to barry 1102. I read the question again. Then I read my reply again. It seems that the reply was to a different question altogether. Did you edit the question or am I simply going nuts? Anyway, I'll find out from a techy friend of mine what the differences between Euro inks and US inks are. But as far as converting from RGB to CMYK, there will always be some color loss. CMYK simply isn't as bright or intense as RGB and the 3/4 tones tend to flatten out especially if the color profile has a press gain built in. Having a 300% D-Max doesn't help either. Any advise I could possibly offer would be to build the files in CMYK and forget about RGB. That way you can compare apples to apples from the get go. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to explain to a customer why their color looks different on a printer's proof (especially Epson) than the soft proof that the designer submitted. If you absolutly require a higher 3/4 tone and shadow density, consider running on a single or 2 color press. You can also 'fudge' on the D-Max if the particular shadow areas are minimal (10% or less of the overall image)