How to Create a Luxury Gold Text Effect Action in Photoshop

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

If you read my tutorials, you see that I like to show people how to create Photoshop actions. That's because Photoshop actions make the process a lot easier when you want to apply Photoshop font effects.

Today I will show you how to create an action in Photoshop using styles and a gradient map. You will learn how to create expensive-looking gold-style Photoshop text effects and how to change the colors of a layer style the simple way, which can be used in almost any text design you want.

The luxury gold text Photoshop action of this tutorial was inspired by the Elegant text effect of Delicate Photoshop Text Effects. The same method of changing colors in this tutorial can be applied to the original text effect.

At the end of this tutorial, I will link to more tutorials you may also like, so don't forget to check those if you are interested in learning how to create text effects with Photoshop layer styles or Illustrator. I will link to tutorials on things like how to outline text in Photoshop, which are essential for any designer.

Don't forget to check the original text effect: Delicate Photoshop Text Effects.

Delicate photoshop text effects promo image — Delicate Photoshop Text Effects

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during this tutorial:

Lobster1.4 font
Cushioned Pattern *
Background image inside the zip file attached to this tutorial

* The cushioned pattern had to be edited. It is inside the zip file attached to this tutorial.

1. How to Create the Layer Styles

Step 1

Download the zip file attached to this tutorial and extract it to the desktop. After that, open Luxury-Background.jpg with Photoshop.

Step 2

Pick the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and set the font to Lobster 1.4 and font size to 139 pt. Then write "Luxury" in the center of the document.

Step 3

Now go to the Layers panel and double-click on the text layer to open the Layer Style panel. After that, add a Gradient Overlay with these settings:

Blend Mode: Normal
Dither: Off
Opacity: 100%
Style: Linear
Align with Layer: On
Angle: 90º
Scale: 120%

Then click on the gradient bar and edit it with these settings:

First Stop Color: #bfbfbf Location: 0%
Second Stop Color: #4e4e4e Location: 100%

Step 4

Now add an Inner Glow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 51%
Noise: 6%
Color: #cbcbcb
Technique: Softer
Source: Center
Choke: 0%
Size: 46 px
Contour: Linear
Anti-aliased: Off
Range: 58%
Jitter: 0%

Step 5

Add a Drop Shadow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Normal
Color: #9d9d9d
Opacity: 100%
Use Global Light: Off
Angle: 180º
Distance: 6 px
Spread: 100%
Size: 4 px
Contour: Linear
Anti-aliased: Off
Noise: 0%
Layer Knocks Out Drop Shadow: On

Step 6

Now add an Inner Shadow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Soft Light
Color: #727272
Opacity: 100%
Use Global Light: Off
Angle: -90º
Distance: 1 px
Choke: 20%
Size: 35 px
Contour: Linear
Anti-aliased: On
Noise: 0%

Step 7

Add a Stroke with these settings:

Size: 9 px
Position: Center
Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Overprint: Off
Fill Type: Gradient
Reverse: Off
Style: Shape Burst
Align with Layer: On
Angle: 90º
Dither: Off
Scale: 100%

Then click on the gradient bar and edit it with these settings:

First Stop Color: #cecece Location: 0%
Second Stop Color: #adadad Location: 100%

Step 8

Now add a Bevel & Emboss with these settings:

Style: Stroke Emboss
Technique: Smooth
Depth: 592%
Direction: Up
Size: 13 px
Soften: 0 px
Use Global Light: Off
Angle: 85º
Altitude: 32º
Anti-aliased: Off
Highlight Mode: Screen Color #ffffff Opacity: 66%
Shadow Mode: Multiply Color: #000000 Opacity: 44%

After that, click on the Gloss Contour box to edit it.

To add a point to the contour curve, you have to click on the line. To remove a point, click and drag it outside the window.

Create a contour with these settings:

First Point Input: 0% Output: 38% Corner: Off
Second Point Input: 18% Output: 71% Corner: On
Third Point Input: 35% Output: 69% Corner: On
Fourth Point Input: 54% Output: 82% Corner: Off
Fifth Point Input: 100% Output: 91% Corner: Off

Then click on New and save the contour as Luxury Contour.

Here is how the text effect should look by now:

Step 9

Now click on New Style and name it Lux Style A. Don't close the Layer Style window yet. We are going to create the second layer style now.

Click on the tick boxes of the Gradient Overlay and Drop Shadow effects to disable them.

Step 10

Edit the Bevel & Emboss with these settings:

Style: Inner Bevel
Technique: Smooth
Depth: 448%
Direction: Up
Size: 29 px
Soften: 0 px
Use Global Light: Off
Angle: 85º
Altitude: 32º
Anti-aliased: Off
Highlight Mode: Screen Color #7b7b7b Opacity: 61%
Shadow Mode: Screen Color: #d8d8d8 Opacity: 65%

Then click on the Gloss Contour box and edit it with these settings:

First Point Input: 0% Output: 0% Corner: Off
Second Point Input: 22% Output: 98% Corner: On
Third Point Input: 51% Output: 62% Corner: On
Fourth Point Input: 75% Output: 52% Corner: On
Fifth Point Input: 100% Output: 17% Corner: Off

Step 11

Now edit the Stroke effect with these settings:

Size: 8 px
Position: Inside
Blend Mode: Normal
Opacity: 100%
Overprint: Off
Fill Type: Gradient
Reverse: Off
Style: Linear
Align with Layer: On
Angle: -90º
Dither: Off
Scale: 100%

Step 12

Edit the Inner Shadow effect with these settings:

Blend Mode: Normal
Color: #d8d8d8
Opacity: 83%
Use Global Light: Off
Angle: -90º
Distance: 0 px
Choke: 100%
Size: 9 px
Contour: Gaussian
Anti-aliased: On
Noise: 0%

Step 13

Now edit the Inner Glow with these settings:

Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 51%
Noise: 6%
Color: #bfbfbf
Technique: Softer
Source: Center
Choke: 0%
Size: 46 px
Contour: Linear
Anti-aliased: Off
Range: 58%
Jitter: 0%

Step 14

Add a Color Overlay with these settings:

Blend Mode: Color Dodge
Color: #d4d4d4
Opacity: 6%

Step 15

Now we are going to use the pattern that is attached to this tutorial. The original pattern is from Pixabay and it is not seamless, so I had to edit it and make it ready for this tutorial.

Add a Pattern Overlay with these settings:

Blend Mode: Multiply
Opacity: 100%
Pattern: Lux pattern (zip file)
Scale: 25%
Link with Layer: On

Step 16

Now click on New Style and save it as Lux Style B. After that, click OK to close the Layer Style window.

This is how the text effect should look:

2. How to Record the Action

Step 1

Go to Window > Actions to open the Actions panel. Then click on the Create new set icon and name it My Text Effects.

Step 2

Go to the Layers panel and select the text layer. After that, go back to the Actions panel and click on Create new action icon and name it Luxury Text Effect.

Now Photoshop will record the next steps. Keep an eye on the Actions panel and delete any mistaken or unnecessary steps by dragging them to the trash bin icon.

Step 3

Pick the Horizontal Type Tool (T) and change the text size to 140 pt. Then rename the text layer to Lux A. After that, go to Window > Styles to open the Styles panel and click on Lux Style A to apply it to the text.

Step 4

Now press Control-J to duplicate the layer. After that, rename the new layer to Lux B and apply the Lux Style B to it.

Step 5

Press and hold the Control key and select both text layers. Then right-click on one of the text layers and choose Convert to Smart Object. After that, rename the smart object to Luxury Text Effect.

Step 6

Now we are going to set the colors of the text effect. You can make it any color you want. Today I will show you how to create a gold color with some dark purple shadows.

Go to Window > Adjustments and click on the Gradient Map icon. After that, right-click on the Gradient Map layer and choose Create Clipping Mask.

Step 7

Go to the Layers panel and double-click on the thumbnail of the gradient map to open the Properties panel. Then go to the Properties panel and click on the gradient bar to open the Gradient Editor.

Click below the gradient bar to create new stops. Use these settings:

First Stop Color: #000000 Location: 22%
Second Stop Color: #49002b Location: 46%
Third Stop Color: #ff8f21 Location: 78%
Fourth Stop Color: #ffedd3 Location: 100%

Step 8

Go to the Actions panel and click on Stop recording to finish the action.

Step 9

Let's add a simple shadow below the text to make it look better. Pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool (U) and create a narrow black shape below the text layer.

Step 10

Change the Opacity of the shape layer to 34%. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set it to 8.0 pixels.

And We're Done!

Remember to save the action and the layer styles, so you can reinstall them later if you need to. Also, this Photoshop action was created in a 300 dpi document, so if you play it on a document with a different dpi, the text effect will look different.

In this tutorial, you learned how to create a luxurious text effect. We used two layer styles and a gradient map for that. We also recorded a Photoshop action to apply the text effect quickly to any text we want. Now, every time you want the same effect, you just need to select the Luxury action in the Actions panel and click on Play.

Don't forget to check the original text effect: Delicate Photoshop Text Effects.

Here are some tutorials that you may also like: