How can I force browsers to print background images in CSS?

This question was asked before but the solution is not applicable in my case. I want to make sure certain background images are printed because they are integral to the page. (They are not images directly in the page because there are several of them being used as CSS sprites.)

Another solution on that same question suggests using list-style-image, which only works if you have a different image for every icon, no CSS sprites possible.

Aside from creating a separate page with the icons inline, is there another solution?

Solution 1:

With Chrome and Safari you can add the CSS style -webkit-print-color-adjust: exact; to the element to force print the background color and/or image

Solution 2:

Browsers, by default, have their option to print background-colors and images turned off. You can add some lines in CSS to bypass this. Just add:

* {
    -webkit-print-color-adjust: exact !important;   /* Chrome, Safari, Edge */
    color-adjust: exact !important;                 /*Firefox*/
}

Solution 3:

I found a way to print the background image with CSS. It's a bit dependent on how your background is laid out, but it seems to work for my application.

Essentially, you add the @media print to the end of your stylesheet and change the body background slightly.

Example, if your current CSS looks like this:

body {
background:url(images/mybg.png) no-repeat;
}

At the end of your stylesheet, you add:

@media print {
body {
   content:url(images/mybg.png);
  }
}

This adds the image to the body as a "foreground" image, thus making it printable. You may need to add some additional CSS to make the z-index proper. But again, its up to how your page is laid out.

This worked for me when I couldn't get a header image to show up in print view.

Solution 4:

You have very little control over a browser's printing methods. At most you can SUGGEST, but if the browser's print settings have "don't print background images", there's nothing you can do without rewriting your page to turn the background images into floating "foreground" images that happen to be behind other content.