In this tutorial, we'll make metallic text, as in this example:



Begin by opening a new image. Set the Height and Width a bit larger than what you want for your final text. You can always crop the image later, when your text is done.

Choose the Text tool. In the Tool Options palette, select Floating. Also set Font and Size. If you want a stroke (outline) on your text, set Stroke width (pixels). A small stroke, maybe just 1 pixel, will probably give the best results.



(If the Tool Options palette isn't showing in your workspace, press F4 to toggle it on.)

On the Materials palette, select the colors for the stroke and fill for your text. The fill should be a pale or medium gray. If you select a stroke, set it darker than the fill.

With the Text tool, click in the image canvas where you want to place the text. You'll then see the Text Entry dialog box. Enter the text you want in the Text Entry dialog box:



Click Apply. If the text isn't positioned exactly where you want it, drag it into place with the Text tool.

Your image will then look something like this:



If you look on the Layers palette, you'll see above the Background a layer button labeled Floating Selection. (If the Layers palette isn't showing on your workspace, press F8 to toggle it on.)

Right-click the Floating Selection layer button and choose Promote Selection to Layer. The Layers palette then looks like this:



Turn off the selection with Selections > Select None (or just press Ctrl+D).


Now add a bevel. Choose Effects > 3D Effects > Inner Bevel. The default settings are fine, but you can experiment to get the look you want for the bevel. The default settings with slightly increased Smoothness and slightly decreased Ambience a bit gives a result sonething like this:



Now for the metallic effect. Choose Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Curves. In the Curves dialog, change the shape of the curve so that it resembles an "M" or a "W", as shown below:



You change the shape of the curve by adding nodes and dragging the nodes on the curve into place. To add a node, just click on the curve where you want the node to appear. To delete a node, just drag it off the curve window. Click OK and the result will look something like this:



Voilà - metallic text! You can then crop the image if you like. When you're done, save your image in the format you want.

One variation on this method is to give the text a brushed metal look. To do this, save the original text selection to an alpha channel and then follow the steps above for metallic text. Then duplicate the text layer and add some monochrome noise. Apply a slight Motion Blur. To eliminate any blurring outside the edges of the text, load the text selection, invert the selection, and press the Delete key or choose Edit > Clear. Deselect, lower the opacity of the duplicated layer until you get the effect you want. The result will be something like this:



Merge the layers once you're done, if you like.

Whether you use the brushed metal method or the original smooth metal method, you might also want to colorize the text or maybe add a drop shadow. Here's an example of smooth metal copper-colored text with a drop shadow and some sharpening:



Be sure to try out other variations as well. And try the same methods on shapes to produce metallic plaques, buttons, and decorations, like this: