PhotoLine is a versatile all-purpose image and graphics editor. Enhance, edit and retouche photos, edit RAW files non-destructively, create multi-page layout designs and web mockups, prepare print-ready PDF files, export web images, and enjoy the built-in vector editing tools.

PhotoLine offers sophisticated tools to the creative professional: RGB, CMYK, LAB and grayscale color spaces, ICC color management, 16/32 bit per color channel, spot color support, PDF editing and export, and a non-destructive workflow with adjustment layers.

The most important new features of this release are:

• Dynamic Filters: effects that were previously unavailable as adjustment layers can now be nondestructively applied to placeholder layers. Even external plug-ins can be used in this way (when supported by the plugin).
• Match Color, Color Lookup, and Context Blur are new filters added to the existing set of image processing filters.
• A new invert mask option in the layer panel greatly simplifies tasks when working with adjustments and clipping layers. This option works with both bitmap and vector masks.
• Patterns now support vector graphics, as well as a mixture of both vector and bitmap elements. The quality of gradients is improved. New onscreen control widgets drastically simplify working with patterns and textures, and existing gradient widget controls are improved.
• Placeholder layer functionality and workflow in PhotoLine are both much enhanced and extended.

And of course numerous small enhancements, workflow improvements, and performance improvements.

Previous releases of PhotoLine already feature many non-destructive adjustments and filters. These include complex filters such as Gaussian Blur and various sharpen filters. Some, however, could only be applied destructively.

In release 20 of PhotoLine all effects and filters are now nondestructive. Dynamic Filters and placeholder layers make this possible: any of the previously destructive filters and effects can be applied to a placeholder as a dynamic filter layer. Dynamic filter layers remain 'live' and their settings can be edited at any time. Update the contents of the placeholder layer and the dynamic filter layer is automatically recalculated.

External plugins are also supported (when the plugin developer enabled this option). Dynamic placeholder filter layers open up completely new ways of working in PhotoLine.

The new Match Colors adjustment matches colors between two images. It is also easy to match the colors between a target top layer with a source layer below in photo compositing. The following example demonstrates the use of the Match Colors adjustment. Let's assume you want to superimpose a different face over a portrait photo you took. The Match Color adjustment drastically simplifies this process.

The new Color Lookup adjustment remaps the original colors of an image by applying preset 3-dimensional color lookup tables (LUTs). These are commonly in use in the film industry, and allow for quick subtle or dramatic changes to photos in order to achieve a certain look. PhotoLine supports the common 3DL and Cube LUT file formats, as well as various types of ICC profiles.

The new Context Blur filter is a variation on a blur filter. Depending on the settings it may be used to:

• create oil paint effects;
• reduce image noise;
• reduce JPEG artifacts.

A new checkbox option in the layer attributes panel conveniently inverts an (adjustment) layer mask, and a vector or bitmap clipping layer.

More comprehensive settings to improve the image source selection for the copy brush, healing brush, and remove brush tools are now available to the user. New options provided are “Source Layer”, Active & Below” and “All Layers”.

Cubic interpolation between gradient color stops is now possible in Photoline, in addition to the standard linear interpolation. This option generates a markedly smoother transition between gradient color stops.

New options to repeat and to mirror repeat gradients are available.

It is now possible to scale circular gradients non-proportionally and create elliptical gradients.

Improvements are made to the onscreen widget controls of circular gradients:

PhotoLine now supports vector fill patterns. Fill patterns can also consist of combination of raster (bitmap) graphics and vector graphics. Vector patterns have the advantage to be scalable without loss of resolution and quality.

Seamless geometric patterns can be tiled and arranged in several ways.

Single elements of a pattern may overlap, which simplifies the construction of repeatable patterns.

To assist in pattern design, a new Pattern Mode view is added to PhotoLine (See below "Pattern View Mode")

The transformation of pattern fills applied to vector layers is now directly controllable onscreen with the introduction of the new onscreen pattern fill control widget.

Access this control widget by switching to the Edit Vector Points tool. The onscreen control widget is displayed as a transformation box. Positioning the box with the top left small dot controls the origin of the pattern, while the three small square handles control rotation, proportional scaling and non-proportional scaling of the selected fill pattern. The controls are similar to Photoline's layer transformation handles.

Line patterns (dashed lines) introduce two new options: one that scales the line pattern in order to create corner-aligned dashes in a vector shape, and a second option that sets a start offset value to achieve finely-tuned line pattern alignment.

The new PDF Proof display mode simulates the color space conversions on-screen that occur when a document is exported to PDF. This is particularly useful when you wish to soft-proof colors before exporting as PDF/X1a.

To assist in the creation of patterns, PhotoLine adds a new Pattern Mode in its View menu. When activated, the view will display a tiled version of the document's content. This view mode enables the user to quickly check whether the fill pattern correctly aligns relative to the document's edges.

Layers can now be searched. This becomes especially useful when working with complex documents and many layers.

The user can either filter by layer type(s), or search for layer names.

A new option is added to safeguard a layer's content from editing. When this option is activated for a layer, that layer is still selectable and moveable, but the content cannot be changed.

Selecting the custom sorting option in the browse panel allows the user to freely arrange the files to display in any custom sorting order.For example, it is possible to sort files according to the daytime or based on their content. When done ordering the files manually, the Rename Multiple command can be applied to "fix" the custom file order.

If Photoline is installed on Windows 10, the built-in spell checker is used - just as is the case on macOS. It is no longer necessary to install a separate spell checker such as ASpell or Hunspell.

Note: supported in the 64-bit version of PhotoLine.

Import and export of PDF, PSD and SVG are significantly enhanced. PSD import now attempts to import both Smart Objects and Smart Filters and convert these to PhotoLine's native placeholder layers and dynamic filters. Almost all color adjustment layers are converted to PhotoLine's adjustment layers, thereby retaining editability of the original file.

• Existing layers can now be directly converted to placeholder layers.
• A new command “Open as Placeholder” creates a placeholder document that references the selected file.
• Placeholders can now be used as layer masks, as clipping layers, and as masks for adjustment layers.
• “Dehaze” can now also be applied to placeholders.

• Non-modal color editor: Double-clicking edits patterns as well.
• Tiled document preview: real progress view added.
• Tiled document preview: preview is now recalculated in the background, resulting in smoother dialog interactions.
• New Document: a color model instead of a color space can be selected.
• Color List: load color lists from FreeColor (sbz).
• Page List: sped up thumbnails creation.
• Guides: Creating a new guide with Shift+drag will place the guide on the active page only.
• New zoom commands: “Fit to Selection” and “Fit to Selection Width. The zoom factor fits the view to the selected object and the selected object's width respectively.
• You can now assign colors (also spot colors) to 1 bit images, too. Furthermore, the images are allowed to have transparency.
• Gradients may be used to colorize gray images (instead of just a single color).
• Tool “Edit Vector Points”: an additional tool setting is added to hide and show the onscreen control widget for gradients and patterns.

• Version 19
• Version 18
• Version 17
• Version 16
• Version 15
• Version 14
• Version 13
• Version 12
• Version 11
• Version 10
• Version 9