We are using CSS files with embedded images on some sites. Have a look at Nicholas C. Zakas excellent cssembed utility. The good thing: Just after loading the CSS most of the images needed to display the site are at the client. No longer does a new visitor request dozens of small 1KB PNG files for backgrounds, bullets and tiny icons. It’s all right there in the CSS. This really pays of when you target mobile users where latency and slow connections let page rendering times go thru the roof ...
