splug55, I'm looking at the Carrara Bible for this-pg477 if you have it. 1. set you desired color in the color channel. 2. set the highlight and shininess channels to your taste. 3. leave the rest of the channels at default. 4. select the rectangle layer tool, and drag it on your object in the shader preview window. In the layer list look for your rectangle layer you just made and adjust the width and height, and the position numerically in the little whit boxes, start with small incriments, like .1 at a time to adjust. 5. select the blue button on your rectangle layer in the layer list, and choose texture map. Use the arrow buttons next to your texture map thunbnail to adjust the direction and such. Make sure sampling is clicked, no tiling, and possiblt make white invisible. I hope this is the info you needed, if not I'm sure someone elase in here will have the answer. I think the problem is that you are applying the texture map in the bump channel, which is not what you are after, I think! Are you using the Carrara Studio 1.1 patch? Just wondering, I'm sure you've got the patch though, so I couldn't tell you anything about the errors your getting. Good Luck! Your almost there! kaom