How to fill in outlined text with transparency-to-color gradient in Illustrator

I'm trying to create a fading effect on an outlined text by adding gradient to transparency. Is it possible to do so?

My idea was to create an object to overlap it, but I cannot make the object of the background color because I already have a slight gradient there and it is impossible to match them.

So I thought that it might be somehow possible to make the overlapping object transparent-to-blue and somehow apply that effect to the text object, but I cannot figure out how to make it. Can someone help me with that please?

To illustrate my thought I'm attaching a picture:

The text should have a gradient from transparent to blue from left to right.

If I just apply the gradient to the text it applies an individual gradient to every letter, I want it to go across all of the letters (one gradient).

Answer

You can add a new appearance to the text.

Group the text (Ctrl+G) and open up the Appearance Panel (Window → Appearance)

• Select the group


• Click on the dropdown and select Add New Fill

Now apply the gradient:

This also works for Radial Gradients (not only Linear):