Can you identify effects/filters used on this image?

[aye123]

Hi. 

Long time ago i created an image on GIMP but it was over 10 years ago (exact date between 2010-11), ever since that time i havent used GIMP once, forgotten all about how to make images and now i want to recreate that original effect. 


https://ibb.co/chrGw64d

(tried to insert an image, but it doesnt work for some reason)


Top image is my recreation, bottom is the original effect that im looking for.

As you can see on the original, there is some sort of spiritual/smokey kind of filter that i want to recreate. You can clearly see that violet color isnt flat and there are different shades of it throughout the whole text.
I have no idea how i achieved that in the first place. I was able to recreate the neon effect as it was pretty simple and there was a tutorial for it, but that particular effect im looking for - i have trouble to even accurately describe it. 

Another thing is that i have no idea how on the original image the X lines reach B and U. I was looking for the exact font and the best possible match that i could find was Espectro Swash, but i dont know how to recreate that effect.

Its just my educated guess, but i think that the effect im looking for could be some sort of font filter, if something like that exist/existed.

[rich2005]

Your images are webp, probably why you were unable to attach, however the link works fine.

If it is 10 years since you used Gimp then it was probably Gimp 2.8 and there were scripts for logo's in File -> Create such as Alien Glow and Neon Glow which might have been used. Long gone in both Gimp 2.10 and Gimp 3

If you are using Gimp 3 then it is probably back to stock tools (although there are 3rd party GEGL filters for Neon)
You can use Layer -> Text to Path and modify the path using the paths tool

   

2 miunute video showing that: https://filedn.com/lkb9dw6mEfXSsOu9uKLaM14/expert-1.mp4

However you did it, your neon text looks ok to me. All sorts of ways but using paths with fill and stroke I can get this.

   

4 minute video: https://filedn.com/lkb9dw6mEfXSsOu9uKLaM14/expert-2.mp4

[aye123]

The effect that im looking for looks something like this:

https://ibb.co/R4dX3LS2

The best way to describe it is 'floating smoke' i guess.

I can easily recreate the neon effect, but what im looking for the most is that floating smoke effect + however i achieved X lines reaching B and U.

[rich2005]

A smoke effect,  you can use brush and paint in an overlay. Experiment with layer mode (also the brush mode)

A search will find ps .abr bushes, but everyone these days seems to want a sign up.

These a couple of large multi abr brushes from my archive. 50 MB zipped so too large to attach.

I hope this works: https://limewire.com/d/NFqEh#fEbf12hKUC  says good for 7 days. Unzip and put the.abr files in your user fonts folder.

Big brushes, use the tool options to set size and aspect.

   

[sallyanne]

None of my fonts will do what your X does. Closest I could get to it was 'Segoe Script Regular' I thought Loki Cola might but it doesn't.

[rich2005]

(01-31-2026, 08:42 AM)sallyanne Wrote: None of my fonts will do what your X does. Closest I could get to it was 'Segoe Script Regular' I thought Loki Cola might but it doesn't.

The OP suggested Espectro Swash  not difficult to find, and there are other similar fonts.

I do not think there was ever a font with that long extended leg.  My immediate go-to is modifying the character path, that will give best rendering. Not the only way, reduce the text layer to a bitmap, paint in the leg and work with selections for the neon effect.

[aye123]

Im obviously not a GIMP expert, but i think that the font effect has to do something with that floating smoke filter that im looking for. Maybe the whole thing is just a font filter (not sure if something like that exists)

One thing i can say for sure is that i havent done the graphic manually - everything had to be done through filters and other GIMP features.

https://imgur.com/D2rJq0Q

This is a thumbnail of one of my youtube videos from 2013 with the same style, same neon effect but without floating smoke effect and alleged Espectro Swash font.

[rich2005]

Did you even look at those .abr brushes ?  

Everything might have been Gimp scripts 10 years ago with Gimp 2.8 - neon text or alpha neon - but those are long gone.

Using additions to basic Gimp. If you want a plugin for neon there is the gimp_gmic_qt plugin, http://www.gmic.eu

For smoke painting in an overlay layer with layer mode luma lighten

   

[sallyanne]

This is what I  did with (font in the graphic)
1. Open a transparent layer
2. Add Text (253 pix)
3. While text layer is selected right click and click on layer to image size.
4. With the same layer selected add a new transparent layer.
5. Grow 4 pixels then turn selection into path, selection none.
6. Stroke path 6 pixels then gaussian blur the path. 
7. Duplicate that layer a few times. Drop below text layer if you want a clean text.
8. Add another layer the colour you want and drop it to the bottom. Merge layers

[aye123]

(01-31-2026, 07:33 PM)rich2005 Wrote: Did you even look at those .abr brushes ?  

Everything might have been Gimp scripts 10 years ago with Gimp 2.8 - neon text or alpha neon - but those are long gone.

Using additions to basic Gimp. If you want a plugin for neon there is the gimp_gmic_qt plugin, http://www.gmic.eu

For smoke painting in an overlay layer with layer mode luma lighten

As for .abr brushes i have installed them, but brushes are manual work and what im most likely looking for is a font filter for text. You can zoom in on my original image and see that the lighter part of the text doesnt have one linear color and it just looks like floating smoke:






See how the bottom part of 'X' that reaches 'U' kind of splits in the middle part. 

This is not a job of a brush - it has to be a floating smoke font filter. 


The original image i created in late 2010/early 2011. According to google, the GIMP version of that period was the 2.0. Maybe as you said, in that version there was a filter that just isnt available anymore in the current version. 

I guess my best bet right now is to download GIMP 2.0 and look for what i want there.

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(02-01-2026, 09:54 AM)sallyanne Wrote: This is what I  did with (font in the graphic)
1. Open a transparent layer
2. Add Text (253 pix)
3. While text layer is selected right click and click on layer to image size.
4. With the same layer selected add a new transparent layer.
5. Grow 4 pixels then turn selection into path, selection none.
6. Stroke path 6 pixels then gaussian blur the path. 
7. Duplicate that layer a few times. Drop below text layer if you want a clean text.
8. Add another layer the colour you want and drop it to the bottom. Merge layers

I did very similar work on the recreation. More specifically, i used one of the youtube tutorials: I used Alpha to Section On Text > Select - Grow to 3 > Fill with Color > 2 Layers 'Border' and 'Glow' > Repeat Alpha To Section, Grow to 3 and Fill with Color > Gaussian Blur

Ever since i did that, im trying to play with different filters and effects and this is how the image looks right now:





It does resemble the original one, but im still missing that floating smoke effect on text filter.