I am more a developer and not a graphic designer, and because I really don't do this kind of stuff often (more like once in two years or so) I don't want spend a lot of money on tools i'm not going to use regularly. So my graphics program is Paint.NET, and so far it could do everything I wanted, and I'm pretty sure it can do what I want, but I just don't know how. ;-)
So here's the question:
I want a transparent image (so far no Problem). On this image should be a gradient line from white to black back to white (also not a problem). Above this line should be a text. So far no problem too.
Now the tricky part: This text should be filled with a gradient going from gray on top to almost white on the bottom.
I can't fill text with a gradient directly, and all my approaches with different layers ended up in overlapping the transparent background (which is needed).
So what are the steps to create this gradient filled text with Paint.NET (I really think it requires layers, but I don't know how to stack and configure the effects on them)?