Gold text without looking like clip art
Good gold is warm base color, metalness 1, roughness in the 0.1–0.3 band, and warm-key lighting. Where each of the site's gold presets fits: solar, clean, brushed, rose.
Why gold goes wrong
Bad gold is yellow plastic: diffuse color with specular highlights. Good gold is a metal — its reflection is tinted warm, and everything else about it is environment. Set metalness to 1, and let the color be a tint on reflections rather than a paint job.
Roughness is the register dial: 0.1 is trophy shine, 0.25 is bullion, 0.4 is brushed hardware.
The family on this site
Gold Solar is the high-energy version — warm with strong highlights, the one that survives small sizes. Gold Clean is neutral bullion for coin faces. Rose Gold drops saturation for jewelry register. Each has a dedicated page showing the live shader values.
Lighting gold
Warm-key environments — Sunset and Dawn — reinforce the metal's tint. Studio works when the gold must look like a product photo rather than a ceremony. Avoid Night and City for gold unless the brief says 'nightclub'; their cool light fights the warmth.
Pairing notes
Gold against piano black is the classic luxury pair. Gold against deep navy reads institutional. If two metals must share a frame — gold mark on a platinum base — keep both roughness values close so they feel like the same camera exposure.