Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Automatic Font Color Won't Print Properly.

Automatic Font Color Won't Print Properly

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 28, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016


1

Alan notes that his Word documents all come out blank when he prints them on the printer. The only way he can get them to print properly is to select all the text in the document, display the Font dialog box, and change the font color from Automatic to black. Alan is wondering why the Automatic color in Word results in invisible text when printing and how he can fix the problem.

There are two possibilities, and both of them have to do not with Word, but with your printer driver.

The first and most likely possibility is that you have a printer driver that has a glitch in it. You should make sure that you visit the Web site of your printer's manufacturer and see if there is an update available for the printer driver. If so, download it and install it to see if the problem goes away.

The second possibility is that the printer driver has some internal setting that results in the behavior you are seeing. Press Ctrl+P to display the Print dialog box (Word 2007) or the printing options on the File tab of the ribbon (Word 2010 and later versions). Click the Properties button (Word 2007) or the Printer Properties link (Word 2010 and later versions). The resulting dialog box allows you to explore the printer settings. Your printer driver controls all these settings, and you may discover one that is resulting in the behavior you note. This will require some trial-and-error poking about, so make sure that you have time to spend with the exploration.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11673) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Automatic Font Color Won't Print Properly.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Reference Shortcut

Need to modify how a cell reference, in a formula, is constructed? The shortcut described in this tip will help you step ...

Discover More

Hanging Indents in Wrapped Text

If you use hanging indents for some of your paragraphs, you may wonder why they don't look right when they wrap on the ...

Discover More

Replacing Quoted Text with Italics

If you have text surrounded by quotes in a document, you may want to remove the quote marks and make the text that was ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Specifying the Exact Pages to Print

If you have multiple sections in your document, it can be frustrating to print out a limited selection of pages from that ...

Discover More

Removing Blank Pages at the End of Your Document

You go to print out your document, and all of a sudden notice that there was a blank page that printed at the end. This ...

Discover More

Unwanted Cover Pages with Print Jobs

When you print a document, do you get more than you bargained for? If you get extra pages printed either before or within ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 2 + 2?

2020-02-16 11:33:03

Brian

Correct: I went to Properties and noted that I had enabled the 'Print all text in black' in the Advanced section some time ago to print a shaper black and white image. I forgot to disable it but deselected and got color print from Word again. Thanks.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.