Colour of Gold

Gold is yellow. Simple yellow is dull, but the yellow of gold glows.

Here, the glowing effect of the letters is achieved with a little known, but relatively easy graphic design trick.

- Type the text in your usual black.

- Turn the text into an image: make a screenshot, 'print' to PDF or export to iPhoto as JPEG.

- Reimport the image of the text into your document.

- Rub out the black letters with Instant Alpha (under Format menu).

- Insert a shape, for example a Rectangle, from the Toolbar.

- In Graphic Inspector, choose Gradient Color fill, and choose Cantaloupe and Tangerine from the Crayons box. 

- Under Arrange menu choose Send to Back. The shape will slide behind the lettering and its colors will be seen through the letters. 

- With Alpha, we made them into 'holes'. It is through these holes that we see the colour. 

- Select the image of the text. In Graphic Inspector, tick the Shadow checkbox. As the 'letter-holes' are now represent the edges of the object, they throw shadows too. 

- Click in the color well below the Shadow checkbox and choose Cantaloupe. The shadow will give additional glow to the letters.

Wikipedia has an article on the Colour of Gold which gives RGB and CMYK readings for variations of the color. Open Colors Viewer/Inspector (Command+Shift+C), click on the sliders icon and choose CMYK from the drop-down menu. Type in your preferred CMYK reading to get the colour of gold you want.