diff --git a/src/eynollah/training/train.py b/src/eynollah/training/train.py
index f6117f7..4d0b317 100644
--- a/src/eynollah/training/train.py
+++ b/src/eynollah/training/train.py
@@ -435,6 +435,19 @@ def run(_config,
                                                    sparse_y_true=False,
                                                    sparse_y_pred=False)])
 
+        def _to_cv2float(img):
+            # rgb→bgr and uint8→float, as expected by Eynollah models
+            return tf.cast(tf.reverse(img, [-1]), tf.float32) / 255
+        def _to_intrgb(img):
+            # bgr→rgb and float→uint8 for plotting
+            return tf.reverse(tf.cast(img * 255, tf.uint8), [-1])
+        def _to_categorical(seg):
+            seg = tf.cast(seg * 255, tf.int8)
+            # gt_gen_utils/pagexml2label uses peculiar pseudo-RGB/index colors
+            #seg = tf.image.rgb_to_grayscale(seg)
+            seg = tf.gather(seg, [0], axis=-1)
+            seg = tf.squeeze(seg, axis=-1)
+            return one_hot(seg, n_classes)
         def get_dataset(dir_imgs, dir_labs, shuffle=None):
             gen_kwargs = dict(labels=None,
                               label_mode=None,
@@ -452,25 +465,27 @@ def run(_config,
             )
             img_gen = image_dataset_from_directory(dir_imgs, **gen_kwargs)
             lab_gen = image_dataset_from_directory(dir_labs, **gen_kwargs)
+            img_gen = img_gen.map(_to_cv2float)
+            lab_gen = lab_gen.map(_to_cv2float)
             if task in ["segmentation", "binarization"]:
-                @tf.function
-                def to_categorical(seg):
-                    seg = tf.image.rgb_to_grayscale(seg)
-                    seg = tf.cast(seg, tf.int8)
-                    seg = tf.squeeze(seg, axis=-1)
-                    return one_hot(seg, n_classes)
-                lab_gen = lab_gen.map(to_categorical)
+                lab_gen = lab_gen.map(_to_categorical)
             return tf.data.Dataset.zip(img_gen, lab_gen).rebatch(n_batch, drop_remainder=True)
         train_gen = get_dataset(dir_flow_train_imgs, dir_flow_train_labels, shuffle=np.random.randint(1e6))
-        val_gen = get_dataset(dir_flow_eval_imgs, dir_flow_eval_labels)
-
         callbacks = [TensorBoard(os.path.join(dir_output, 'logs'), write_graph=False),
                      SaveWeightsAfterSteps(0, dir_output, _config)]
+        valdn_gen = get_dataset(dir_flow_eval_imgs, dir_flow_eval_labels)
+        train_steps = len(os.listdir(dir_flow_train_imgs)) // n_batch
+        valdn_steps = len(os.listdir(dir_flow_eval_imgs)) // n_batch
+        _log.info("training on %d batches in %d epochs", train_steps, n_epochs)
+        _log.info("validating on %d batches", valdn_steps)
+
         if save_interval:
             callbacks.append(SaveWeightsAfterSteps(save_interval, dir_output, _config))
         model.fit(
-            train_gen.prefetch(tf.data.AUTOTUNE), # .repeat()??
-            validation_data=val_gen.prefetch(tf.data.AUTOTUNE),
+            train_gen.prefetch(tf.data.AUTOTUNE),
+            steps_per_epoch=train_steps,
+            validation_data=valdn_gen.prefetch(tf.data.AUTOTUNE),
+            validation_steps=valdn_steps,
             verbose=1,
             epochs=n_epochs,
             callbacks=callbacks,