How To Create A Gold Text Effect In Photoshop
In Text Effects by FabioOne of the best features of Photoshop is the Layer Styles. We can create all sorts of effects – plastic, glass, water, ice, metal, and many more. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a gold text effect. I will use only Layer Styles, and once our new style is created, we will be able to save the style and apply it wherever we want.
Step 1
Create a new document, apply a Layer Style on the background layer. Add a Gradient Overlay from black to a dark brown (#443501).
Step 2
Create a new Layer and apply Filter>Texture>Texturizer. Make sure that the foreground color is white and the background is black. After that, change the Blend Mode to Multiply.
Step 3
Add some text. I used Times New Roman, and for the "A" I used the "V" letter and flipped it vertically and horizontally.
Step 4
Now we start creating our gold layer style. We'll set up the Gradient Overlay first, as shown below.
Step 5
Now we'll add a Stroke. For the Fill Type use Gradient. The position of the gradient will vary for different typefaces, so experiment and see what looks good.
Step 6
Add Bevel and Emboss, as shown below.
Step 7
Finally, add some Shadow, again following the specs below.
Conclusion
This a very nice example of how powerful Layer Styles are in Photoshop. Sometimes just changing some values can create a totally different effect. For this tutorial I created gold, but if you change the gradient color to variations of grey you will have silver instead of gold.
If you enjoyed this post, your vote is always highly appreciated!!
Delicious
StumbleUpon
Float
Reddit
Bump This!
Comments
Leave a CommentAdd a Comment
Note: We use Gravatars on PSDTUTS, they are little icons that appear next to your name on this site and on many others. You can get a Gravatar account for free and any other site that supports it will show your avatar too!
Colin
January 15th, 2008
man i never thought about using gradient for a mock 3d lighting thing! bad ass! simple and powerful!
jo jo
January 15th, 2008
yeah! first post! love this site, thx for the great tuts!
gdiaz
January 15th, 2008
Yes, thanks for sharing. Simple techniques for a great looking outcome!
michael brito
January 15th, 2008
sexy!
Conrad
January 15th, 2008
Clean, simple, efficient - great tut.
Mike
January 15th, 2008
Thank you very much for this great Tut. Fantastic!
GeminiArt
January 15th, 2008
wow…very nice and easier tutorials
great job man 
graffiti
January 15th, 2008
Neat and simple work man, looks very realistic….thanks a lot for sharing. The ‘A’ without a stroke can also be made by using the symbol OTT font and pressing UPPER CASE letter L.
andreic
January 15th, 2008
To be honest, i wouldn’t have thought about this.
This was so simple!
giackop
January 15th, 2008
very nice!!
robotech
January 15th, 2008
Absolutely classy! Great tut - Thanks for your hard work Fabio!
Afx
January 15th, 2008
nice effect…good job!!
which font is that?
Art
January 15th, 2008
Whats that funky font under the main VIVAVIDA wording.
Brilliant tutorial btw, very stylish.
Billy
January 15th, 2008
Great, thank you!
moh
January 15th, 2008
Great Tutorial. Thanks!
Christian
January 15th, 2008
Yes, very nice Tutorial… but my result doesnt look that nice… the borders seem to blur out. Done everything like in the tut.
Phyo
January 15th, 2008
Awesome. Gotta try it soon!
Joss
January 15th, 2008
Nice.
Thanks
Shane
January 15th, 2008
Another great tutorial - I acually prefer the background to the text effect, but that’s just me.
Shane
January 15th, 2008
I actually prefer the background to the text effect, but that’s just me!
Great tutorial - again.
Redstar
January 15th, 2008
This is done verry nice.. I did it ones with Silver. Thats also great
Markus
January 16th, 2008
Nice and easy :b
craZed
January 16th, 2008
Great !!!! im love it
Aria Rajasa
January 16th, 2008
Cool! will try this some time
Agah
January 16th, 2008
Great tutorial! Can I ask which font did u use? thanks
Constantin Potorac
January 16th, 2008
Yey! Finally! Thank you for sharing. Saw this effect on your blog and was waiting to see the tut. :p
Thanks you.
jeff
January 16th, 2008
Good stuff.
Devin
January 16th, 2008
Nice. The piece looks very realistic.
Jen
January 16th, 2008
I really like this one! Thank you for sharing!
Alen
January 16th, 2008
Nice, clean and simple.
hank
January 16th, 2008
Beautiful. Is real big fun to play with the typeface after the layer style is finished once.
photoshop cs3 tutorials
January 16th, 2008
very cool royal look!
will help for some of us for sure!!
thanks..
Marten
January 16th, 2008
Clean and nice job. I´m going to do this.
Víctor
January 16th, 2008
This one’s nice. Very sharp.
Dimva
January 16th, 2008
Nice, as always.
StOrm
January 16th, 2008
Nice And Simple
andy stewart
January 17th, 2008
http://www.andystewart-design.com
1984
January 17th, 2008
Your team is doing good works !
In addition they share their know-how for free.
I am french, and there is no site in France that arrives at your ankle !
It’s great !
james
January 17th, 2008
wow all the tutorials on this site are so much better than on other sites. good work
Tim
January 17th, 2008
Dude. Bad ass. This is exactly what I was hoping to find on the site for something I’m working on. Seriously.
Ben Gribbin
January 17th, 2008
cool thanks
dario
January 17th, 2008
very interesting!!
Franky Aguilar
January 17th, 2008
This was amazing… Thanks so much… looks great!
Mohammed
January 17th, 2008
nice tutorial.. thanks
i’ve used this is effect before for a silver logo but without the Bevel and Emboss. http://www.peorex.com but i never thought that i came up with something new
Webdin_Neo
January 17th, 2008
Simple And Best Result TUT….
Nice Work .. I never thought that Gold Text Effect is much easy ….
THanks For The Sharing
Iain Fraser
January 17th, 2008
Great tute guys. Fabio and Collis… you guys rock. Really want to see you doing more tutes!
Didik
January 18th, 2008
Dear Fabio from PSDTUTS,
I just featured this tutorial as my weekly favorite. I hope you don’t mind letting me review your tutorials.
Best regards,
Firewalker
This is the link (I lose the ‘t’ in ‘http’ so that it won’t link back to my site):
htp://firewalker.kamusilmiah.com/weekly-design-source-january-17th-2008/
Erik
January 18th, 2008
There are many tus online how to make golden text, but this is the best.
Nick
January 18th, 2008
Awesome! Just the look I was wanting
Mark Abucayon
January 18th, 2008
very nice tut and very cool- great job right there. thanks
Kevin
January 18th, 2008
Superb. You never stop impressing me.
god056
January 18th, 2008
I like this very much. And the way the tut was made goes well with how the effect was made. Short, simple and concise.
Rudy?
January 18th, 2008
cool…. just want to know… why you create complete site?
mattcasburn
January 18th, 2008
great tut. I’m reasonably new to Photoshop and couldn’t figure out how to do the first step. it wouldn’t let me create a layer style on the background. I ended up making the background a smart object which then allowed me to add the effect.
Thanks again for the tut.
DEM
January 19th, 2008
which is the font size you used?
HeroPixels
January 19th, 2008
Can somebody please post what fonts were used in this article ?
BeNgIe
January 20th, 2008
awesome teknic…difinitely will try this soon… keep it up guys
Gen
January 20th, 2008
It’s good, but not perfect.. the gradient doesn’t work an anything, that hasn’t a straight top and it doesn’t scale good either (which is a problem with most of the text-effect tutorials on this site)… a better solution would be a thin (1-2 points) and clear inner shadow from 90° - this way, it works not only on text and can be scaled.
locke
January 21st, 2008
Awesomeeee
MaryMac
January 22nd, 2008
WOW! I was impressed with the results and it really was SO simple! Dang…I think I’ll create an action out of this and use it when I want classy looking text!!
zafar
January 22nd, 2008
this is a excellent,i love this perfect background and text,really i impressed alot.thanks very much,thanks for sharing.
James
January 23rd, 2008
You don’t need to make an action out of it… Just select the layer that you applied the styles to and go to the Styles pallette and hit “New Style” and it will make a clickable style out of your text style.
Any text you want to gild can be done so in a click of that new style.
Ken Jones MD
January 28th, 2008
Superb Techniques!
I will definitely be using this in the near future.
Keep up the excellent tutorials!
-Ken Jones MD
Instant Blog Traffic
semy
January 28th, 2008
very nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ankraj
January 29th, 2008
very clean perfect…
Juan
January 30th, 2008
I linked here in search of advanced tutorials looking for complex new ideas and found a simple layers style tutorial for gold letters.
I’m very impressed however. Simple, but stunning. I think it is the whole effect with the background colors and background gradient and the simplicity of a well achieved letter gradient that make this such a stunning effect. I presume I may use it?
By the way, the use of the inverted, flipped “V” was a neat twist. A true Roman feel to it. Great artwork.
fabio sasso "zee"
February 1st, 2008
Thank you all for the comments….
Answering some questions:
- the font is times new roman (yeah the old times), I just flipped the V to create the A
- instead of creating an action, just save the Style
- when you use a bold typeface or another typeface you will probably have to change the Gradient Overlay in the Layer Styles. Otherwise the reflections will change.
Odell
February 2nd, 2008
Excellent tutorial, but the colors for the gradient overlay and stroke aren’t explained in any detail. Mind sharing the colors you used for it?
Steven
February 10th, 2008
can you tell me the EXACT colors you used
because the ones that you put in the first part didn’t make it look like your outcome..
Rhett
February 15th, 2008
My oh my… PSDTUTS Tutorial on Gold text looks a hellovalot better than this one: http://www.grafx-design.com/06photo.html lol…
stephen
February 17th, 2008
Try these hex # colors:
gradient overlay: 43310D, F7E2AD, F7E3A8, 634A2B, D43A63
stroke: F4E2B2, 251807, 92783B, 241407, 241407, 92783B, 251807, F4E2B2
Katalog Stron
February 18th, 2008
Next great tut! Thx.
spideyjay
February 20th, 2008
Fantastic Tutorial
Oliver Coningham
February 21st, 2008
Thank you for this tutorial. I love the effect that it produced. Perhaps you could have gone into a little more detail with the gradient and stroke though as you kind of glossed over that section quite quickly and it’s the most important part for the overall effect.
Thanks to Stephen’s comment above where he posted the HEX values. However, I did actually buy this tutorial as was so impressed with it. Only a little bit out with those HEX values!
It’s quite a classy effect that you see on a lot of those high-end portfolios.
Oliver ConinghamWebsite design in Yeovil by Oliver Coningham
paulgeo
March 2nd, 2008
This is a rookie question probably, but can you list the colors please…
genji
March 13th, 2008
not a very clear tutorial.. step1 and 2 are really vague. If you don’t create a new image that’s squareish like step 1, the radial thingy in the middle will look really bad. Also in step2, he tells you to create a new layer and apply filter, but you cant apply any filter to an empty layer!
Andrew D
March 22nd, 2008
I really like this one, it has a nice genuine style.
Josh
March 23rd, 2008
Nice. Very cool.
hwpahwp
April 12th, 2008
wow,I like it!
Manoj
April 19th, 2008
GREAT TUTOTIRAL
ASET
April 29th, 2008
Man you are a photoshop killer!!!
Love youre tuts and your blog.
Thx for sharing!
WildMerc
May 3rd, 2008
Dude, if you’ll excuse the terrible cliche… that’s just awesome. 10/10 for simple grace.
NATIVE
May 3rd, 2008
Extra Kuul, keep it up
guvenlik
May 5th, 2008
very good tutorial. i will make now.
Mario balli
May 8th, 2008
loved it
smart mind
May 10th, 2008
Thank you man !!!!
that was awsem i didn’t think that was so sample
keep it up
i cant change the gradiant color any one know please post it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Michal
May 17th, 2008
How did you only flip one letter??
when i trie it the whole word flips
Fabio
May 18th, 2008
Michal, try rasterizing it, selecting the letter with selection tool, and then flipping it.
Matt
May 25th, 2008
Great tutorial.
What is the font you used that’s under the Times New Roman text in the last picture? I gotta get me that!
Bogdan
June 4th, 2008
THE BIGEST THANKS TO AUTHOR OF THIS PUBLICATION!!!
Angelo
June 12th, 2008
I can’t get Step 2 to work. That filter option is grayed out. Any ideas? Thanks.
m3ack
June 27th, 2008
you can show next time the layer history =)
RANGERZ001
July 2nd, 2008
OMG BEST TUT FOR GOLD EVA!~! works on almost all my fonts and onli requires slight tweeks
XOXO
i luv u
=D
S2
July 7th, 2008
Wonderful tutorial, and very elegant results.
Of course all you need to do to get a silver/platinum effect is to tweak the gradients accordingly.
Thank you!
Beyond the Grave
July 15th, 2008
Muito bom!
Vero
July 19th, 2008
se ve muy real, excelente tutorial ñ_ñ
Saludos =)
Strider
July 22nd, 2008
Very Nice. Though a few years back I had seen a tutorial on http://www.Designsbymark.com which was even easier and more convincing in its appearance. Unfortunately now its a “paid site”. Anyone have any of his old tutorials???