Is 1/4" wide and 1/4" thick still too big for the right side? (can you tell I haven't opened one up yet? )
I also thought about a strip under the front edge, but I've read that (depending on your substrate) the ink has to be cured right after it's been printed, otherwise the colors would start to run and bleed into each other.
That's why most will only do one way printing, since the LED will only fit on one side. So if there is room on the right for a 1/4" strip, we should be able to print both directions, and cut the printing time in half.
I even saw a commercial printer that flickered the LED to be off when the nozzles were on, so it didn't accidently cure the ink on the head.