I'm finishing up a small project using GIL and I appreciate GIL even more -- I now have a very good feel for the basic functionality of the library. I'll post my sample project and some impressions of my experience here when I'm done. I'm still trying to learn the more advanced features of GIL -- my difficulty with the advanced functionality has nothing to do with GIL, but more my own deficiencies in understanding color theory. There are two things that I would absolutely must have if I was to completely switch over to GIL: 1) freetype - for text rendering I've started to write a freetype class for GIL that may be of interest. I'll send that to Lubomir it on when I'm done. 2) antaialias lines - for smooth line rendering Anatialias lines are more difficult, particularly connecting end points. I wonder what lubomir's plans are for this important functionality. I'm thinking something like this: for_each_line(lines.begin(), lines.end(), draw_antialised()); <or> for_each_point(points.begin(), points.end(), draw_antialiased());