By default, when you print any MS Word document, the background color of the document is not printed. Many users do not notice this unless they need to print a background color different from the default colors.
With default settings, MS Word ignores the background colors of any document when you print it. This saves the printing cost significantly. The most commonly used paper is also white so MS Word does not print the white background, hence saving the colors.
In some situations, however, you may need to print the background color of a document. Fortunately, the MS Word program has the capability of printing the background colors. It just needs to be turned on, as by default this feature is turned off to save the printer color.
Let us see, how we can configure the MS Word program to print the Word document background color.
Open the Word document that you want to print including the background color.
Click the File menu in the top left corner, and then click the Options. (Some MS Word versions follow; File > More > Options).
From the Settings window will open in the left side pane, click the Display tab.
Locate the Printing Options section. Under this section, find the Print background colors and images option and click the check box next to it. This will enable the background printing.
Click the OK to save and close the settings window. The settings section of this tutorial is complete. Now to test the changes, click File > Print to check the print preview or use Ctrl + P keyboard shortcut.
The print preview should display the background colors of your document. Select your printer and click the Print button to print the document.
Quick Tip: You can also use the colored printing paper of your choice and print your document on it. In this way, your document will have the desired background color when printed, and the printing cost too, will not increase drastically.
