I've coded loads of websites in full css now and i have always ignored the problem with printing websites, when i print websites the backgrounds are removed if they are set in css is there anyway around this rather than just not displaying the div tag in the print.css file ?
i want backgrounds to show when they have been printed, say i set a navigation background in css it will disapear when printed.
I know our colour printer has been able to print an entire site, but that was configured at the printer, not the web site (a printer's settings usually always override a web site's, and this includes things like sidemargins). Most printers ignore background images and colours, both to save ink and to ensure readability (imagine a dark background colour and black text, where maybe it's still readable on a web page but turns to a black page with a black-and-white printer). And in general things like sidebars and navigation are removed in print.css stylesheets because usually the purpose of printing isn't to show a representative of the page but to get to the text. However if you still need this what you might need to do it use an HTML <img> tag. Those generally print in all printers. Maybe you need to have a link to a print-version of your page, except it's meant to show images, and has a lot of <img> tags in it. Or, for the purpose of printing the equivalent of a screenshot (to show on paper what a web page looks like) I've seen people take screenshots and export to something like an image file or, my boss has done a .pdf as well. Borders DO appear when printed. Can they substitute for your background image? If the background image is there to make the text of the navigation readable, you can set the navigation text colours to something more readable in the print.css. Those are my best ideas.