I was actually searching for a text with paint program, because i didn't want to pay 39 dollars for one...lol
Found this gem, but i do not think you can paint with text like pingotec (the not free software).
Here are the infos.

http://www.mosaizer.com/Textaizer/index.htm

Paint with text - FREE!

Textaizer Pro 4 has been released!
Textaizer Pro 4 is the newest version of the popular text art software from APP Helmond. We have fully redesigned the software: more stable, simpler interface and an exciting new feature: Crazy Characters.
What is Textaizer Pro?
Textaizer Pro is a text mosaic creator with extensive possibilities to also create genuine ASCII art.
What can you do with Textaizer Pro?
You can turn any picture into little pieces of art by re-painting its bitmap from a text. Simply choose a text file and the target picture and press the button. Hide your text in a picture and send it to your loved one as a 'secret'
Just in case you're short of the right words.. message. Or simply create and print balloons from 'happy birthday' words.
Is Textaizer Pro a unique program?
Yes. Many ASCII art applications can be found on the internet and also some text mosiac creators. Textaizer Pro is however one of the few programs that combines these two possibilities and above all it's freeware. And that makes Textaizer Pro unique.
The key features of Textaizer Pro
A text mosaic is a picture which is built from hundreds or thousands of characters. Each character takes the color of the area that is replaced by this character, and when looking from a distance the original source picture is recognised. If looking close-up, the individual characters can be seen.
When sentences are taken a source text, this story is then printed as a picture ('every picture tells a story'). With Textaizer Pro you can make such text mosaic pictures.
But Textaizer Pro can do much more that just that. The key features are:

* create text mosaics (limits: perhaps, we have built a 4000x5000 pixels poster of 59 Mb)
* extensive pre- and post-processing with color correction filters, size, font and background
* create bitmaps from text (aka ASCII art)
* IntelliDraw: create ASCII art directly from drawn lines
* free drawing ASCII art, with eraser functionality
* create video with ASCII art from video clips
* large viewing window with seamless zoom
* a wide variety of output: text, html, bitmap, avi
* HTML file generation in two modes: color or black & white

Well i downloaded all their freeware. it looks promising. =)

I looked at the software and wondered if those results could somehow be emulated in GIMP. This is just a dinkin' around result. The software looks very cool, Rod and I'd love to see your results from it.

I got the original balloon image here. I should have removed the string.

I dinked around this program a while back (ran it Sandboxed since I was paranoid and have since deleted the Sandbox) and it was pretty cool as I recall. Might give it a whirl again since light's been reshined on this gem. Thanks for the memory refresh Rod.

Rob A method (quick and simple):



Textaizer didn't work for me in Ubuntu (using Wine) as it just kept hanging and crashing.

@ O - I was busy screwing with the original picture...lol (the woman)
Didn't think of using another pic under the text in Gimp...maybe with some layer modes it would look cool?
That balloon looks neat. Anyways i am still busy messing with the settings...i'll post something up soon created with it. (i have been busy with the text-cloud generator wordaize too)
Some nice free-bies here.Glad you guys could use them.

@ Lyle - Glad i could help.

@ Mahvin - Sorry you couldn't use it, it is some real cool freeware.

Rod thank for posting this also the other SW seems cool and even if they require a registration after 30 days are all free

good find really

@Mahvin
i will try with wine i woill let you know

Thanks for the link bro! I'll definitely give this a try (on a virtual machine though) I've always wanted to figure out how to do this in Gimp, I've came close with a few good results, but nothing that really caught my eye, but maybe that's cause I'm not an easy person to impress.

Something i just found out was that this freeware opens and creates art text from PSD files too!
Sadly it will not recognize XCF format.
Keep in mind this is all color text, no bg image is used here! WOW!

I think the bigger the image the better, and more realistic your results are going to be.