Expert Advice

The Inside Scoop on Spyder3Print's new 500 Patch Target

If you build profiles with Spyder3Print, then v3.5's new 500 Patch Target (combining the 225 patch color target with the Extended Grays target, for a total of approximately 500 patches) will be of interest to you. When selected in either the Easy Profiling mode, or the Advanced mode, the 500 patch target option will allow you to print both pages together, without backing up to select a second target. Once printed, you will be able to read them as a single seamless operation. And once finished, the single .xml measurement file will be used to build your profile, so you won't have to sort through your measurement sets, trying to match the correct pair of targets for a composite profile.

Care of the Spyder3Print Calibration Tile

The white tile embedded in the base of the Spyder3Print or PrintFIX PRO spectro needs to be clean in order to function properly. It can be cleaned with lens cloth or a paper towel. Avoid using rags or other non-lens cloth, as it may contain optical brighteners, which could effect white tile measurements. Mild cleaning solvents such as Windex or Isopropyl Alcohol can be used as needed.

Remember your mother telling you to wipe your feet before you came into the house? Its the same with your spectro’s white tile: as you move it across printed targets, it can pick up ink and other residues. If you clean the tip of the spectro before calibration, that will keep these materials from getting on the white tile, and make keeping the white tile clean a much simpler process.

How do you know your white tile is dirty? A visual inspection can tell you a lot. Another indication is if your measured values for paper white on optically brightened papers show as a bright Cyan, instead of white. If this occurs, clean both your spectro tip, and your white tile thoroughly, recalibrate the spectro, and reread paper white. If that fails to solve the issue, contact our technical support, for further information.

Continuous Ambient Light Monitoring in Spyder3

By C. David Tobie

Spyder3Elite and Spyder3Pro both offer continuous ambient light monitoring options. These options utilize the Spyder3's embedded ambient light sensor to keep a check on the lighting in your work area. Once you have defined a desired ambient light level, while profiling your display, the Spyder3 Utility can automatically check that your light level has not fallen significantly below, or risen significantly above, this level. If your ambient light leaves the target zone the Spyder3 icon in your Mac menubar, or your Windows tooltray will display a red slash.

Check with the Utility to see what issue is causing the red slash warning (other issues, such as exceeding your calibration time period will also cause this warning). It will tell you whether your ambient light is too high, or too low, and you can adjust lighting, blinds, shades or curtains as needed to return to your target level. Then use the ambient light measurement command in the Utility to recheck your lighting to see if you have succeeded in reaching the correct zone. You can also choose to launch your main Spyder3 application from the Spyder Utility to recalibrate at your new ambient light level, if preferred.

Lightroom Color Control and Printing Techniques

Applying PrintFIX PRO 2.0 profiles in Adobe Lightroom® is pretty much the same as applying them in Photoshop® CS2 or 3. Select a Gray Augmented PFP profile and sett the printer driver options "Use ICM" and "Disable Color Adjustments" in the printer driver. Lightroom currently only provides 2 rendering intents for printing directly to an inkjet printer ("relative" and "perceptual") compared to 4 intents available in Photoshop. Once those are set its easy printing: Lightroom provides sensible and logical controls for setting margins and borders and reviewing layout in advance of printing.

Full color images, images with selectively desaturated color ranges, neutral black and white, and a wide range of tinted black and white can be produced, previewed, and printed directly from Lightroom, using the PrintFIX PRO 2.0 "Gray Augmented" profile to preview and print the results.

Ambient Light and Screen-to-Print Matching

One often-overlooked link in the color management chain is ambient light. Its possible to have a calibrated monitor and a profiled printer, and still not get good screen-to-print matching, if your ambient lighting conditions are not appropriate.

Spyder2PRO divides ambient light into these five categories:

1: Very Low: appropriate for prepress image editing. Calibrate the display to a White Luminance level of 85-100 cd/m^2* and a White Point of 5000K (warm white) to compensate for the eye's cooler response at low light levels. LCD monitors (including laptops) can be used in this situation as well as CRT displays.

2: Moderately Low: dim, but appropriate for photo image editing. Calibrate the display to a White Luminance level of 125-150 cd/m^2 and a White Point of 5800K (slightly warm white) to compensate for the eye's slightly cooler response at moderately low light levels. LCD displays (including laptops) can be used in this situation as well as very bright CRT displays.

3: Medium: appropriate for casual photo editing. Calibrate the display to a White Luminance level of 175-200 cd/m^2 and a White Point of 6500K (medium white) to compensate for the eye's moderate color response at medium light levels. Only LCD displays (including brighter laptops) can be used at this level. An example of medium ambient lighting would be a photographer's customer consultation area, typically not kept as dim as the actual color correction studio.

4: High: uncontrolled, not recommended for color critical work. Lower the ambient light if possible, otherwise use a monitor hood and calibrate the display to the maximum White Luminance it can produce and a White Point of 6500K or higher. An example of High ambient lighting would be a typical office environment with overhead fluorescent strip lights.

5: Very High: uncontrolled, not recommended for any color managed work. Requires a very bright display. If you must work in these conditions use a monitor hood, black umbrella or photographer's cloak and calibrate the display to the maximum White Luminance it can produce and a White Point of 6500K or higher. An example of Very High ambient lighting would be previewing digital photos outdoors on a laptop display.

As you can see from these descriptions, ambient light levels relate to the type of monitor you can be using, as well as the white luminance (brightness) and whitepoint (color of white) you should use. The best solution is to adjust the ambient light, not the monitor. This typically means dimming your studio or office, and applying shades or blinds to any windows. The opposite can also be true, especially when someone replaces a low luminance CRT, with a much brighter LCD, without increasing the ambient lighting an equivalent amount. This can cause glare and and prints that appear darker than on screen.

Running the Ambient Light Assistant in Spyder2PRO at least once to check your ambient light levels is a start to understanding where on the ambient lighting scale your workspace lies.

Print Optimization and Profiling for Canvas

By Daniel Vézina, Technical Director
Les Productions Numart Inc. (QC, Canada)

Photographers typically print an image based on the memory they have of the scene they shot. They also use digital adjustments to improve the image to get improved contrast, colors, or flesh tones. The goal is to get a nice and pleasing result, but not necessary the absolute color of the original subject.

The situation is very different when reproducing a painting or other natural media artwork. Color accuracy is one of the most important things for a Fine Art printer. The customers expect more than a pretty result, they want prints that show exactly the same colors as their originals paintings. The customers will inevitably compare the print and the original side by side where the human eye can easily detect subtle differences between the images. Perfectly identical results are impossible due to the color gamut and density limitations of the ink and media we use. This is why it is so difficult to make a good Fine Art print. In addition it is often necessary to print the same image on different fine art papers and canvas and still get the closest color match possible between each of these media and the original.

One of the difficulties of oil painting reproduction on canvas that is the need to varnish the resulting prints. Varnish reacts with the ink and coating, improving the dmax and color gamut, but shifting the tonality of the print, especially in dark tones. Tonality changes by as much as 11% in dark areas on a varnished print. Varnish is not 100% transparent and a very light hue shift can occur from the tint the varnish adds to light areas. Canvas may also contain optical brighteners, which increase the percieved whiteness of the canvas. Since varnishes contain UVs blockers to protect the print against long term fading, they can cut down the effect of the brighteners and change the perceived color. This can cause the yellowish effect that many peoples complaint about when they varnish a print. The varnish is not yellow, but the optical brightener reduction makes the image appear more yellow when varnished.

Those who don't care to deal with such issues sometimes argue that the addition of varnish to a print on canvas only "enhances" the print and doesn't cause problems. If you doubt that varnish can have a negative effect, print two 21 step gray ramps side by side and add varnish to one of the two. This will make the difference clear. The dmax will be better on the varnished side, but there will be a visible shift in mid to dark patches and reduction of any brighteners that are present. All the altering factors combined make a varnished print on canvas appear significantly different from an unvarnished one.

For ideal print reproductions, it is necessary to offset the effect of varnish, retaining the dmax/color improvement that the varnish adds to a print, but matching the tonality and colors closely to the original.

By using PrintFIX PRO 2.0 with careful adjustments, it is possible to create a profile that will eliminate the side effects of the varnish and produce varnished and unvarnished proofs on canvas that will be more similar. The following example does this for water resistant matte canvas. These canvases are available from different suppliers under many different brand names. They're compatible with most water based pigmented ink and can be varnished with quality water based acrylic varnishes. They required the use of matte black ink.

How To:

Be sure that your monitor calibration is up to date, and use the Spyder to recalibrate if needed. As usual you must work under good ambient lighting conditions and evaluate the test prints under the correct neutral light (5000K) or in a viewing booth.

If you have never printed and profiled for canvas, these few hints will help you to get the best results right from the start:

Don't underestimate the 'Media Setting check' step in PFPro. You must find which media setting is the best for the canvas you use. Printer's drivers are designed to work with papers; the fact that we can also use canvas in our printers is just a bonus. Experiment with different media settings that use matte black ink (matte paper settings).

If your printer's driver let you change the ink density, experiment with that as well. If your test prints come out of the printer wet or if your dark tones are clogged, reduce the ink density, by 10-15% and try again. If the weave of the canvas is not fully filled, increase the ink density by 5%. If the ink dries fast enough on your canvas, use the fast print mode (bi-directional printing). Not only it will help you to speed up your production, but it will also better fill the texture of the canvas, by spraying from both directions.

You can use the 225 patches target; but since the printer's driver are not optimized to print on canvas and the output will be less linear than on paper, the 729 patches target may improve color accuracy even further. The dmax of any matte inkjet printable canvas is relatively low (1.4 - 1.5) compared to a good photo paper (2.1 - 2.4). This situation will require that you check and adjust the perceptual brightness of your profiles carefully. It will help to get a better tonality match. To find what adjustments are required you will need to build profiles with different sliders values and test them with the View/Proof Setup function in Photoshop. Use meaningful profile names and record your sliders values. On-screen proofing is good to evaluate profiles. But since the visual feeling of a varnished and unvarnished print is very different, be ready to print a hard copy to validate your profile adjustments.

Profiling Matte Canvas:

1. Print your target with the right media setting and other driver settings.
2. Let the printed targets dry for 24 hours.
3. Read your patches.
4. Create three profiles, with the Brightness slider value set to 0, -1, and -2. Name the profiles accordingly. Select the 'Ref Black' button and check the 'Monitor Black compensation' checkbox. Don't forget to check the Show Edits in Preview checkbox as well.

Using the View/Proof Setup function in Photoshop, select your profiles, the saturation rendering intent and, check Preview to test visually on screen with different images. Don't forget that your screen emits light, while the print will only reflect the ambient light. You goal is to minimize the perceptual color and tone differences with and without the profile applied. Switch from one profile to the other. This step also allows you to see any slight color shift or saturation shift in your profile as you change from one to another.

Once you have chosen the best of the three profiles, go back to step 4, but this time use the sliders to correct any colors and saturation shift if needed. For example, using Epson K3 ink, the Yellow is incredibly bright and can create a yellowish perceptual glow that can be neutralized by moving the Y/B slider to the blue side. The trick is to use the right test images to see any weakness and correct it. Again, create 2-3 profiles with incremental sliders values and select the best one of the three. Repeat until you're satisfied with the results.

Having found the best sliders adjustment to create your profile, repeat step 4 again, click on the Advanced Tab, set the Shadow Detail to +4 or +5 and create a new profile. Compare this profile with your best one. This time use images with very dark zones, a portrait containing black hair is often very useful for this. The goal is to validate or improve your dark tones. Usually, profiles made on matte canvas don't show any clogging and this slider can be left at 0. But you should still check. Also, be sure that your dark zones have the correct hue. Use the Shadow Tint slider if needed to adjust this. A very good monitor is needed to do this in SoftProof; otherwise make some test prints with your profiles for evaluation.

Profiling Varnished Canvas:

1. Print your target with the right media setting and driver's setup.
2. Let the targets cure for 24 hours.
2a. Apply the varnish on your printed targets using the same technique (brush, roll, or spray) that you will use on your production prints. Be sure to not over varnish the print. Use a thin coat.
3. Read your patches.
4. Create three profiles, as for the unvarnished canvas; but this time use -1, 0, and +1, for the Brightness slider value and name the profiles accordingly.

Work on your profiles the same way you worked on your unvarnished print profiles. If you modified the adjustment sliders values to fine tune the color of the profile, use the same values here. But this time carefully check for clogging in dark tones. If you find that your dark tones are clogged, don't adjust the Shadow Detail slider before finding the correct overall Brightness adjustment value.

Usually the profile for the varnished print will need a brightness adjustment of +1 or even +2 relative to the profile created for an unvarnished print. If the dmax of the varnished canvas doesn't increase by more than 0.1, then you may choose the same adjustment value for Brightness than with your unvarnished profile. But if the dmax increases significantly by 0.25 or more then you will need to add +2 Brightness relative to your unvarnished profile. It is a good idea to use the Spectro to measure the dmax of your target's black patch with and without varnish before doing this step. Only after that step can you can adjust the Shadow detail. If you need to add more than +5 on the Shadow Detail slider to unclog your dark tones, it is an indication that you need to increase the Brightness.

Neutralization of the optical brighteners by varnish is something that the spectro "sees" differently than the eye. So it may be necessary to change the color slider values. Experiment with +2, +4 more on the Y/B slider and -2, -3 on the M/G slider. At this point you will need a test print to decide what adjustment is needed to optimize your varnished print.

The Results

Following this process, you should be able to make a varnished print that will have deeper blacks, but the mid to dark tones will still look like what you have on your unvarnished print or on a good matte photo paper. The print will not have a yellowish look in light tones. If your prefer, you can also try to proof you varnished prints with a semi-gloss photo paper having about the same dmax as the varnished print. But the optical brighteners, and a different whiteness of the paper, can also make this exercise difficult.

Don't forget that when you use the profile for the varnished print, prints will not show the right tonality and hue until you add the varnish. The print will initially be too light and with a light magenta/blue feel; but once varnished the print will shift to its correct tonality.

Using PrintFIX PRO 2.0 for Other Kinds of Measurements

The PrintFIX PRO spectro is useful for lots of measurement tasks beyond reading profile target patches. In many cases such "extra" measurements are most effectively accomplished by using the Measurement option in the Tools menu. If you have not yet calibrated your spectro in this session, the Measurement option will be grayed out until you have run the Tool menu Calibrate option first.

The Measurement Window contains a number of measurement results, plus special options, so lets go over them all to be sure none are left out:

L*a*b* value return will show the color definition of any flat color patch you measure. Color measurements need to be in a "real world" colorspace such as Lab, workingspace colors don't incorporate all the elements of real world color. The color square in the center of the window will show that measured color for general reference. This helps you keep track of what you are measuring, but does not have any technical significance. To the right of that is a Visual Density readout. This is most useful for checking the D-Max of prints, since D-Max is a concept that many photographers are more comfortable with than L* values.

The lower section of the window is all about exporting the color readings you perform here. Using the Export to... button will start a measurement log of each subsequent measurement in either Lab or Density, which ever you have selected. Including line numbers may make human review easier, but it may make software uses more difficult. Chose accordingly.

The lower right section offers specialized export formats for QuadtoneRIP®, for either its Linearization process, or its CreateICC Utility. Each uses a different format, both are supported.

The Done button will close the Measurement window, and also close any currently active measurement log. All measurement logs are saved to the Export folder in the Data folder, within your PrintFIX PRO folder, under the name you selected when starting them.

Live readings are the most common use of the measurements window, offering quick answers to a wide range of questions about color and density of image prints, targets, and swatchbook patches. Measure paint chips to find the most neutral shade for painting your studio! Just look for the smallest positive or negative a* and b* values to find the most neutral paint chip.

Spyder2PRO Projector Calibration and Whitepoint Adaptation

When in Projector Calibration mode, Spyder2PRO™ does not offer RGB Gains adjustment to set Whitepoint. Users sometimes question why this function is missing; so its worth explaining why it is not offered in Projector mode.

The eye adapts automatically to the color of white, based on the brightest whites in the field of view. Under projection conditions (a darkened room, where nothing else is as bright as the image from the projector), the eye's white adaptation it totally controlled by the combination of the projection and projection screen.

Projecting a grayramp from Photoshop onto a pink wall, in a properly darkened room, will result in a ramp that the eye adapts to, producing a range of grays ending in white. The "white" will be the pink of the wall, but the eye will see it as white (really: try it, if you can't believe it!) The same will happen with a blue wall, a green one, any tone at all. Color tints caused by projector color adjustments are similarly effected.

Given this natural adaptation to the whitepoint of the projection/screen combination, adjusting RGB Gains controls is a hopeless task; adjust it to be warmer, wait a minute, and the new warmer whitepoint will appear neutral. Adjust it to be cooler, and soon that will appear to be correct as well. Since adjusting controls under these conditions is not practical, and can cause dimming of the projector, the function has been eliminated from projection mode.

Linear Fine Art Paper Output with PrintFIX PRO 2.0

Fine art papers, both the matte type and the new gloss art papers, tend to clog in the dark shadow areas. PrintFIX PRO 2.0 has a new Advanced Adjustments section that includes a Shadow Detail Slider. Setting this slider to +5 will reduce the shadow clogging typical of art papers, as shown in the accompanying graph, which compares gray ramps printed from two profiles, one at default settings, and one using a +5 Shadow Detail setting. Other types of paper may profit from other types of adjustments, so be sure to remember this slider whenever you have issues with shadow rendition.

Multiple Monitor Matching with Spyder2PRO™
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One of our most frequently asked questions is how to match multiple monitors. There are several types of monitor matching. The most basic distinction is between RELATIVE monitor matching and ABSOLUTE monitor matching. Relative matching usually means to calibrate two monitors to the same standard, for similar lighting conditions, but in more extreme cases can involve intentionally calibrating to different standards, due to different ambient lighting. An example of this would be to calibrate the CRT monitors used for image editing in the nearly dark prepress room to a whitepoint of 5000k, and a white luminance of 85 candelas per meter squared, which are appropriate settings for these conditions; but to then calibrate the editor's LCD monitor, which is in a sunny corner office, to a whitepoint of 6500, and a white luminance of 175 candelas per meter squared. This would not make the monitors match in a literal sense; instead it would allow them to offer the most similar possible results under the different conditions involved.

More typically, monitors that are not sitting side by side, but that are under similar lighting levels are simply calibrated to the same gamma and whitepoint values. Each retains its native black luminance, and is set to a matching white luminance, that is appropriate to the ambient lighting.

Absolute monitor matching is used when monitors are placed side by side, either on the same computer or on different systems, but with the intent of achieving the closest possible match between them. In this case it is important that the monitors are of a similar type (LCD or CRT) and for LCD monitors, that they be of a similar quality as well. It is not always possible to achieve tight matches between a low cost general use monitor of one screen technology, and a more expensive graphics or a different type. Also, not all LCDs have similar brightness capacities, or dynamic ranges, so there can be difficulties there as well. And finally, some LCD monitors have larger or smaller color gamut's, or different abilities in the red, green, or blue zones, so may not display bright colors similarly. Calibration and profiling can improve all of these issues, but can't necessarily eliminate them.

Another important factor is multiple monitor calibration on the same computer under Windows. Unless users are running multiple videocards, or a PCI Express dual head card, in many cases Windows cannot provide full color management. Vista offers some improvements in this, but often requires upgraded videocards as well.

Finally, once you have matchable monitors, and a video configuration that can calibrate and profile them, you need to define a target for both (or all) of them. This means checking the current native black and white luminance values for each monitor using Spyder2PRO's Tools > Info menu item. Compare all black luminance values, and determine the highest black luminance value; this will be the new target value for black on all your monitors. Please note that this will mean making black on all monitors as weak as your weakest black.

Next compare all the native white luminance values. This will tell you how bright each monitor is capable of being, but unless you are using your monitors under fairly bright lighting (not an ideal situation!) then you probably don't want to calibrate to the lowest of the monitors white luminance, which would be the same process are choosing a target black point, but at the white end. Instead you want to determine the correct target white luminance value for your ambient lighting conditions, and make sure that your ambient lighting is appropriate while you are at it. This means running Spyder2PRO with the optional Ambient Light function activated on at least one of your monitors. If you have done this previously, then you already have determined a reasonable white luminance and white point values for your conditions.

If you have not yet run Spyder2PRO's Ambient Light Wizard, you need to do so now, to determine if your room lighting is too bright, and once you have your room lighting under control, to determine the correct monitor white luminance range for your conditions. Compare this value to the native white luminance of each monitor. If any of your monitors can't reach this level, you have a problem, and need to reconsider your ambient lighting levels. If all your monitors have a native white luminance comfortably above the target value, then you are ready to create a custom target for your monitors.

Please note that choosing a white luminance target that is equal to your dimmest monitor's maximum will result in a target with a white luminance value which this monitor will no longer be able to reach in a few weeks. So some headroom is required, even if your ambient lighting is bright enough that reducing your monitor's white luminance isn't necessary to create a balanced ambient-to-monitor ratio.

Whitepoint and Gamma targets also need to be considered. For use with color managed applications, you can use most any gamma, though choosing one far from your monitor's native gamma can cause visible banding in synthetic gradients on screen. This is one reason for choosing gamma 2.2, which is close to the native gamma of most monitors, or the emulated gamma of most LCDs. Another reason to choose Gamma 2.2 is that it will function best with the expectations of non-color managed applications, such as Windows-based browsers. Whitepoint can be determined using the assistance of the Ambient Light Wizard. This will typically be 6500k for moderate lighting, 5000k for very dim lighting, and leaves you the option of a whitepoint in between these two more dim but not dark ambient lighting.

Now that you have target gamma, whitepoint, black luminance and white luminance values that can be achieved by all your monitors, and that are appropriate to your ambient lighting, you are ready to define a new custom target with these values, and choose that target for calibrating all your monitors. For monitors on other systems, you can copy this target file to the copy of Spyder2PRO on those machines, or simply define a target with the same values there. Once you have determined your target white luminance, it's no longer necessary to calibrate with the Ambient Light Wizard on, though you can continue to run it just to check that your ambient lighting is still in the target range.

Black and White Digital Print Options

There are a number of possible methods for creating inkjet digital prints in black and white. They involve using color or tinted grayscale inks, using the manufacturer’s black and white functions, color driver, or third party RIP drivers, and various control systems to create curves or profiles. Some of these methods come free with your printer, while others (typically those using special black and white inks with special RIPs) can cost up to thousands of dollars. For those who own PrintFIX PRO™ for their color work, version 2.0 now offers the ability to control several of these methods at no additional charge.

There are three categories of black and white printing possible with PrintFIX PRO 2.0. The simplest, and by far the most flexible, is to use the same Color Printer Driver you use for color printing, and to augment your PrintFIX PRO color profiles with Extended Gray Data, then print your black and white images through the Color Driver and Extended Profile. This allows both color and black and white prints using the same printer, the same workflow, and even the same printer profile.

The second PrintFIX PRO method is to use special ICC-profilable grayscale inks. This will limit your printer (while these inks are installed) to black and white or tinted black and white printing. The profiling process is as simple as profiling the printer for color, just print and read the High Quality target, and print your black and white images.

The final black and white printing process that PrintFIX PRO can assist with is Linearization and Profiling of black and white RIPs, or color RIPs with black and white functionality. This is an advanced process for those with an interest in specialty RIPs.

PrintFIX PRO™ 2.0's New SoftProof Function

Checking the SoftProof checkbox on PrintFIX PRO 2.0's Print Preview screen will display the currently selected test image via a SoftProof of the printer profile just created. This SoftProof mode is similar to what will be displayed in Photoshop when Custom Proof Setup is set to the same profile, with Ink Black Emulation and Paper White Emulation checked, displayed to your main monitor profile.

Leave SoftProofed images on your main screen for accurate display. With the SoftProof box unchecked, the non-SoftProofed image does not represent what your prints will look like, only where on the sheet they will be located.

Once Test Image, Rendering Intent, and SoftProof choices have been made, click on the embedded Test Image view to see an enlarged version Proofed to these same conditions. To enlarge further, drag the lower right hand corner of the floating Test Image and resize.

PrintFIX PRO's SoftProof function is useful in several ways. Its a quick check that your profile is properly configured, with no major errors in patch reading. Using SoftProof with a PrintFIX PRO target as your test image offers an even more specific test of patch measurements. SoftProof also shows what a typical image will look like printed to this combination of ink, paper, and printer, so you have a sense of the limitations of this combination. And it allows you to see what any profile adjustments you have made look like in advance of printing a "Hard Proof" copy from this screen.

Toggling SoftProof on and off accents any areas outside of your printer, ink and paper's range, letting you know if there will be difficulties printing bright colors or dark saturated areas with this combination.

Soft Proofing Your Images in Photoshop

Your digital images are in RGB colorspaces such as sRGB or AdobeRGB. But your printer doesn't print with red, green and blue, it works with with cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks; and has a completely different color space than images on your monitor. To improve and optimize your prints, start with a calibrated monitor, and then use standard ICC profiles from your paper manufacturer. Or better yet: create custom profiles with PrintFIX PRO™ and it's spectrocolorimeter for professional quality results.

With accurate printer profiles you can emulate your print result on screen with the soft proof function of Photoshop® (not available in Photoshop Elements®). Open your picture in the current color space. Then select View > Proof Setup. Choose Custom and select your profile from the popup list. Choose a rendering intent, and you're ready to soft proof your image. To toggle between Working Space color and softproof color, use Control+Y on Windows, or Command+Y on the Mac.