Since this is an advanced tutorial, it assumes that you are somewhat familiar with creating gradients. If not, please refer to the Gold Text tutorial on my PSP 7 website.
Creating a Gold Gradient
This tutorial will help you to create a gradient that will give your text a real gold look. It is a newer version of the gold tutorial that appears on my other web pages for PSP 7 with some improvements.
Since this is an advanced tutorial, it assumes that you are somewhat familiar with creating gradients. If not, please refer to the Gold Text tutorial on my PSP 7 website.
In the Color palette, click the gradient option in either the Foreground or Background color box to convert the color box from a solid color to a gradient color. Then click the gradient color to bring up the Materials dialog window. When the Materials dialog window appears click the edit button under the gradient to bring up the Gradient Editor. It does not matter which gradient is displayed in this window since we will be creating a new one. 
In the Gradient Editor window select the New button and type the name of the new gradient ' RealGold'. Next create  7 locations by placing the Mouse button dirctly under the Gradient bar and clicking it 5 times at the approximate places shown. Each time you click a small box with an arrowhead will appear at that location. Note that location 0 and 100 are there by default when you create a new Gradient. Also, it is not important to be accurate with the locations at this point since we will be fine tuning them as we go along.

Next click the mouse in the box at location zero (0), then place the mouse pointer in the custom color box on the left. The mouse pointer will change to an eyedropper tool. Click the Left mouse button to bring up the Color Dialog window.

In the Color Dialog window enter values for Red, Green and Blue.  For location zero (0) R=184, G=164 and B=88 as shown. Click Ok to accept the color change.

PSP will return you to the Gradient Editor window. You must now repeat the process for the next location. Click the second box from the left under the Gradient bar. Then in the Location box enter the number 9. Place the pointer in the custom color box and click the Left mouse button to bring up the Color dialog window again. For locatio 9, R=135, G=121 and B=58. Repeat the above steps until all 7 locations have the color values shown below.

Location  0         R=184          G=164          B=88
Location  9         R=135          G=121          B=58
Location 29        R=183          G=155          B=87
Location 48        R=255          G=255          B=255
Location 62        R=135          G=121          B=52
Location 87        R=225          G=217          B=187
Location 100      R=186          G=165          B=100

When done, you should have the Gradient shown above in Figure 2.          
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Applying the Effect
The effect should work fine with any text having a little bulk or thickness.
Open a new image file 300 x 100 pixels and make the background Black. The background will not make or brake the eefct, a darker background will have more of a visual impact. Now go to the Foreground box and select the Gradient color set. Then repeat the same for the Background color box.
Click the Left mouse pointer in the Foreground color box to bring up the Materials window and select the newly created RealGold gradient. Place the Angle at 180 then click OK to accept.

Repeat the process for the Background color box with one exception. After selecting the RealGold gradient, keep the Angle at 180  and check the Invert Gradient check box.


Foreground Gradient
Background Gradient
Next select the Text tool and enter some text. The sample text is an Impact Font at 72 points Bold created as Floating text.
With the Marquee in place around the Text, darken the color just a bit using Adjust > Brightness and Contrast > Levels command and setting the center diamond slider to 0.82
Now apply the Auto Contrast feature found in the Enhance Photo toolbar. In the Auto Contrast Enhancement window set the Bias to Darker, The Strength to Normal and the Appearance to Bold.
Now defloat the text using the Select None command or <Ctrl D> keys on the keyboard. Staying with the Photo toolbar, apply the Clarify command. Enhance Photo > Clarify. In the Clarify dialog widow use 5 for the Strength of Effect.
Finally apply the Unsharp Mask filter to really bring out the effect. In the USM dialog window set the Radius to 1.50, the Strength to 115 and the Clipping to 4 as shown.
A real polished GOLD look
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