How to Print on Cardstock With HP Printers

HP printers can handle a wide variety of media types, including card stock. In most cases, you can feed card stock from any paper tray you wish. The key to successfully printing business report covers, posters and other items on thicker paper stock is to select the appropriate media type before sending your job to the printer. When you indicate a media type, the intake rollers adjust to accommodate the paper, reducing paper jams and increasing print quality.

Load your card stock into the desired printer tray. You can use the main tray, or if you plan on printing a lot of copies on card stock, you might want to load the stock into the manual tray. On some HP models, the manual tray is located above the main tray in the front; on others, the manual tray slides out from the back.

Select the appropriate paper type from the “Paper Handling” or “Tray Settings” menu on the printer’s menu panel, if applicable. On some printers, pressing the "Checkmark" button opens the menu, and you can use the arrow keys to navigate to the appropriate submenu or scroll through a list of choices. The Checkmark button also functions as the “Enter” key to enable any selections made. If your printer doesn’t have a menu panel, disregard this step.

Open the document you want to print.

Click “File” and “Print.” Do not click any print button icons, as these are usually “quick print” buttons that send the document to the default printer using the default options.

Click “Properties” or “Print Properties.” The exact wording varies depending on the application used.

Click the “Paper,” “Paper/Quality” or “Features” tab; then locate a “Paper Type” drop-down menu.

Select “Card Stock,” “Heavy Paper,” or choose the exact paper weight from the drop-down menu. You can determine the paper weight by referring to the card stock box or packaging.

Click “OK.” Choose any other print options desired and click “Print.”