Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later 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 November 19, 2016)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


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. When you display the Print dialog box in Word, click on the Properties button for your printer and explore the settings that you see. These settings are all controlled by your printer driver, 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 (579) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) 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

Changing Roman Numerals to Arabic

In some documents Roman numerals might be used quite a bit. If you ever want to change the Roman numerals to their Arabic ...

Discover More

Shortcut to Save as a PDF

Saving your documents in PDF format can be very helpful when you want to share a "finished" version with others. This tip ...

Discover More

Field in Footer Won't Update

Word provides a handy shortcut that allows you to update the fields in any text you've selected. When you select your ...

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 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Printing without Headings

The writer uses headline styles to create a story outline. He does not want to see the headlines when he prints the ...

Discover More

Printing without Footnotes

Want to print your document without all those footnotes included? It's not quite as easy as you might think, as this tip ...

Discover More

Controlling the Printing of Highlighting

Using Word's built-in highlighter tool can be a great way to add markup to a document and attract a reader's eyes to ...

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 nine minus 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon 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.