hi,

needing to draw some text transparently I'm wondering whether I should draw it to a temporary bitmap first then set the blender and use al_draw_tinted_bitmap or if there's another better way.

please advise...

Yes, al_draw_text(); contains a color parameter, so just pass a color with alpha.

IMPORTANT:

As of the newest versions of A5 (since 5.0.0 RC3), you'll need to also multiply the color components of your tint by the alpha to get correct results.

ALLEGRO_FONT *font = get_font("UnionBold.ttf", -30);
float alpha = 0.5f;
ALLEGRO_COLOR color = al_map_rgba_f(1.0*alpha, 0.4*alpha, 0.6*alpha, alpha); // <-- correct
//ALLEGRO_COLOR color = al_map_rgba_f(1.0, 0.4, 0.6, alpha); // <--no longer correct

al_draw_text(font, color, 10, 10, NULL, "This is transparent text.");

This is new.