mjhjmtu

I sometimes need to print hard copies of my notebooks, but I really like having a background color to make the notebooks easier on my eyes. Is it possible to automatically remove the background color before sending to a printer? I couldn't find it on the options inspector. Thanks!

Printing uses the "Printout" screen environment. So, you can control this behavior automatically with a stylesheet. Something like:

SetOptions[
 EvaluationNotebook,
 StyleDefinitions -> Notebook[
 
 Cell[StyleData[StyleDefinitions->"Default.nb"]],
 Cell @ CellGroupData[
 
 Cell[StyleData["Notebook"],Background->RGBColor[0.9, 1, 1]],
 Cell[StyleData["Notebook","Printout"],Background->None]
 ,
 Open
 ]
 ,
 StyleDefinitions->"PrivateStylesheetFormatting.nb"
 ]
]

ought to do it. Change the background as appropriate.

Check by toggling the ScreenEnvironment setting in the Format menu.

Addendum

If you want to make this change "permanent":

NotebookSave[
 Notebook[
 
 Cell[StyleData[StyleDefinitions->"Default.nb"]],
 Cell @ CellGroupData[
 
 Cell[StyleData["Notebook"],Background->RGBColor[0.9, 1, 1]],
 Cell[StyleData["Notebook","Printout"],Background->None]
 ,
 Open
 ]
 ,
 StyleDefinitions->"PrivateStylesheetFormatting.nb"
 ],
 FileNameJoin[
 $UserBaseDirectory,"SystemFiles","FrontEnd","StyleSheets","Default.nb"
 ]
]

and then the next time you open Mathematica you should see a blue screen. Just delete the file to return to the default behavior.