Soft Proofing

 
Soft Proofing
Photoshop 6.0
Photoshop 6.0, which was introduced in late 2000, has been one of the most important advances since Photoshop 4.0 was introduced a number of years ago. Among the most interesting and beneficial new features, and of particular interest to photographers using inkjet printers, isSoft Proofing. If you haven't yet done the upgrade to version 6.0 this feature alone should be motivation enough.
Soft Proofing
Simply put this is the ability to view on-screen what your photograph's colours will look like when printed on a particular printer and even on a particular type of paper. The onlygottchais that your monitor has to be properly calibrated and your printer has to have a customICC/ICMprofile. If you are not familiar with these topics a good place to start is my article onSystem Calibration.
Assuming that your monitor has been calibrated and is giving you an accurate representation of your work, and also assuming that you are using a printer that has anICC/...