The invention is a method for printing a color proof from an initial halftone bitmap file (10) having individual dots (10a, 10b, 10c, 10d) using a spatial filter (20) which is created from a calibration curve (30) for a printing press (380). The method further consists of sending an initial halftone bitmap file consisting of individual dots to the spatial filter creating a filtered output (40), quantizing the filtered output from the spatial filter to “n” levels to create a quantized image (50), transmitting the quantized image to a color printer (70), and printing a halftone color proof (80) on the color printer.