White Text Appears Black When Printed from WordPad

ID: Q148773


The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Windows 95


SYMPTOMS

When you print a document that contains white text from WordPad, the white text may printed as black rather than white.


CAUSE

WordPad maps the color white to black when you print to a black and white or color printer.


RESOLUTION

Change the color of the text to a color other than white, or use a program other than WordPad to print the document. To change the text color in a document in WordPad, follow these steps:

  1. Select the section of text that you want to change.


  2. On the Format menu, click Font.


  3. Click a color in the Color box, and then click OK.


For information about problems that can occur when you format text in WordPad, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
Q148386 Problems Formatting Text in WordPad


MORE INFORMATION

The universal printer driver (Unidrv.dll) maps all non-white colors to black when you print to a black and white or color printer, but it does not map the color white to black. This behavior causes all non-white text to appear as black text when printed. Because the color white is not mapped to black, white text is printed normally.

However, WordPad maps the color white to black when you print to a black and white or color printer. Therefore, white text is converted to black text before it is sent to Unidrv.dll, which causes the text to appear as black text when printed. This behavior is not consistent with Microsoft Word for Windows or Microsoft Excel for Windows.

For additional information about printing colored text or graphics to a black and white printer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q130508 Non-White Text or Graphics Printed in Black

Keywords : win95
Version : 95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :


Last Reviewed: July 22, 1999
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