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?
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.