Metal Text

We all know what it is like to make a wrong turn in Photoshop, press a wrong button or even, EEK, screw up an image up Royally ! Well, once is a great while, those mistakes turn into Gold...

I was messing around in Photoshop yesterday while doing an image for a client, and came across one of the coolest Metal Text Effects I have ever seen. And, it didn't require and fancy Channels. Just Layer Effects and some texturizing. Here are the steps.

Start a New Image, 500x200.

Choose the Vertical Text Tool (T), with White for your Foreground Color, and slap some letters in there. I am using GFXM for mine, for obvious reasons. Set the text size up there pretty high - 100 should be good. Now, duplicate the layer and choose #6C6C6C for your text color.

Now, in the Layer Pallette, click the "Add A Layer Style" button . Choose Drop Shadow and apply these settings.

Now, do not click OK yet. Click the Inner Glow option, and apply these settings.

Not quite done. Click the Bevel And Emboss option, and use these settings.

And, now we choose the Countour option, directly under Bevel And Emboss and apply these settings.

Click OK.

Hold down CTRL and Click the text layer, and go to Select > Modify > Contract > 4 Pixels... or, if your font is bigger than mine, set it higher. The point is to get the Marquee around the flat area of the text. As seen below.

Now that we have our flat area selected, we go to Filter > Texture > Texturizer and use these settings.

Next, we go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Crosshatch and use these settings.

Next, Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur with a setting of 3.

If all went to plan, you should have yourself a neat Metal Text Effect.

Use Image > Adjustments > Color Balance to give it some color - Blue looks real nice with this effect. Or, Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation and play with the Lightness settings to get a polished chrome look to it.

Hope you enjoy this Effect. Depending on the Font (Arial, Verdana) the effect may not look like mine. I used a nice little Freeware font called Battlefield for this. It is my favorite font. You can download it here.