First type out your text how you want it to appear. Here I had two text layers. One for “OF THE” and another for the rest of the text. Make sure you use a Serif font.

Apply these Bevel and Emboss settings to all your text layers.

Also a color overlay to all layers.

With some distressed brushes, delete parts of the text. After you do that, rasterize both layers and merge them: Select them both, right click on one and select “Merge Layers”.

Now duplicate this new merged layer, and apply these Brightness and Contrast settings to it.

Put that layer on top and set the blending mode to “Multiply”.

Make a new layer right above the original text layer, and put some brush strokes on it. Use distressed brushes if you have them.

Set this layer’s blend mode to “Soft Light”.

Add a drop shadow with the original settings.

Now you can add a background or put it on a banner, header, or poster.

Keywords: Adobe Photoshop CS2, CS3, Text effects, how to make text look old, Making metallic text.