In order to obtain high quality printing results, it is important to understand the mechanisms of ink absorption and setting on various substrates. The final position of ink pigments determines the ink density and the resolution of the printed product. Absorption rates of aqueous and solvent inks into nonwoven fabrics were characterized with a Bristow absorption wheel. A model based on Darcy's Law was applied to predict the ink absorption rate into the nonwoven fabrics. The model links the void fraction, pore size, contact angle, and the Darcy permeability coefficients to the absorption rate. The results showed a good correlation between the experimental data and the predicted results for many combinations of substrates and inks, but in a few cases, the absorption rates were different than expected. A clear difference of microscale distributions between aqueous and solvent inks on the nonwoven fabrics could be obtained by confocal laser scanning microscopy.