[Text on text & gradual transparency]

^ Yes, these letters are going to go on top of a photo. So 'hard-coding' the background color in the letters wouldn't work.

[Text on text & gradual transparency]

I got it to work.

I had to check 'mix alpha' when applying alpha mask to the background letters, to make sure the transparent background of that layer didn't turn white.

Again, thanks a bunch. You da man

[Text on text & gradual transparency]

Awesome! Thanks so much for the reply. Will give this a shot (and learn a lot along the way).

[Text on text & gradual transparency]

I'm trying to figure out how to accomplish the following:

I have some text on top of text. Now, in order to avoid garbled symbols, I want the text ON TOP to have a border of transparency around it, letting the background come through. This border of transparency should fade out.

I got as close as this. However, it's not what I need.

But I don't want the lower 'Test' to have WHITE stuff around it--instead, it should be transparent, so that the blue shines through.

So basically I want the lower 'Test' (that's in FRONT) to have a transparent blur around it, obscuring the capitalized 'TEST' (in the BACK), letting the background come through. And this should be gradual.

Hope someone here knows how I can get this done.