How to Change Background Color in Word (And What to Know Before You Do)

Microsoft Word's default white background works fine for most documents — but it's not your only option. Whether you're designing a branded report, reducing eye strain during long editing sessions, or preparing a document for print, changing the background color in Word is straightforward once you know where to look. What's less obvious is how those settings behave differently depending on your version, your output format, and what you're actually trying to achieve.

Where the Setting Lives in Word

In most modern versions of Microsoft Word (2016, 2019, Microsoft 365), background color is controlled through the Design tab on the ribbon.

Here's the basic path:

1. Open your Word document
2. Click the Design tab in the top ribbon
3. Select Page Color (usually in the top-right area of the ribbon)
4. Choose a color from the theme palette, standard colors, or click More Colors for a custom hex or RGB value

That's it for a solid color background. The change applies to the entire document — there's no native option in this menu to apply different background colors to individual pages.

Page Color vs. Highlighting vs. Shading — They're Not the Same Thing 🎨

This is where a lot of confusion happens. Word has three distinct tools that can change how color appears on your document, and they work very differently:

Page Color is the full-page background option — but by default, Word does not print it. It's designed for on-screen reading and digital documents. If you apply a blue background and print, you'll get a white page unless you specifically enable background printing.

Paragraph shading and text highlighting do print by default, which makes them better choices when color needs to appear in physical copies.

How to Make Page Background Color Print

If you've applied a page color and want it to print or export correctly to PDF, you need to change one additional setting:

1. Go to File → Options
2. Select Display from the left sidebar
3. Under Printing options, check Print background colors and images
4. Click OK

Without this step, your colored background will look great on screen and disappear entirely in print or PDF export — which catches a lot of people off guard.

Applying a Background to Specific Sections or Pages

Word's Page Color tool is all-or-nothing across the document. If you need color on only some pages or sections, your approach changes:

• Insert a colored rectangle or shape behind your content on a specific page (Insert → Shapes → Rectangle, then set fill color and send it behind text)
• Use a text box with a colored background for localized sections
• Apply paragraph shading to create the visual effect of a colored background for specific content blocks

None of these are as clean as a native per-page background option, but they give you control that Page Color doesn't.

Changing Background Color in Word on Mac

The steps on Word for Mac are nearly identical to Windows, but the ribbon layout can look slightly different depending on your version. The Design tab still exists, and Page Color is still your destination. If you're on an older version of Word for Mac (pre-2016), the option may appear under Format → Background instead.

Dark Mode and Reading View — A Common Source of Confusion

Word's Dark Mode (available in Microsoft 365) changes the interface color — the toolbar, sidebar, and surrounding chrome go dark — but it doesn't necessarily change your document's background color.

Separately, Word has a Dark Canvas option in some versions that makes the document editing area dark for comfort, but this is a display preference and doesn't alter the actual document file. If you send that document to someone else, they'll see it on their own display settings, not yours.

This distinction matters if your goal is to create a document that looks dark for all readers versus simply making your own editing environment easier on the eyes. Those are two different problems with two different solutions.

Gradient, Texture, and Pattern Backgrounds

Page Color isn't limited to solid fills. Clicking Fill Effects inside the Page Color menu opens options for:

• Gradient (two-color fades, preset gradients)
• Texture (parchment, canvas, marble, etc.)
• Pattern (checkerboard, stripes, dots)
• Picture (use any image as the page background)

These options work the same way as solid colors in terms of printing behavior — they won't print by default unless you enable background printing in your display settings.

The Variables That Shape Your Experience 🖥️

How well any of this works in practice depends on a few things that vary by user:

• Word version: Microsoft 365 has more design and theming options than Word 2013 or earlier
• Output format: Documents going to PDF behave differently than those being printed on a physical printer — and differently again from documents being shared as editable .docx files
• Printer or PDF renderer: Background color support in print depends on both Word's settings and your printer driver or PDF export tool
• Recipient's setup: A document with a dark background opened by someone with different display or accessibility settings may not render the way you intended

A background color that looks polished in one context can create readability problems, accessibility issues (particularly contrast ratios for text over colored backgrounds), or simply disappear in another.

What the right approach looks like depends on why you're adding color in the first place — decorative, branding, readability, or print — and what happens to the document after you create it. Those answers belong to your specific situation.