Create A Stylesheet For Print
Of course you have at least one stylesheet to control the layout of the page and formatting of the content, but do you have a stylesheet to control how your page will look like in print? Add the print style sheet, with the media attribute set to "print", at the end of the list of stylesheets in the header. This will allow you to create custom CSS classes applied only at the time of print. Make sure your structure CSS file is given a media attribute of "all."
Background images
By default, most browsers filter out background images and certain types of rendered material to save on ink. To print background graphics (which might include your 'gradient graphic', go to print -> page setup and click on "Print background colors and images".