Silver and Gold Text in Photoshop Elements

A friend asked me, this past week, if I knew of any gold or silver fonts I could tell her of. Naturally, I explained that fonts aren’t of any particular color, but are rendered in the color you have selected as your foreground color. In order for the text to look like it’s made of gold or silver, you have to give it some help and add a couple effects. To begin, open a new document and type your text in your font of choice. Try it with different fonts; thicker ones will obviously look different than thinner ones.

My friend uses Elements and, I admit, I went to the webs to try and find an Elements tutorial to send her but to my surprise, I couldn’t find a thing I could use! So off the Elements I went. This is a super simple, easy peasy tutorial. You couldn’t make this hard if you tried, so grab your favorite font and play along!

Open a new document (File > New > Blank File or Ctrl (PC) CMD (Mac)+ N) and choose a size, any will do.

Choose your Text Tool, pick a font and type a word. The word I’ve typed is the name of the type (there’s a great array of free fonts available at places such as DaFont.com)

Next, go to Effects and choose Bevel from the drop down menu. Try them all to see which you like for your project; simply choose one and then hit Apply. If you don’t like it, choose another and hit Apply again.

Now, go back to the drop down menu and choose Wow Chrome. Select the first style, Beveled Edge. This is your basic for silver.

To make it a little more silver and a bit less chrome, make a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer…

…and check the Colorize box. Slide the Hue over to the blues and lower the Saturation level.

For the gold tone, you’ll also go to the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer and tick the Colorize box, this time bringing the Hue into the yellow range. Adjust the Saturation to the tone you like.

That’s all there is to it!  A very simple, basic way to make a classy siver, gold, or even chrome text!