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Article · Vogue Shots · Sep 2026

A receipt photobooth, in 4 days

Guests take their photos, and seconds later tear off a strip that looks like a receipt from the event. Designed in the admin, printed on a thermal printer, running offline all day.

For
Vogue Shots
Built in
4 days
Dates
23 to 28 Sep 2026
Runs on
A Kotlin app, a tablet, a receipt printer
A wall of receipt photo strips at the Got Tea café

Where it started

A wall of receipt strips at Got Tea, a Korea-inspired café in Delhi.

Photo: Got Tea, via Instagram.

The idea

Photo strips are everywhere at events. A receipt is not. It’s cheap to print, instantly recognisable, and people keep them.

Vogue Shots wanted it branded for every event, without a developer on site.

Where the idea came from

We saw a receipt photobooth at Got Tea, a café in Delhi, and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Guests queued for it, kept the strip, and pinned it to the wall. Vogue Shots wanted that feeling at every event, branded for each one.

Photo and idea: Got Tea, Mohali · instagram.com/reel/DP0SVJ8D1yK

How it works

  1. The event team designs it

    In the Vogue Shots admin: how many photos, the layout, a frame, header, logo and footer text. Export it as one file.

  2. Import it once

    On the tablet, open the hidden staff screen and import the design. From then on the booth runs offline, and remembers the design after a restart.

  3. Guests tap Start

    A countdown, a flash, repeat. The receipt is built, previewed and printed before they’ve put their phones away.

  4. Staff stay in control

    Press and hold to open settings: printer, front or back camera, countdown length, auto-print.

  5. A native Android app

    Written in Kotlin, so it talks straight to the receipt printer over USB, drives the camera itself and runs all day without the internet.

Why it works on the day

The admin preview and the printed receipt follow the same layout rules, so what the team designs is exactly what prints. No surprises in front of guests.

Once a design is imported, the booth needs no internet and remembers everything after a restart. Staff can swap cameras, change the countdown or reprint without calling anyone.

The four days

  1. 23 Sep

    Printer talking to the tablet

  2. 24–27 Sep

    Receipt designer in the admin, one shared layout

  3. 28 Sep

    Photobooth mode, guest and staff screens

  4. Next event

    Runs offline, all day

Credits

Lead, photobooth and receipt designer
Anshul Laikar
Printer app
Ethan Vaz
Built with
Kotlin, Android
Kit
Epson TM-T82X-II, 80 mm paper

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