How to make a glowing text?

Question

I'd like to achieve such a result, like when you apply a glowing effect to a text in an image editor.

---

As I am already using tikz package in my document, it would be prefferable to use tikz's library.

I found out, that there is a shadows.blur one which would create a soft shadow. Then I would shift it so that it looks like a glowing effect.

However, unfortunately, this attempt makes a rectangle rather than the text's shadow.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shadows.blur}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[preaction={blur shadow={shadow xshift=-.5mm,shadow yshift=.5mm}}] at (1,1) {Test};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 1

You could use a combination of tikz and contour package.

\documentclass[12pt,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage[outline]{contour}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.text}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\def\mycontour#1{\textcolor{black}{\contour{green!20}{#1}}}
\node (1) at (0cm, 0cm) {};
\node (2) at (2cm,0cm) {};   
\draw[
decoration={text effects along path,
text={Text},
text align=center,
text effects/.cd,
text along path, scale text to path,
characters={font=\Huge,character command=\mycontour},
},decorate,
]  (1) to (2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

or just

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage[outline]{contour}
\contourlength{1pt}
\contournumber{27}
\newcommand{\mycontour}[2][green!20]{\textcolor{black}{\contour{#1}{#2}}}
\begin{document}
\Huge\mycontour{Text}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Just one step further from the previous answer. This one uses the idea of Faded or blurred lines

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[outline]{contour}

\begin{document}

\Huge

Assume pdf\TeX

\def\exText{LIPSUM}

\makeatletter

    Reverse engineer the contour package.

    Here is an MWE
    \leavevmode
    \begingroup
        \color{green}%
        \con@coloroff
        \pdfliteral{%
            q % enter a scope
            1 j % Set line join style
            1 J % Set line cap style
            1 Tr % Set text rendering mode
            2.5 w % Set line width (in PostScript Point)
        }%
        \rlap{\exText}%
        \pdfliteral{%
            Q % leave the scope
        }%
    \endgroup
    \mbox{\exText}


    Now use TikZ.
    \leavevmode
    \pgfsys@beginscope% = pdf literal q
    \pgfsetroundjoin% = 1 J
    \pgfsetroundcap% = 1 j
    \pdfliteral{1 Tr}% no pgf alternative
    \foreach\ind in{10,...,1}{%
        \pgfmathsetmacro\per{(11-\ind)*5}%
        \color{green!\per}%
        \pgfsetlinewidth{\ind/2}%
        \rlap{\exText}%
    }%
    \pgfsys@endscope % = pdf literal Q
    \exText

\makeatother

\end{document}