Lino printing vs foam printing: which should you start with?
If you are new to printmaking and trying to decide where to begin, one of the first questions you will encounter is whether to start with lino or foam. Both are relief printing techniques — ink on the raised surface, pressed onto paper — and both are accessible, affordable, and capable of producing genuinely attractive results. But they are quite different in practice, and the right choice depends on who is making, what they want to make, and how much time and patience they have for the process.
This guide gives you a clear, direct comparison of the two approaches based on the materials we stock at Craft and Canvas, so you can make the right choice before you buy anything.
What lino printing is
Lino printing uses a block of linoleum — or a soft alternative — from which areas are carved away with specialist cutting tools. Ink is rolled onto the remaining raised surface and transferred to paper by pressing. The carved areas do not print; only the uncarved surface carries the ink.
The process of carving is what distinguishes lino printing from foam printing, and it is both the challenge and the pleasure of the technique. Carving takes time, requires tools, demands a degree of care with safety — always carve away from your hands — and produces results that reflect the effort put in. A well-carved lino block produces prints with a quality, precision, and character that foam cannot replicate.
We stock several lino block options at Craft and Canvas. Traditional Essdee lino in a 2-pack at £3.70 is firm and produces the classic lino print quality. Easy Cut Lino Sheets at £1.99 are considerably softer and more accessible, requiring less effort and less tool pressure to carve. Easy cut is the natural starting point for most beginners and produces excellent results.
For cutting, we stock the Lino Cutter Set at £29.95, the Ricolino Linocut Tool Set at £12.75, the Abig Lino Printing Tool at £19.95, the Essdee Assorted Lino Cutters at £12.99, the Essdee Style 1 Cutters at £7.25, and the Lino Cutter and Baren at £8.50. The Lino Bench Hook at £11.99 holds your block securely while carving and is an important safety addition for beginners.
What foam printing is
Foam printing uses a sheet of soft foam rather than a lino block. The foam can be marked in two ways — drawn into directly with a pencil, ballpoint pen, or blunt tool to create a recessed line that will not print, or cut with scissors to remove larger areas. Ink is then rolled onto the surface and the print is taken exactly as with lino.
The crucial difference is that foam requires no specialist cutting tools. The marks are made with pressure and drawing rather than carving. This makes the technique immediately accessible to very young children, to people who do not want to invest in cutting equipment, and to anyone who wants to produce prints quickly without a significant learning curve.
We stock Quickprint Foam Sheets at £1.99, Funky Foam Sheets at £0.85, and EVA Foam at £1.00. All three work on the same principle — the Quickprint Foam Sheets are specifically designed for printmaking and are the most consistent in terms of ink take-up and print quality. Funky Foam and EVA Foam are versatile craft materials that also work well for simple printing.
The key differences
Carving vs drawing. Lino requires cutting tools and physical carving. Foam can be marked with a pencil or pen. This is the single most important difference in terms of accessibility and the investment required before you start.
Detail and precision. Lino, properly carved, can hold extremely fine lines, sharp edges, and complex detail. Foam is limited by the nature of the material — very fine lines tend to compress under the roller and either print faintly or not at all. For detailed, precise imagery, lino is the right choice. For bolder, more graphic work, foam is perfectly capable.
Durability. A well-made lino block can produce many dozens of prints before showing wear. Foam degrades more quickly — the surface compresses with repeated inking and printing, and the print quality diminishes over an edition. For one-off prints and small editions, this does not matter. For anyone wanting to produce a consistent edition of ten or more prints, lino is more reliable.
Cost. Both are very affordable. A pack of Quickprint Foam Sheets at £1.99 or Funky Foam at £0.85 is about as low a cost as any printmaking material can be. Easy Cut Lino Sheets at £1.99 are similarly priced — the additional cost for lino printing is in the cutting tools, which represent the main investment.
Safety. Foam printing requires no cutting tools at all, making it completely safe for young children without any supervision of the marking process. Lino cutting requires care and supervision — the tools are sharp and the bench hook is an important safety addition.
The quality of the mark. This is perhaps the most subjective difference but also one of the most significant. Lino prints have a particular quality — the slight irregularity of a hand-carved line, the density of oil-based ink on good printmaking paper, the texture where the paper has been pressed into the surface — that foam printing does not replicate. Experienced printmakers value this quality highly. For beginners, the difference may be less immediately apparent, but it becomes clearer as your eye develops.
Which to choose
Choose foam if: you are working with children under ten, you want to get started immediately without buying tools, you want to experiment with the printmaking process before committing to equipment, or you need a very quick, low-pressure creative activity.
Choose lino if: you want to develop a printmaking practice that will grow with you, you are interested in detailed or precise imagery, you want prints that you will want to keep and potentially frame, or you are ready to invest a small amount in tools in exchange for considerably better results.
Start with easy cut lino if: you want the quality of lino printing but find the resistance of traditional lino off-putting. Easy Cut Lino Sheets at £1.99 carve with much less effort than traditional lino and are an excellent middle ground — more capable than foam, more accessible than traditional lino.
Start with foam for children: for children aged five to ten, foam printing is the natural choice. The Essdee Block Printing Kit for Kids at £19.99 is specifically designed for this age group and contains everything needed for a first printing session. Once children develop an interest in printmaking, graduating to easy cut lino with appropriate supervision is a very natural next step.
Using both together
Many printmakers use foam and lino at different stages of the same project. Foam is excellent for quickly testing a composition before committing it to a lino block — the low cost and immediate accessibility of foam makes it ideal for working out where elements should sit, what size to make the design, and how the image reads as a print before carving begins in earnest. This workflow — design on foam, refine, then carve in lino — saves both time and lino blocks and is worth knowing as your practice develops.
Complete kits
If you want to start with everything in one package, we stock several kits at Craft and Canvas.
The Block Printing Lino Essentials Kit at £23.49 and the Lino Cutting and Printing Kit at £37.99 both contain everything needed to begin lino printing. The Essdee Block Printing Kit for Kids at £19.99 is designed for ages five and above and is ideal for younger printmakers starting with foam or soft lino. The Essdee Fabric Lino Printing Kit at £35.99 is specifically configured for printing on fabric — an excellent option if textile printing is your interest.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use the same ink for lino and foam printing?
Yes — relief inks work on both surfaces. We stock Caligo Safe Wash Relief Inks at £14.75, which are oil-based inks that clean up with soap and water and work excellently on both lino and foam. The ink film may need to be slightly thinner for foam than for lino to avoid filling in the pressed lines.
Can children use lino cutting tools?
With appropriate supervision, easy cut lino and basic cutting tools are manageable for children from around ten years old. Younger children should use foam rather than lino, or use the Essdee Block Printing Kit for Kids which is designed for safe use from age five. Always use the bench hook to secure the block while carving.
How many prints can I get from a foam sheet?
It varies with the quality of the foam and how heavily it is inked, but expect a noticeable reduction in print quality after twenty to thirty prints from a foam sheet. Lino blocks in good condition can produce many more consistent prints.
What paper works best for foam printing?
Smooth paper produces the cleanest results with foam — the relatively soft surface of the foam does not press into textured paper as effectively as lino does. Cartridge paper and smooth newsprint work well for practice prints. Somerset Printmaking Paper at £7.14 per sheet and Fabriano Unica sheets at £1.34 each produce excellent results with both foam and lino.
Can I print on fabric with foam?
Yes — foam works well for fabric printing with a fabric ink or block printing medium. The Essdee Fabric Lino Printing Kit we stock is set up specifically for fabric printing and gives a good introduction to the technique.
Shop printmaking supplies at Craft and Canvas
We stock Easy Cut Lino Sheets at £1.99, Quickprint Foam Sheets at £1.99, Funky Foam Sheets at £0.85, EVA Foam at £1.00, a full range of lino cutting tools, rollers, inks, and papers, and complete starter kits from £19.99, at Craft and Canvas in Hebden Bridge and online at craftandcanvas.co.uk.
Craft and Canvas | 3 Carlton Street, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8ER | craftandcanvas.co.uk