Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are interacting binary stars in which a white dwarf is accreting mass from a Roche-lobe filling main sequence star. The optical spectrum of a CV is the result of the combination of three components (the white dwarf, the main sequence star and the accretion disc) with different weights depending on the characteristics of the individual system. The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is a survey of thousands of square degrees in 12 filters (5 broad band and 7 narrow band) carried out with the 80cm Javalambre Auxiliary Survey Telescope (JAST80) at the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (OAJ, Spain). The Javalambre Photometry of the accelerating universe Astrophysical Survey (J-PAS) a survey carried out with the 2.5m Javalambre Survey Telescope (JST250), at OAJ, observing a similar footprint to J-PLUS in 56 narrow bands, offering a unique probe into the optical spectra of virtually any astrophysical object. In this work, we present a search for CVs in the third data release of J-PLUS. We also present the convolution of the spectra of known CVs with the response curve of J-PAS and explore the way to identify CVs in this survey and separate them from their main foreseeable contaminants (hot stars, non accreting white dwarf - main sequence star binaries and quasars). We use this synthetic photometry to propose a methodology to identify CVs using only J-PAS photometry.