Why does a background color in Word not print?

Question

When you go to set a background color doing the the 'correct' way through 'design, page background, page color' (Word 2013), the background color never prints and you're forced to insert a shape and put that behind text. Why is this background page color not supported by printing and is there a way to allow the background page color to be printed?

Answer 1

There is an option to print background colors and images. By default, this option is set to false.

From Word 2007, you can find this settings under "Word options" window, "Display" tab, "Printing options" section and the option is called "Print background colors and images".

Source: Office support article.

Answer 2

Using Word 2011, I went to the menu bar and selected Word/Preferences/Print, and checked the box for "Print background colors and images". That preserved the background color when I 'File/Save As' as a pdf.

Answer 3

The reason a background color is not printed, is because Word assumes you want to be saving ink and thus won't print the background color. The reason you can set one is because on the screen where there's no saving done by not showing the color, it can look nicer.

If my memory serves me correctly, there's an option somewhere to print the background color too. I believe in the page setup section, but it has been many years when I faced this problem, and I forgot how I solved it.

Answer 4

Try File > Options > Display, and tick "Print background colors and images".