Sonoma, Sequoia, or Tahoe: the
.dmglisted under "For Apple Silicon." -
Mac, Intel chip, or Apple Silicon on Big Sur, Monterey, or Ventura: the
.dmglisted under "For Intel / Apple Silicon with Rosetta."
Not sure which Mac you have? Click the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, and check the Chip line.
On macOS: double-click the .dmg to open it, then drag the PrintNode icon into your Applications folder. Open Applications, right-click PrintNode, and choose Open the first time, so macOS lets it run.
On Windows: double-click the .exe file. If Windows shows a "protect your PC" warning, click More info, then Run anyway. Follow the installer through to the end.
3Sign in to PrintNode
Open the PrintNode client. macOS: click the small cloud icon in the menu bar, then click Open PrintNode. Windows: find it in the system tray next to the clock (click the up arrow if it's hidden), then right-click and choose Open.
Click Open PrintNode.
In the sign-in window, paste the Email into the Username field and the Password into the Password field, using what you copied from Greet in the previous section.
Click Sign In.
Once you're signed in, the client shows tabs like Printers, Print jobs, and Account. The Printers tab is empty right now, and that's expected: you haven't added a printer to the laptop yet.
4Add your printer to the onsite laptop
This is the step that trips people up most often. The printer has to be added to the laptop through the operating system, with a real driver selected. Once it's added at the OS level with a working driver, PrintNode picks it up automatically and Greet becomes able to see it.
A printer added without a driver looks like it worked but won't actually print, and it won't appear in the PrintNode client. If a vendor shipped a driver disc, use it. Otherwise, download the driver for your exact model (zebra.com/support for Zebra) before you continue.
Steps differ slightly by operating system. Use the section below that matches your onsite laptop.
Click the Apple menu, choose System Settings (System Preferences on older macOS), then click Printers & Scanners in the sidebar.
Click Add Printer, Scanner, or Fax (or the plus icon on older macOS). A window opens showing printers macOS can see on your network or by USB.
USB printers appear right away. A network printer can take a few seconds to show up, then click on it.
If your printer doesn't appear, click the IP tab, enter the printer's IP address (Choose2Rent or your IT team can provide it), leave the protocol as "Line Printer Daemon (LPD)" or "HP Jetdirect – Socket" (whichever the printer recommends), and give it a name.
Choose the driver. Check the Use dropdown at the bottom of the window:
- Shows the exact model (for example, "Zebra ZD421")? You're set.
- Shows "Generic PostScript Printer" or "Generic PCL"? Open the dropdown, choose Select Software, and search for your exact model.
- Model isn't listed? Install the driver from the disc or zebra.com/support first, then re-run Add Printer.
Don't proceed without a real driver. It's the single most common cause of "the printer looked installed but doesn't print."
Click Add. macOS installs the driver and adds the printer to your list.
Click the new printer in the list, then click Options & Supplies → Utility (or Print Test Page) to send a test page. Confirm a physical page prints.
Open Printers & scanners.
- Windows 11: Start → Settings → Bluetooth & devices → Printers & scanners.
- Windows 10: Start → Settings → Devices → Printers & scanners.
- Shortcut on either version: press Windows + I.
Click Add device (Windows 11) or Add a printer or scanner (Windows 10). Windows scans for a few seconds. If your printer appears, click Add device next to it. If Windows already has a driver, it installs automatically and you can skip to step 5.
If it doesn't appear, click Add manually (Windows 11) or "The printer that I want isn't listed" (Windows 10), then choose "Add a Bluetooth, wireless or network discoverable printer" for Wi-Fi or Ethernet printers, or "Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings" if you know the IP address (pick TCP/IP Device as the port type).
If the driver disc is inserted, or the driver installer already ran on this laptop, Windows finds it automatically. Click Next.
Already downloaded the driver? Click Have Disk, browse to where you saved it, select the .inf file, and click OK.
Neither available? Look for a generic ZPL or ZDesigner driver under Zebra Technologies in the manufacturer list, as a last resort. Model-specific drivers always work better.
Never leave the driver as "unspecified" or skip past this screen. If you do, the printer will look installed but won't print, and it won't show up in PrintNode.
Once the driver installs, click the printer in your list, click Manage, then Print a test page. Confirm a physical page prints.
If the test page fails: check, in order, that the printer is powered on, that it's on the same network as the laptop (or plugged in by USB), and that Windows shows "Ready" rather than "Offline" or "Paused." Nine times out of ten, it's one of these three.
5Confirm the printer shows in Greet and print a test badge
Check that PrintNode sees the printer. Back in the PrintNode client, click the Printers tab. Your printer should be listed with a green Online status. If it isn't, quit PrintNode from the menu bar or system tray and reopen it to force a refresh.
Refresh Printer Settings in Greet. Go back to Printer Settings in your Greet account and click Refresh in the PrintNode Cloud Printing section. You should see your printer listed as Online, along with the computer name and Printer ID.
Print a test badge. Open the event you're testing with and go into the staff interface, the attendee list your team uses at check-in. Next to the blue Add Attendee button, click Select Printer, then Cloud. Your printer should appear in that list. Select it, open any attendee record, and print a test badge.
A physical badge printing means the full chain works end to end: Greet in the cloud, PrintNode on the laptop, and the printer on the local network. Printing at your event runs exactly the same way, just carried onsite.
?Troubleshooting
The printer doesn't appear in the PrintNode client
- Confirm the printer is added to the laptop at the OS level (Printers & Scanners on Mac, Printers & scanners on Windows) with a real driver selected, not left unspecified.
- Print a test page from the OS itself. If the OS can't print, PrintNode won't see the printer either.
- Quit PrintNode from the menu bar (Mac) or system tray (Windows) and reopen it to force a refresh.
The printer shows in PrintNode but Greet says Offline
- Confirm PrintNode is still running on the laptop. If the laptop went to sleep or PrintNode was closed, the printer shows as Offline in Greet.
- Confirm the laptop is on the same network as the printer.
- Click Refresh in Greet's Printer Settings page.
The Greet test badge doesn't print
- Check the printer for a paper jam, an empty ribbon, or an empty label roll.
- Confirm you selected the right printer in the staff interface (Select Printer → Cloud → your printer).
- Print a Windows or Mac test page again to confirm the OS-level connection is still healthy.
The credentials aren't working
- Go back to Printer Settings in Greet and click Show credentials again to confirm the current email and password.
- If needed, click Reset password to generate a new one, then sign in again on the PrintNode client with the new password.
!A note on networking
The onsite laptop and the printer have to be on the same network for a print job to reach the printer. If a Certain team member adds your printer to their own laptop for a remote test, they can see it in Greet, but nothing will physically print, because their laptop isn't on your network. That's expected. The real test always has to run from the onsite laptop, on the same network as the printer.
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