Antiqued Gold Lettering

Photoshop Tutorial
Level: Intermediate

It is a little hard for me to believe that I am actually presenting instructions on one of my favorite text effects. There are many variations to play with, and you will find this to be an easy process once you get the hang of it.

Step 1:
Create a New Document

I use the following settings as if I was preparing this text for a small print piece. The values throughout this tutorial would need to be adjusted, but this effect works just as well designing at web resolutions and also with much larger print canvas sizes.

Step 2:
Create the Lettering

With the blank canvas in front of you, select the type tool and create the text you want to alter. This will create a new layer. I used default black for the type color, but this has no bearing on the final product.

Step 3
Create the Color Layer

Create a new layer and fill it with an appropriate background color. You can use a light gray to create silver letters, a yellow/tan color for creating gold letters, or a deep orange for creating a bronze effect. If you double-click on the name of the layer, you can rename it. I have named this layer ‘Background Color.’

Step 4
Build the Antique Base Texture

To build the antique base texture, I use a combination of a few filters. The possibilities are endless in this step, so be sure to try a few. The more scratchy and irregular the texture you develop here is, the more the letters will end up with patina and irregularities.

First I use the noise filter
Filters > Noise > Add Noise

Next, I choose the glass filter.
Filters > Distort > Glass

I could have spent a lot more time developing a unique pattern, but the irregularities in this result will make a good illustration for this tutorial. Here is the result.

Step 5
Create a Backup

I can’t stress the importance of this step enough. Create a duplicate layer containing the texture you just developed. Turn that layer’s visibility off and click on the copied layer to make it active.

The reason for this is to allow you to use your work so far for future text effects. We are going to destroy the copied layer with other effects, so a backup means never repeating the steps we just did in the future.

Step 6
Creating the Alpha Channel

Click on the ‘Channels’ tab. You should see something like what is displayed below.

Click the button at the bottom of the palette that looks like a sheet of paper with the corner turned up. This creates a new channel.

Alpha 1 is the default name for a new channel. You can rename this channel, but I don’t see any reason to do so in this procedure. Your channels should now look like this:

Notice that once you select the ‘Alpha 1’ channel, the colors in the toolbar automatically convert to default black and default white.

Step 7
Treating the Alpha Layer

Click on the Layers Tab. Command-Click the ‘T’ inside the square in the ‘deity’ layer. This will make a selection around the edges of your text.

Return to the channels palette and click on ‘Alpha 1’ to make it the active channel.

You will now see a black screen with the moving lines showing your selection

Expand the selection by a few pixels. At these canvas dimensions, 3 works well. In web applications you may want to expand by only 1 pixel, and in larger applications, you may want as much as 10 or even 20 pixels.

Select > Modify > Expand

Now feather the selection edge using the same sliding scale depending on your canvas size.

Select > Modify > Feather

Now the fun starts. With the ‘Alpha 1’ layer still selected, hit command-delete. This will fill the selection with the background color of white. Your canvas should now look like this. After you have filled the selection with white, hit command-D to deselect your selection. (The marching ants around your letters should disappear) You can also do this in the select menu:

Select > Deselect

Step 8
Apply Lighting

Return to the Layers palette by clicking on the ‘Layers’ tab. Select the ‘Background Color copy’ layer to make it the active layer.

Apply the following lighting effect, or play with the sliders and options to create something suited to your project. The most important part of this step is to set the Texture Channel to ‘Alpha 1’, make sure that ‘White is High’ is checked, and set the slider height to 100 – mountainous.

Filter > Render > Lighting Effects

After hitting ‘OK’, you should see something similar to this:

Step 9
Putting the Text On Its Own Layer

Click on the ‘Background Color copy’ layer to make it the active layer. Once again, Command-Click the ‘T’ inside of the square on the ‘deity’ layer. This will make a selection around the text.

Hit Command-J. This will take whatever is selected on the active layer and pop it up onto its own layer. I renamed this new layer, ‘Text Effect.’

Step 10
Applying Layer Effects

You can add some additional nuance to the raw text effect by adding some blending options in the ‘Layer Style’ palette.

Access this palette by double-clicking to the right of the layer name, or you can access it through the menus:

Layer > Layer Style > Blending Options

I like to add a chiseled bevel effect to the text as illustrated below.

In this case, a warm glow seems appropriate. I added one this way:

Finally, I include a drop shadow that is fairly faint and not huge.

To exit out of this palette, hit ‘OK.’ (Hitting ‘Cancel’ exits also, but will not keep any of the effects you just applied.

Here is the final lettering effect:

The letters may look a bit strange on a white background, but who would ever put those letters on a white background? I made a quick background of some stock images and dragged the text effect layer from its original document onto the new one. Here is the final look: