Unfortunately if you use blending and issue say glColor4f(1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0); before creating the quad with the font texture on it, it alters the colour of the quad behind it. So I've been investigating using shaders. I think part of the problem is I'm not experienced enough with the OpenGL render pipeline and the associated background knowledge hence my looking for some assistance. I'm working on the 3D stuff and learning the OpenGL pipeline.

I should add, that the issue with blending may just be down to me not fully understanding the blending functions.