Chrome

One of the nice things that you can do with PSP 7 is to create great visual text effects. This is one of my favorites, and in this tutorial, I'll show you how to apply some basic tools to achieve a look of real chrome.

To Start, open a new file 600 x 200 pixels. Leave the background color White for now. You can always change it later.

Next, select the Text tool. Place the crosshairs in the window where you want your text to start and click the left mouse button. The Text editor window will open. Here is where we will define our text color and style. Begin by clicking the Black arrow in the Fill color box and select the gradient fill. Now click the center of the gradient color box to open the Gradient window. The window will show the Current gradient selected and the Style. Click the down arrow to the right of the preview window and select the Metallic gradient. Now go to the Style group and choose the Linear Gradient. Click OK. For the Stroke color, choose a dark Gray.

Finally check the Create as Vector radio button and then click OK.

Type the word CHROME in the text box. For the purpose of this tutorial I have chosen a font called FONT at 72 points. This type of font will allow you to see the effects easier as they are being applied. In theory, any font will work. However, with very thin fonts the effects are not as noticeable. Finish typing and click OK.

When the text appears in the file window, use Layers>Convert to Raster Layer to remove the handles.

Next, Select Effects>Edge>Enhance to highlight the edges. Then select Effects>Enhance Photo>Automatic Contrast Enhancement and set the Bias to Darken, the Strength to Normal and Appearance to Bold, to obtain the image below. As you can see, we are starting to see a chrome effect even before applying the Artistic Chrome filter. That's the point.

Now for the filter. Select Effects>Artistic Effects>Chrome and you should see the image shown below. Yoou can push this effects a little farther by using the UnSharp filter.