This is a great method for creating metallic text in any color. All you need is Paint Shop Pro (I still use 7), a cool font (or any font), and this gradient image:

Bronze-double image

1. Open the above image file in Paint Shop Pro.



2. Click the text button on the toolbar (at the left)——and position the crosshairs of the cursor near the bottom-left corner of the metallic image. How far down will depend on the size of the font you want to use. Just play with it until you're happy.



3. The Text Entry box should open. When it does, choose the font and font size you want to use.



4. Click the "Standard Text" button, so you use only the fill color—what color doesn't matter, since it won't be seen anyway.



5. Under "Create as" click the "Selection" radio button and check the Antialias box. If you don't check antialias, the edges of your final image will be fuzzy, so don't forget to do that.




Text Entry Box



6. Type your text and click OK



7. You will notice the text appears in outline form surrounded by "marching ants". It should look something like this:




Selected Text



8. Click the copy button, on the standard toolbar (at top)—



9. Now click the paste button, on the standard toolbar (at top)—, and your text will be pasted into a new window.




Pasted Text



10. That's it. Now, you can do whatever you want with your text...give it a drop shadow, add it to another image, bevel it...anything. Below are some examples of what you can do with it. And, of course, you can use this technique with other patterned graphics for other effects, as well.



11. One additional tip: by clicking Colors > Adjust > Hue/Saturation/Lightness (or Shift+H), you can colorize the gradient file to create any color metal you need.

I first learned this technique from Jaguarwoman years ago. She included the metallic image necessary to create this effect in her tutorial, but I've found I often need a larger image than she provided. So I created two gradients for PSP that allow me to flood fill any size box. You're welcome to use the examples in the zip file, or if you're familiar with importing gradients into PSP (on gradient box click Edit > Import), those are included as well.

Oh, just FYI: Here's an example of what happens with and without antialias checked. The drop shadow is there to make the difference more visible.

Without antialiasing

With Antialias checked