Well, I think I've got it more or less sussed out. The problem was all to do with that thing called 'colour space' - I was using different ones for the photos and the printer and hadn't got the warning messages set up in CS3 to tell me when I opened a pic.

So everything is being done in Adobe RGB now - ok so some of the colours in that colour space aren't reproducable by the printer, it seems to work! I can't get on with PS managing the colours so the print drivers are sorting it out. I tried ICM advanced but the pics come out looking rather flat, so for the moment colour controls are ticked, and with a couple of tweaks the pics are coming out as near as dammit!

Sooooooooo, the next thing is borders using multiple layers. I can manage one colour filled layer, change the canvas size then put the pic on top before flattening. I'd like to put a thin white line round the pic before having the coloured border which I think would use 3 layers, but I keep getting in a mess. Any ideas anyone?

ta muchly, Lisa.