How to Change Background Color in Outlook (Email & Reading Pane)

Microsoft Outlook gives you more visual control than most people realize. Whether you want to reduce eye strain, match your brand identity in outgoing emails, or simply make your inbox easier to read, background color settings exist in several different places — and they don't all do the same thing. Understanding the difference between those options is what makes the process click.

What "Background Color" Actually Means in Outlook

There are three distinct areas where you can change background color in Outlook, and they're often confused with each other:

1. Email compose background — the color or fill applied to the body of an email you're writing
2. Reading pane background — the color Outlook displays behind incoming emails while you're reading them
3. App theme/interface color — the overall color scheme of the Outlook application window itself

Each one is controlled from a different location in the settings, and changing one won't affect the others.

How to Change the Background Color When Composing an Email 🎨

This is the most commonly searched version of the question. When you add a background color to an email you're composing, that color is embedded into the HTML of the email itself — meaning recipients may see it too, depending on their email client.

Steps for Outlook desktop (Microsoft 365 / Outlook 2016, 2019, 2021):

1. Open a New Email window
2. Click into the body of the email
3. Go to the Format Text tab or the Options tab in the ribbon
4. Select Page Color (found under the Options tab → Themes group)
5. Choose a color from the palette, or click More Colors for custom hex/RGB input
6. The background of your email body will update immediately

You can also apply background colors to specific text sections using the Paragraph formatting options, rather than the entire email body.

Using the Design Tab for More Control

If you want a more polished look — for instance, a newsletter-style email — the Design or Themes section in the Options tab lets you apply full color themes, background textures, and gradient fills. These are pre-built combinations of background color, font color, and accent colors that work together visually.

How to Change the Reading Pane Background Color

This affects only your view of incoming emails — it doesn't change anything for the sender or anyone else. It's a local display setting useful for reducing glare or working in low-light conditions.

For Outlook desktop:

1. Go to File → Options
2. Select Ease of Access (in some versions, this is labeled Accessibility)
3. Look for the High Contrast settings or Office Theme options
4. Switching to Dark Gray or Black theme applies a dark background to the reading pane and interface

Alternatively, on Windows 10/11, enabling Dark Mode at the OS level will push a dark background through Outlook's reading pane automatically, provided you're using a version of Outlook that respects the system setting.

Important distinction: Dark Mode in the reading pane doesn't change how an email looks to the sender — it's a rendering layer applied by your local Outlook client.

How to Change the Outlook App Interface Color

This controls the overall chrome of the application — toolbars, sidebars, and the navigation pane.

Steps:

1. Go to File → Office Account (or Account in newer versions)
2. Under Office Theme, choose from options like Colorful, Dark Gray, Black, or White
3. The change applies immediately across all Office apps, not just Outlook

Outlook on the Web (OWA) — Different Controls

If you're using Outlook on the web (outlook.com or a work/school account via browser), the settings path is different:

• Click the gear icon (Settings) in the top-right corner
• Select View → Dark mode toggle for the reading interface
• For email composition background, the Format toolbar in the compose window includes a highlight and font background color option, but a full-page background color for composed emails is more limited in OWA compared to the desktop app

The web version has fewer options for custom page-level email backgrounds, which can matter if you're designing branded emails.

Factors That Affect Your Experience

The results you get will vary depending on several things:

• Outlook version — Microsoft 365 (subscription) gets the most frequent feature updates; standalone versions like Outlook 2019 may be missing newer accessibility options
• Operating system — Windows 11 Dark Mode integrates more cleanly with Outlook than older OS versions
• Recipient email client — Custom background colors you apply when composing may not render correctly if recipients use Gmail, Apple Mail, or older email clients that strip HTML styles
• Account type — Organizational accounts managed by IT departments sometimes restrict theme or display changes through Group Policy
• New Outlook vs. Classic Outlook — Microsoft is rolling out a redesigned "New Outlook" interface that reorganizes where some of these settings live 🖥️

When Background Colors Don't Carry Over

One common frustration: you set a background color in a composed email, but the recipient sees none of it. This usually happens because:

• Their email client doesn't support HTML email rendering
• Their client is set to plain text only
• Corporate email filters strip embedded styles for security reasons

This is worth knowing before investing time in heavily designed email backgrounds for external recipients — what looks polished on your end may arrive stripped down on theirs.

The right approach depends entirely on who you're emailing, what version of Outlook you're running, and whether you're adjusting for your own reading comfort or for how your emails appear to others. Those are meaningfully different goals with different settings paths, and your specific setup determines which options are actually available to you. 🔍