The free Paint.NET program seems to be the best option for handling 8bf files in Gimp 3 (+ a lot of other plugins e.g. GMIC 3.5.3 ).
Paint_dot_NET_plugin is a simple modification of the nikplugin.py plugin by iiey.

My installation steps:
1. downolad from https://github.com/paintdotnet/release/ ... tag/v5.1.7 paint.net.5.1.7.portable.x64.zip
2. unzip this file
3. replace name paint.net.5.1.7.portable.x64 to paintdotnet
4. locate paintdotnet to c:\Program Files\paintdotnet\
5. downolad PSFilterPdn.zip from https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/20622 ... ent-343262
6. unzip this file
7. locate this folder to c:\Program Files\paintdotnet\Effects\PSFilterPdn\
8. download and instal Paint_dot_NET_plugin (in ... GIMP\3.0\plug-ins\Paint_dot_NET_plugin\Paint_dot_NET_plugin.py)

In menu: Filters ➤ ShellOut ➤ PaintdotNET















Temporary files are saved in:
C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\

A little tip:
Some plugins don't work when the image has an alpha channel (e.g. Impressionist.8bf)
Then:
- copy the layer
- remove the alpha channel
- run the plugin with the option: "Use_current_layer"

This is great because many filters in Filter Forge 14 require a selection. Now you can just open a font letter, alt select, and run a filter on it. Great for custom font creation. Great stuff! Thanks MareroQ!

But i do have to correct step #2 Make darn sure you unzip this file to a folder NOT YOUR DESKTOP! LOL
I spent a half hour getting rid of desktop clutter because i just unzipped the file.

Dont make my misstake

I also tried to adapt this to PS CS2 and because CS2 installs into Program Files 86 i cant get it to work. I tried double slashes and that didnt work either. Any ideas?