;jQuery.preloadCssImages = function(settings){
    settings = jQuery.extend({
        statusTextEl: null,
        statusBarEl: null,
        errorDelay: 999, // handles 404-Errors in IE
        simultaneousCacheLoading: 2
    }, settings);
    var allImgs = [],
        loaded = 0,
        imgUrls = [],
        thisSheetRules,
        errorTimer;

    function onImgComplete(){
        clearTimeout(errorTimer);
        if (imgUrls && imgUrls.length && imgUrls[loaded]) {
            loaded++;
            if (settings.statusTextEl) {
                var nowloading = (imgUrls[loaded]) ?
                    'Now Loading: <span>' + imgUrls[loaded].split('/')[imgUrls[loaded].split('/').length - 1] :
                    'Loading complete'; // wrong status-text bug fixed
                jQuery(settings.statusTextEl).html('<span class="numLoaded">' + loaded + '</span> of <span class="numTotal">' + imgUrls.length + '</span> loaded (<span class="percentLoaded">' + (loaded / imgUrls.length * 100).toFixed(0) + '%</span>) <span class="currentImg">' + nowloading + '</span></span>');
            }
            if (settings.statusBarEl) {
                var barWidth = jQuery(settings.statusBarEl).width();
                jQuery(settings.statusBarEl).css('background-position', -(barWidth - (barWidth * loaded / imgUrls.length).toFixed(0)) + 'px 50%');
            }
            loadImgs();
        }
    }

    function loadImgs(){
        //only load 1 image at the same time / most browsers can only handle 2 http requests, 1 should remain for user-interaction (Ajax, other images, normal page requests...)
        // otherwise set simultaneousCacheLoading to a higher number for simultaneous downloads
        if(imgUrls && imgUrls.length && imgUrls[loaded]){
            var img = new Image(); //new img obj
            img.src = imgUrls[loaded];	//set src either absolute or rel to css dir
            if(!img.complete){
                jQuery(img).bind('error load onreadystatechange', onImgComplete);
            } else {
                onImgComplete();
            }
            errorTimer = setTimeout(onImgComplete, settings.errorDelay); // handles 404-Errors in IE
        }
    }

    function parseCSS(sheets, urls) {
        var w3cImport = false,
            imported = [],
            importedSrc = [],
            baseURL;
        var sheetIndex = sheets.length;
        while(sheetIndex--){//loop through each stylesheet

            var cssPile = '';//create large string of all css rules in sheet

            if(urls && urls[sheetIndex]){
                baseURL = urls[sheetIndex];
            } else {
                var csshref = (sheets[sheetIndex].href) ? sheets[sheetIndex].href : 'window.location.href';
                var baseURLarr = csshref.split('/');//split href at / to make array
                baseURLarr.pop();//remove file path from baseURL array
                baseURL = baseURLarr.join('/');//create base url for the images in this sheet (css file's dir)
                if (baseURL) {
                    baseURL += '/'; //tack on a / if needed
                }
            }
            if(sheets[sheetIndex].cssRules || sheets[sheetIndex].rules){
                thisSheetRules = (sheets[sheetIndex].cssRules) ? //->>> http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/w3c_css.html
                    sheets[sheetIndex].cssRules : //w3
                    sheets[sheetIndex].rules; //ie
                var ruleIndex = thisSheetRules.length;
                while(ruleIndex--){
                    if(thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].style && thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].style.cssText){
                        var text = thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].style.cssText;
                        if(text.toLowerCase().indexOf('url') != -1){ // only add rules to the string if you can assume, to find an image, speed improvement
                            cssPile += text; // thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].style.cssText instead of thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].cssText is a huge speed improvement
                        }
                    } else if(thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].styleSheet) {
                        imported.push(thisSheetRules[ruleIndex].styleSheet);
                        w3cImport = true;
                    }

                }
            }
            //parse cssPile for image urls
            var tmpImage = cssPile.match(/[^\("]+\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png)/g);//reg ex to get a string of between a "(" and a ".filename" / '"' for opera-bugfix
            if(tmpImage){
                var i = tmpImage.length;
                while(i--){ // handle baseUrl here for multiple stylesheets in different folders bug
                    var imgSrc = (tmpImage[i].charAt(0) == '/' || tmpImage[i].match('://')) ? // protocol-bug fixed
                        tmpImage[i] :
                        baseURL + tmpImage[i];

                    if(jQuery.inArray(imgSrc, imgUrls) == -1){
                        imgUrls.push(imgSrc);
                    }
                }
            }

            if(!w3cImport && sheets[sheetIndex].imports && sheets[sheetIndex].imports.length) {
                for(var iImport = 0, importLen = sheets[sheetIndex].imports.length; iImport < importLen; iImport++){
                    var iHref = sheets[sheetIndex].imports[iImport].href;
                    iHref = iHref.split('/');
                    iHref.pop();
                    iHref = iHref.join('/');
                    if (iHref) {
                        iHref += '/'; //tack on a / if needed
                    }
                    var iSrc = (iHref.charAt(0) == '/' || iHref.match('://')) ? // protocol-bug fixed
                        iHref :
                        baseURL + iHref;

                    importedSrc.push(iSrc);
                    imported.push(sheets[sheetIndex].imports[iImport]);
                }


            }
        }//loop
        if(imported.length){
            parseCSS(imported, importedSrc);
            return false;
        }
        var downloads = settings.simultaneousCacheLoading;
        while( downloads--){
            setTimeout(loadImgs, downloads);
        }
    }
    parseCSS(document.styleSheets);
    return imgUrls;
};