How to Change Page Color in Word

Method 1: Change the Page Color in Word (One Color for the Whole Document)

This is the standard way to change the page color on Word — it recolors every page in your document.

Word for Windows (Word 2013 / 2016 / 2019 / 2021 / Microsoft 365):

• Open your document in Microsoft Word
• Go to the Design tab in the ribbon (looks like a paint palette icon)
• In the Page Background group, click Page Color
• Choose a color from the theme palette, or click More Colors for a custom hex/RGB color
• The color instantly applies to all pages

Word for Mac:

• Open the document and go to the Design tab
• Click Page Color and pick a color
• For older Word for Mac versions, use the Format > Background menu instead

Where is the Page Color button? If you can't find it: the Design tab only appears in Word 2013 and newer. In Word 2010 and earlier, the option lives under Page Layout > Page Color. On Mac, if you don't see Design, check Format > Background.

Method 2: Different Page Colors in One Word Document (Section Breaks)

Word applies one page color to the entire document by default — but you can give different pages different colors using section breaks. This is the trick most people don't know.

Step-by-step:

• Place your cursor at the end of the content before the page you want to recolor
• Go to Layout > Breaks > Next Page — this creates a new section
• Click inside the new section (the page you want to recolor)
• Go to Design > Page Color and choose a different color
• Only the pages in that section change color
• Repeat: add another section break for the next color change

Pro tip: Use this for coloring-book covers (blue cover page, white interior pages) or color-coded chapters. Each section remembers its own page color.

Remove a section's color: click inside that section, go to Design > Page Color > No Color — the other sections keep their colors.

Method 3: How to Print the Page Color in Word (It's Hidden by Default)

Here's the catch: Word does not print page background colors unless you switch on a hidden setting. If you print and get white pages, here's the fix:

Word for Windows:

• Go to File > Options
• Click Display in the left sidebar
• Under Printing options, check "Print background colors and images"
• Click OK and print again — the page color now prints

Word for Mac:

• Go to Word > Preferences
• Click Output and Sharing > Print
• Check "Print background colors and images"

Ink warning: printing a full-page colored background uses significantly more ink — a solid color page can use 10-20x more ink than a text-only page. For long documents, print once without backgrounds to check content, then enable background printing only for the final version.

How to Change Word Page Color from Black to White (or Vice Versa)

A common request is switching Word's dark mode page back to white, or making a white page black for night reading. Here's how:

Back to white:

• Go to Design > Page Color > No Color — instantly white
• If the page still looks dark, it's dark mode: go to File > Account > Office Theme and switch to "White" or "Colorful"

To black (dark background):

• Design > Page Color > pick black
• Switch text to white: Home > Font Color > White
• Note: black backgrounds print extremely heavy on ink — use dark mode only for on-screen reading

Bonus trick: In Word 365, toggle View > Dark Mode for on-screen reading without changing the actual document colors — the file still prints white.

Word vs Google Docs: Page Color Comparison

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