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Plus, how to figure out if your printer can print on cardstock
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Whether you're working on a craft, school project, business cards, or anything in between, you may be wondering if your printer can print on cardstock. Cardstock is a thicker paper, usually used to make printed items more professional and durable. Not all printers can print on cardstock because it's thicker than regular paper. In this article, we'll go over how to set your printer to print on cardstock, find out if your printer can print on cardstock, and what you can do if you can't print on cardstock at home.
How to Print on Cardstock
Check your printer's manual to see if it can print on heavy paper. When printing, click the Properties or Page Setup button. Then, select your paper from the dropdown. Choose an option that says "cardstock," "thick," or "heavy"—or try "photo paper" if your printer doesn't have other options.
Steps
Section 1 of 3:
How to Print on Cardstock at Home
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Load the cardstock into your printer. If you're printing on a smaller piece of cardstock, adjust the paper width guides in the paper tray to fit the cardstock (if your printer has them).
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Open the print dialog. How you do this depends on your operating system and program, but you can usually access it by clicking the File option at the top of the screen and choosing Print . In many programs, the shortcut Ctrl + P (Windows) or ⌘ Cmd + P (Mac) will also open the print dialog.
- Before continuing, make sure your document or project is ready to be printed and that you've changed the document size to match the size of cardstock that you have. How you do this varies depending on the program and/or operating system you're using, but the option is usually found in the File or Edit menu under Page Setup (or something similar).
- If the program opens its own print window and you don't see the options listed in this guide, look for an option to open the system print dialog. You may have to look under Other options (or something similar) to find this.
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Open your printer's properties. On PC, click the Properties button in the print dialog window. On Mac, click Page Setup .
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Set your document's paper type. Look for an option that says Paper Type or Media Type . In the dropdown, look for a paper option that says "cardstock," "thick," or "heavy." If you don't see any of these options, you could also try selecting an option for photo paper, as it's thicker than regular printer paper.
- Each printer has different paper type options. Even if the printer doesn't have a cardstock, choosing any type of thicker paper will more than likely work. However, you may have to try a few different options until the printer prints your document correctly.
- If your printer doesn't have options other than plain paper, you still might be able to print on thinner cardstock—but be aware that your printer might jam .
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Set your document's orientation. To do this, look for the Orientation section in the printer's properties. Then, change the setting to portrait or landscape. The option may be a dropdown or a button you can click.
- By default, your printer will print in the portrait orientation. If your document is set to landscape orientation, you must change your printer's orientation to landscape, or it won't print properly.
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Set your document's size. To do this, look for an option that says Paper Size , Page Size , or something similar. You can either choose a predefined paper size from the dropdown, or you can enter your paper size by selecting Custom or similar (Windows) or Manage Custom Sizes on Mac.
- If you are printing on letter size or A4 paper (around 8.5" x 11"), you shouldn't have to change the document's size in the print dialog since letter/A4 is the default size for most printer paper.
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Click OK to exit the Properties/Page Setup window. This will return you to the main print dialog window.
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Ensure the rest of the information is correct. Make sure you've chosen the correct tray (if your printer has more than one), whether to print in black and white or color, and the number of copies to print.
- If this is your first time printing a project, you may want to print only one copy at a time to test it until you know that your printer settings are set up correctly.
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Click Print to print your document. After your document prints, you may need to tweak your settings if the print doesn't turn out how you expected. If not, continue and print all of the copies you need if you haven't already.
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