There are quite a few ways to create metal text. The technique shown in this tutorial uses a hotwax coating and the Polished Stone effect to achieve the gold text effect shown in Example 1. You can use the technique on any selection or as shown in Example 2, you can use webdings to create great gold accents. You can also use this technique to create copper and basic metal text affects. Example 1 The gold text effect created using the technique covered in this tutorial. Example 2 Webdings using the gold technique. The Basic Metal Effect Prepare your image: Set your foreground colour. For gold and metal text use white, #FFFFFF. For copper text use light red, #FFC0C0. Set your background colour. For gold use yellow, #FFFF00. For copper text use orange, #FFA000. For metal text use grey, #808080. Set the background style to Paint. Set the foreground and both texture style to Null. Open a new image 300 x 100 pixels with a white background. Add a new raster layer. Place your text. Click on the Text Icon. Click on (20, 80). If you are going to use different text and a different size, adjust where you anchor your text, or move the text into position once you have placed it. Use the Text Entry settings shown in Example 3. This example creates gold text. If you are using different text adjust the settings as necessary. Example 3 The Text Entry settings. Click Ok, to close the Text Entry dialog box. Choose, Selections/Modify/Feather. Set the feather to 5, and Close the Feather Selection dialog box. Your image should look like Example 4. The reason for increasing the feather size is to insure that all of the next step, hot waxing, is included within the selection. Of course the colour of the text in Example 4 depends on the type of metal text you are creating. Example 4 The text selection with the increased feather setting. Choose, Effects/Artistic Effects/Hot Wax Coating. Your image should now look like Example 5. Example 5 The Hot Wax Coating applied to the text. Add the effect Click on the Polished Stone icon, or choose Effects/Textured/Effects/Polished Stone. Set the Lighting colour. For gold use a light yellow, #FFFFC0. For copper use a light red, #FFC0C0. For metal use white, #FFFFFF. Set the Polishing to 20 and play with the Blur and Detail settings, or use the settings shown in Example 6. Click Ok to close the Polished Stone dialog box. Example 6 The Polished Stone Relief and Lighting panels. Your image should look like Example 7. You can play with the Polished Stone Blur and Detail settings to create very shiney gold and a carved look, as shown in Example 8. If you find a setting that you really like, you can use 'save the settings' as a Polished Stone Preset using the 'Save As' option under the Presets list box. Example 9 shows the copper effect, and Example 10 shows the metal effect. When adjusting the Polished Stone, Blur and Detail settings start out with low numbers. Increase the Detail settings to get the shiney look. Example 7 The basic gold effect. Example 8 Use the Polished Stone settings to control the look of the gold effect. Example 9 Example of copper text. Example 10 Example of metal text. I do hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any problems with it or any questions, please email me and I'll help where I can :) *********