[randy500]

Those are ways a novice would do it.

Here is the best way and it turns out great.

Recessed letters
Paint the gate the color it needs to be.
Use a touch up spray gun to paint the letters. Practice on a something until you can get the gun to spray a narrow pattern.
Adjust the gun for very minimal paint flow at the end of the trigger stroke, the first part will be air. You adjust it that way so the air is always on and you can feel when the paint is opened up, the air also helps dry the paint at the edges so you apply minimal paint.
You will be painting airbrush style back and forth in small areas until covered.
Paint the letters airbrush style.
Let it dry and wet sand the excess off using 1000 grit or so then buff or clearcoat the gate.
No tape lines and a smooth transition from letter color to body color.

Raised letters
Paint the letters with at least 4 coats.
Paint the gate with less coats and spray as light as you can on the letters.
When dry wet sand the paint off the letters revealing the color underneath.
Buff or clearcoat.

You might ask why cant I airbrush the raised letters...its too difficult to sand the beveled edges and get all the excess paint off and hard to buff those areas too.