--- title: Jadens JD-166 Review: Portable, Inkless Thermal Printer... description: The Jadens JD-166 is a portable, inkless thermal printer that works on Debian-based Linux distros once the right driver is installed. On Ubuntu 26.04, CUPS... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/jadens-jd-166-review-portable-inkless-thermal-printer-on-linux-dawzfml2r twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Jadens JD-166 Review: Portable, Inkless Thermal Printer on Linux | daily.dev og:description: The Jadens JD-166 is a portable, inkless thermal printer that works on Debian-based Linux distros once the right driver is installed. On Ubuntu 26.04, CUPS... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/jadens-jd-166-review-portable-inkless-thermal-printer-on-linux-dawzfml2r og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/dawZFMl2R.png og:image:alt: Jadens JD-166 Review: Portable, Inkless Thermal Printer on Linux og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Jadens JD-166 Review: Portable, Inkless Thermal Printer on Linux **[It's Foss](https://daily.dev/sources/itsfoss)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Jadens JD-166 is a portable, inkless thermal printer that works on Debian-based Linux distros once the right driver is installed. On Ubuntu 26.04, CUPS auto-detected it but wrongly picked an HP Designjet T920 plotter driver, leaving print jobs stuck. Installing Jadens' own .deb driver fixed it, after which the printer printed pages correctly. Pricing starts at US $60, it prints only black and white A4 pages, has no duplex support, and needs special thermal paper that the author estimated at about 10 cents per sheet. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### why does my Jadens JD-166 printer show jobs as completed in CUPS but nothing prints CUPS may have auto-selected the wrong driver, such as the HP Designjet T920 PostScript driver, which is meant for a large-format plotter. Jobs get stuck showing 'Processing' with a ppdFilterEmitJCL message in the logs. Switching to a raw queue still won't produce output; you need to install Jadens' official .deb Linux driver, unplug and replug the printer to fix it. _daily.dev surfaces troubleshooting notes like this for developers wrangling printer driver quirks on Linux._ ### how much does the Jadens JD-166 thermal printer cost and what paper does it need The Jadens JD-166 starts around $60 and ships with 10 sheets of A4 thermal paper. It requires special thermal paper with a cut at the top and a black mark on the back; 200 sheets cost about $20 on Amazon, roughly 10 cents per sheet, putting ongoing costs in the same range as a regular inkjet printer. _readers weighing portable hardware purchases track real cost breakdowns like this on daily.dev._ ### what print settings can I configure for the Jadens JD-166 on Ubuntu via CUPS The CUPS driver exposes PageSize (A4 is w595h841), Darkness (0 to 4, default 2), ColorModel (Gray or RGB), plus image options like Threshold and Contrast. You can list them with 'lpoptions -p JD-166 -l | grep -E' and set defaults with 'sudo lpadmin -p JD-166 -o PageSize=w595h841 -o Darkness=3' so you don't have to adjust settings on every print. _developers configuring niche Linux hardware drivers find practical command examples like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [How to build a f\*\*king printer](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-build-a-f-king-printer-ptkesw5pr) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [vivier/phomemo-tools: CUPS driver for Phomemo M02 Label Printer](https://daily.dev/posts/vivier-phomemo-tools-cups-driver-for-phomemo-m02-label-printer-dfllxsmtz) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Understand Your Printer Better With The Interactive Inkjet Simulator](https://daily.dev/posts/understand-your-printer-better-with-the-interactive-inkjet-simulator-qsvg3945o) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Print, laminate, and cut stickers with Liene’s PixCut S1](https://daily.dev/posts/print-laminate-and-cut-stickers-with-liene-s-pixcut-s1-pkr33la7e) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Gadget Review: T2 Max plug-in Thermal Camera](https://daily.dev/posts/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera-yqmpfb6di) · Terence Eden · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#ubuntu](https://daily.dev/tags/ubuntu) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/jadens-jd-166-review-portable-inkless-thermal-printer-on-linux-dawzfml2r) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Jadens JD-166 Review: Portable, Inkless Thermal Printer on Linux","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/jadens-jd-166-review-portable-inkless-thermal-printer-on-linux-dawzfml2r","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/jadens-jd-166-review-portable-inkless-thermal-printer-on-linux-dawzfml2r"},"datePublished":"2026-10-28T17:44:44.675Z","dateModified":"2026-10-28T18:22:06.151Z","description":"The Jadens JD-166 is a portable, inkless thermal printer that works on Debian-based Linux distros once the right driver is installed. 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Jobs get stuck showing 'Processing' with a ppdFilterEmitJCL message in the logs. Switching to a raw queue still won't produce output; you need to install Jadens' official .deb Linux driver, unplug and replug the printer to fix it. daily.dev surfaces troubleshooting notes like this for developers wrangling printer driver quirks on Linux."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"how much does the Jadens JD-166 thermal printer cost and what paper does it need","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Jadens JD-166 starts around $60 and ships with 10 sheets of A4 thermal paper. It requires special thermal paper with a cut at the top and a black mark on the back; 200 sheets cost about $20 on Amazon, roughly 10 cents per sheet, putting ongoing costs in the same range as a regular inkjet printer. readers weighing portable hardware purchases track real cost breakdowns like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"what print settings can I configure for the Jadens JD-166 on Ubuntu via CUPS","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The CUPS driver exposes PageSize (A4 is w595h841), Darkness (0 to 4, default 2), ColorModel (Gray or RGB), plus image options like Threshold and Contrast. You can list them with 'lpoptions -p JD-166 -l | grep -E' and set defaults with 'sudo lpadmin -p JD-166 -o PageSize=w595h841 -o Darkness=3' so you don't have to adjust settings on every print. developers configuring niche Linux hardware drivers find practical command examples like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```