Blade Pro is a wonderful plugin for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro,with an almost infinite number of effects possible. But by combining theBlade Pro effects with the layers feature of Paint Sho Pro even more stunningeffects are possible.

To do this tutorial you will first need to download and install theBlade Pro plugin and my Lead Preset file. Star by opening a new file, about300 x 100 pixels, with a white background and 16 million colors. Put downsome text in white and apply the Blade Pro filter using my Lead preset(soelead.q9q). You should get a nice 3D metallic look to your text. Deselectyour text.

Now go to the Layers menu and create a New Layer. For the moment,just leave the properties set at the default settings. Change your foregroundcolor to blue and put down your text again. Align the new text so thatis exactly above the old. Be sure to leave your text selected.

Now click on your Flood Fill tool and chooses Linear Gradient asyour Fill Style. In the Options Menu, set the degrees to 180 and the BlendMode to Normal. Click on each letter in turn.

Next return to the Layers Menu and select Properties. Set the blendmode to Multiply.  Your metallic text underneath should now show through.The result is a bit dark though.

To complete the effect, first go again to the Layers menu, and selectMerge:Merge All (Flatten). Then open the Colors Menu, Adjust: Hue/Saturation/Lightness.Set the Hue to 0, and the Saturation and Lightness to 100. You should getbeautifully colorful text with metallic highlights.

Many variations of this approach are possible, using different gradients,texture fills, and blend modes. Have fun experimenting.