Back in 2020 I was fascinated by the concept of graphical text styles and dreamed of having a layer effects engine in Gimp. Now that the wish came true and a lot of time passed with me make making countless text styles and putting thousands of hours in Gimp. Its getting old (for me).

Fancy text is not as interesting as it use to be for me. This is because I can make any text style I want with very little effort. Where as back in early 2022 it took a lot of effort and I was limited. The hard work and limitations is what made things fun, exploring every possibility nook and cranny ends the fun. I'm thinking of finding new interest that are physical. I have an interest in martial arts and swimming. So I'll be using Gimp less and less nowadays. Just posting this for reference on what's up in my life.

I understand the feeling. When something is too easy, it soon becomes just a habit. I hope you enjoy your activities. I'm going to try and get my walking head on and my painting and musical heads instead of instantly switching on Deep Dream and allowing AI to entertain me. I feel like I have shriveled up inside. Good luck and come and visit us occasionally.

All the best with your new interests contrast.

Thank everyone who replied. Yeah, its 58 GEGL plugins so far and two more and I'll be at 60. I'm not trying to force a higher number so this might be the end of my plugin collection. I'm spending much less time in GEGL Graph then I use to. (The ol 4 hours a day writing GEGL syntax and looking for new things) Fun fact, Back in December 2020 I was outside in the chilly weather thinking to myself that Gimp 3 was right around the corner. I'd had no idea three years later there would still be the wait. The long wait. LOL I don't expect Gimp 3 to be released in 2023 but I do expect my layer effects engine to be in the next 2.99 release or shorty after. Once my layer effects engine is in Gimp I will most likely leave the community for good.

If you want to make a difference with GEGL please consider studying the source code of my GEGL filters, there are many things I know about GEGL that are only documented on this forum; such as how to use Gimp only blend modes in GEGL. Which allows far better filters then GEGL native blend modes.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20244&hilit=blend+modes&start=10#p279732

No one has even started making GEGL plugins which means I have no one to coach or explain the facts too. In example I still keep learning new things; such as how to update filters without breaking presets. Like I did with my metallic plugin here.
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19927&p=284094#p284094


It does make it a bit sad I have no other people here who understand GEGL. I made a ton of discoveries with GEGL and have done things Gimp team has never done but its all me and no one else. I'd be really happy if someone made a GEGL plugin before Jan 1st 2024.

Gimp needs a large community like It did in the late 2000s. Its obvious it doesn't have one. That is the reason why I am losing interest. And even if it had a large community. There would still be no GEGL dev people but me.

I was one of the early Apple Mac users in the 1980s. So I ran out my fancy-text phase many decades ago.

I was also a GUI design fanatic, and a stickler for Apple’s official User-Interface Guidelines. But after seeing companies (including Apple itself) ignore those in their products, and get away with it, I got disillusioned over that as well. Nowadays I see GUI design seems mostly a matter of fashion, no longer primarily about functionality at all.