How to Print on Foam Pads

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Printing on foam pads is possible but you must take care to select pads that are thin enough to feed through your printer's straight sheet feeder slot. Pads will not load through your normal paper feed because they are too thick and will jam in your printer. If you need a thicker sheet of foam, you can glue two or more thin sheets together after printing or glue the printed thin pad to a thicker foam pad. You can use printed foam pads for various craft activities including model making, door hangers for children to color or mouse pads.

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Step 1

Design your print job using a graphic program on your computer. Microsoft Paint is included on computers using Microsoft operating systems or there are free or low cost programs you can download from the Internet.

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Step 2

Insert your foam pad into your printer's straight feed slot.

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Step 3

Press the paper feed button on your printer to load the pad to print.

Step 4

Adjust the paper thickness setting on your printer if your printer has one.

Step 5

Click on "File" and select "Print." Select your printer and adjust the print quality to its lowest setting. It may take a few test prints to determine the best settings for your printer. The lowest print setting may not use enough ink to print dark enough to see the print on the foam but the highest settings may use so much ink that your design smears.

Step 6

Press "OK" to print.

Tip

Use your paper feeder button to feed a sheet through your printer before you print to make sure the sheet will not jam. Pretreated foam sheets designed for printing will print more clearly than untreated foam pads.

Warning

Gently remove any jams to avoid leaving pieces of foam in your printer. Do not attempt to put anything thicker than 0.06 inches through your printer unless your printer is specifically made for thicker material.

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