I fake carved leather in pshop all the time.. in fact I fake all sorts of things in pshop all the time As cooler illustrated using a bumpamp is really the most flexible way, as it shows up due to the lighting and such in the scene, and will be more realstic and reactive. but if you want a 'faked' version that does not rely on bumpmaps or displacement this is my trick: create your thing to be carved in white on a new layer in pshop. set the layer's blending method to "screen" it will now vanish. Dont panic :) Now apply a layer style to it of Bevel and Emboss.... now run the emboss level to a NEGATIVE number..also fiddle with wether interior or exterior bevel works better for you. I use Pillow Emboss all the time for seams. Now you should get a perfect embossed version of your image superimposed over your base texture note: I do NOT mean the emboss filter .. I mean the Bevel & Emboss Layer STYLE .. and that appeared waay back in pshop5 as I recall (might have been 6) note 2: set your light anlge to 90 degrees ... you may have to make a second emboosing layer if parts of your map go different dfirections ..the V1 catsuit is an annoying example of this: the front is neck up, the back is neck down. To match the shadows on the embossing it was neccasary to turn of global lighting ... but I digress now you can also turn off your layer effects and use this to create your bumpmap as well, thus reinforcing the visual effect. Lyrra