1. Make a 16,7M color picture, white foreground and black background. (i.e 400x400 pixels)
2. Type a text which fits the screen. Take a nice full font and type it not too small. (i.e. Pickwick 100 pixels)

3. Save selection to disk, you'll need it later on..

How to Save Selection:

• Click on selections on the menu bar
• Click on Save...
• Name your file and save it with the .sel extension

4. Release selection, and select Blur More. After that Dilate the image 3 times. When the insides of the characters (for example the inside of the 'O') disappear, select a larger font, you can always resample the final text. Also when the individual characters start dilating into each other, select a wider/larger font.

5. Load the selection again,

How to Load Your Selection

• Click on Selections on the menu bar
• Click on Load
• Select your 'saved' file
• CLick ok

6. Release selection, and select all again by choosing; "Selections|Select all" and after that "Selections|Modify..|Transparent" and set the transparency to black.

NOTE: If the inside of the characters aren't selected properly, select a larger font or try setting the tolerance level to 5 when modifying the transparency..

7. Now, select "Special Effects|Cutout" and set Vertical to -8 and horizontal to 8. Also uncheck "Fill interior" and choose your Black as your shadow color. The opacity should be 190 and the blur 10.. When you've chosen a more dense font, take "-6" and "6" as your vertical and horizontal parameters (The font PickWick(100 pixels) should work with the -8 and 8 parameters).

8. Choose "Special Effects|Hot Wax coating". Make sure your selection is still around your text.

9. Now brighten up your selection using "Colors|Adjust..|Brightness/Contrast" and select Brightness 16 and contrast 10. When you like a less bright gold effect, choose 12 or 14 for your Brightness.

10. Colorize your font with Colors|Colorize and set Hue to 24 and Sat to 240. You want some less gold, try 24 and 204. Try some other values here, to give your font a different look. 11. (optional) resample your picture to a smaller size, and sharpen it once. You could also sharpen your picture without resampling. But if you resample, sharpen it afterwards! Or else it loses it's sharp golden touch.

Done!!

PSP 4.0 Tips and Tricks Index