The background color of the form controls is not something you can change to
my knowledge, and if you are getting something other than white, that
implies your problem may be tied with your video or printer drivers.
Publisher is very picky about drivers.
Though no one has posted about having this problem, others have posted about
strange color effects with print documents. The advice has been to first
turn down the acceleration. Display Properties > Settings > Advanced >
Troubleshoot, and dragging the hardware acceleration slider down two or
three notches. If that helps, then you probably need to update your video
driver. Either way you might want to look for updated video and printer
drivers.
You might also dump your temp internet files, and see if that helps.
Sorry I don't have a specific solution, but you have the dubious honor of
being the first to post about this problem. If you find a solution, please
post back. And perhaps someone else will come along that will have some
other ideas...
DavidF