How to Print on Colored Paper

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Bright-colored paper draws attention but does not always work for printing colored images.

Printing on colored paper allows you to draw attention to fliers or other printing projects. It can also save ink by providing your projects with an automatic background color. However, printing on colored paper may present problems in the color of images you print, so run test pages before blindly committing to a color of paper that might ruin your entire project.

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Step 1

Create your printing project on your computer, using any project program, such as a word processing or photo-editing software.

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Step 2

Choose a light-colored paper that your darkest colors of ink will not fade into. Load one sheet into your printer.

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Step 3

Print a single test page of the printing project to see what the ink colors will look like on the chosen color of paper. Examine the intended colors of any images to check whether the image appears in the desired shades and colors.

Step 4

Choose a lighter shade if problems present in the original paper color, or darken the colors on the printing project. To darken the colors, reopen the printing project on your computer with the photo or word editing program. Click on each photo, and adjust the photo image by increasing the brightness and contrast on each image.

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Step 5

Print a second test page, and repeat the steps as necessary to get the appropriate colors on your project when combined with the colored paper.

Step 6

Print all the pages you need once you find a final, acceptable combination of printer ink and colored paper.

Tip

Avoid using ink colors that closely match the color of the paper. If you can remove the color and just use the paper color, you can save slightly on the cost of ink.

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