"1. When you say that I must set the Photoshop conversion option to Absolute, I assume you mean in Edit/Color Settings/Intent, correct? This seems to set the default conversion intent ... but I take it from what you say that it also defines the Lab value in the info palette, correct? " Yes. It's that obscure linkage between the default intent setting and what Lab values get displayed in the info palette that causes major confusion I believe. "There are other settings like 'Compensate for scene referred profiles' ... do you know what these do?" Nope, I'm back on CS2 and my color settings/conversion options are just "Engine", "Intent" and bpc and dithering check boxes. My Engine is Adobe Ace, my intent is Absolute, and the boxes are unchecked.