You can change your "default recipe" by opening a newrecipe, setting the fields as you like (i.e. you choose the recipe settings you want) and then pick the "Save Recipe as Default" command on the "Tools" menu.
This will save your current recipe as the default recipe. Those settings will now be used for all new recipes.
As for the color printing, it was a compromise - all of the output is in HTML, but in most cases background colors like the solid block do not appear when you print an HTML page. I therefore put the word "color" in text in the same color as the beer. If you print it on a color printer, the text will appear in the correct color even though the background color does not appear.
If you have a better way to do this in HTML, I would be happy to change it on the next version.
Cheers!
Brad