For example, if you had a text field that looked like:

Then the function call would look like:

drawGradientText(this, myTextField, 10, 10, "gradientStyle");

Your code would also need to include the GradientCanvas class, and define a CSS class like this:

.gradientStyle    {fill-alphas: 1,1; fill-colors: #ff0000, #0000ff; corner-radius: 0}

The complete function is:

    public static function drawGradientText(container:UIComponent, sourceText:Text, sourceTextX:Number, sourceTextY:Number, gradientStyleName:String)
    {
       // check text height and width as zero values will lead to an invalid bitmap error
   if ( (sourceText.height < 1) || (sourceText.width < 1) ) return;

       // create a bitmap version of text to be used as a stencil
       var bitmapData:BitmapData = new BitmapData(sourceText.width, sourceText.height, true, 0);
       // use a matrix when writing into the bitmap to preserve transparency
       bitmapData.draw(sourceText, new Matrix());
       // convert the bitmap data into an image object to be able to add it to the flex stage as a UI Component
       var bitmap:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bitmapData, "auto", true);
       var image:Image = new Image();
       image.source = bitmap;
       image.cacheAsBitmap = true;
       // object and mask have to be directly over each other on the stage
       image.x = sourceTextX;
       image.y = sourceTextY;
       // add to the stage
       container.addChild(image);
    
       // create a gradient with the same size as the text bitmap
       var gradientCanvas:GradientCanvas = new GradientCanvas();
       gradientCanvas.width = sourceText.width;
       gradientCanvas.height = sourceText.height;
       // object and mask have to be directly over each other on the stage
       gradientCanvas.x = sourceTextX;
       gradientCanvas.y = sourceTextY;
       // set gradient colors
       gradientCanvas.styleName = gradientStyleName;
       // make the gradient's vector art available as a bitmap in Flash
       gradientCanvas.cacheAsBitmap = true;
       // mask the gradient with the text stencil
       gradientCanvas.mask = image;
       // add to the stage
       container.addChild(gradientCanvas);
    }