PhotoLine is an image and graphics editor for any task. You can edit images or create them for the Internet, but also create documents for printing (PDF).

PhotoLine offers everything for professional results: CMYK and Lab color space, color management with ICC profiles, adjustment layers, actions and 16/32-bit color depth per channel. You can edit vector graphics and edit PDF files.

Some new features of version 24 are:

• Revamped document windows: better behavior and with a new look on Windows.
• Layer compositions: You can combine the current look of the document in a "composition" and recall it later.
• Export attributes: You can assign export settings to pages and layers. Later, all elements with such settings can be exported in one go.

In addition, there are countless improvements in many areas.

A layer composition saves the visibility and appearance of all layers in the document. In detail, the following data is saved:

• the document color list
• the text styles
• the visibility, intensity and blend mode of all layers.
• the layer styles
• the position, size and transformation of all layers

By creating layer compositions, you can save multiple variations of a document and then quickly switch between them with a mouse click to either compare or present them.

(in the menu under “View > Panels > Layer Compositions”)

In addition, for placeholder layers containing a document with layer compositions, you can set which of the compositions is displayed in the Layer Attributes.

(in the Layer Attributes “View > Panels > Layer Attributes”)

Text layers now optionally display formatting marks such as spaces, paragraph endings, or hyphens. Which of these should be displayed is adjustable.

(in the menu under “View > Show Formatting Marks” and in the options under “Display > Formatting Marks”)

The “Delete Clipped Layers” command deletes all layers that became invisible due to the active clipping layer. If the clipping layer is a rectangle, the paths of the affected vector layers will also be clipped with the rectangle.

This is mainly useful when post-processing vector maps.

(in the menu under “Layer > Clipping Layer > Delete Clipped Layers”)

The appearance of the document windows on Windows has been harmonized with the rest of the interface:

When you move or resize a document window, it now automatically snaps to other document windows. This lets you quickly work with multiple documents simultaneously without them overlapping.

Furthermore, you can resize several aligned document windows at the same time by holding down the Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) key.

Double-clicking the title bar of a document window maximizes it. If Ctrl (Windows) or the Command key (macOS) is pressed, the document is placed as large as possible in the available space.

PhotoLine now also remembers on macOS if a document has been maximized. Documents that are opened afterwards will then also be maximized automatically.

If you hide helper dialogs via “View > Hide Panels”, the document windows are now enlarged accordingly, so that they actually use the newly available area. Correspondingly, they will be reduced again by “View > Show Panels”.

• Find font
  In the Layer List it was already possible to search for many properties like line color, fill color etc.
  Now it is also possible to search for text layers containing a specific font using the “font” command. The name of the font does not have to be complete. So “font=times” finds “Times”, but also “Times New Roman”.
• Find virtual copies
  You can now search for virtual copies of a layer, too.
• Protect content
  If “Protect content” was activated for a layer, this is now displayed at the right edge of the layer entry.

Double-clicking the slider button will reset it to its original value.

• List fields now have a third default size.
• Color lists, Brush list, ...
  A single click on an entry applies it to the document only after a short delay. This allows an entry to be edited with a double-click without changing the document.
  Also, accessing the context menu of an entry does not change the document anymore.
• Zooming using the mouse wheel
  When zooming with the mouse wheel, the zoom level is now better rounded to an “even” zoom level.
• Text fields
  Text fields now also support the formula “abs(value)”. This calculates the absolute value of “value”.
• Tab bars
  If tab bars contain truncated entries, a tooltip with the full text is now displayed for them.
• Presets dialog
  In the dialog for managing presets, the first new entry is now selected after a file has been merged.
• macOS: Batch Converting
  You can now drag folders to the source and destination paths to set them under macOS, too.

If you have created a selection in your document - for example with a lasso tool - and the active layer is an image, you can use the Layer Tool to move and copy the contents of the selection immediately without creating a new layer. The following options are available:

• Click and drag
  The selection content is moved and the image content of the original selection is deleted. Subsequent move actions will no longer delete:
  
• Click and drag with Alt key pressed
  The selection content that is moved is (re)filled, but the original image content is not deleted:
  
• Click and drag with the Shift key pressed
  The selection content becomes a new layer. The new layer is moved right away.
• Double-click
  The selection content is stamped at the current image position, but can be moved further without refilling it. This allows you to apply it multiple times.

Often you edit an image and afterwards you think that you now want to apply the same steps to other images.
Instead of tediously starting from scratch, you can now jump to the start of the edit in the Undo List and then use the “Record Actions” button to create an action from the redo steps. You can then apply this action to further images.

• Curves
  The Curves dialog now has a slider under the curve for each curve point. This allows the point to be conveniently moved horizontally.
• Curves
  In the presets dialog, ACV files can be loaded directly without first switching to “All Files” in the file selection.
• Replace Color Brush
  The Replace Color Brush can now create transparency:
  
• Copy Brush
  The Copy Brush now also has a Replace mode. In this mode, all image channels including alpha are copied.
• Brighter and Darker tool
  These two tools have got an “All” setting that changes the entire brightness range.
• Healing Brush and Patch Tool
  The two tools can now operate in HIS mode as an option to the previous Lab mode.
• Remove Object
  The “Remove Object” command offered in the tool settings of several tools now also takes into account the “Read Merged” or “Source” setting of the respective tool. This makes it possible to write the changed image data to a newly created image layer, leaving the original layer unchanged.
• Layer mask and clippings layers with 16-/32 bits
  In documents with 16- and 32-bit color depth, 16- and 32-bit images can now be used as layer masks and clipping layers with full bit depth.

You can now assign export settings to layers and pages. Later you can export all layers with such settings in one go. This is useful, for example, if you manage several icons in one file or create a watch face for a smartwatch.

A layer/page can have several export settings. In this case, several files will be created during the export. You can specify a file format and scaling for each setting.

(in the menu under “View > Panels > Export Attributes” and in the Page Attributes)

• textPath
  Both import and export now support “textPath”, the SVG command for path text. However, since “textPath” cannot represent some possibilities of PhotoLine path text, the text must still be converted to vector on export in these cases.
• Namespaces
  Namespaces are now supported on import.
• Various other improvements

• PSD data
  Embedded PSD data is read better.
• Layer names
  Layer names are now only exported if they have either been imported or you as the user have explicitly set them.
• 16-bit float data can now be imported.
• Miscellaneous
  A color profile is built from the TIFF tags TIFFTAG_PRIMARYCHROMATICITIES and TIFFTAG_WHITEPOINT.

• XCF import
  PhotoLine can now read files in XCF format (the GIMP file format).
• Raw import
  In Raw import, different actions can now be assigned to different camera models. So optionally, which action is performed depends on which camera model an image was captured with.
• PDF export
  1-bit layer masks are now exported more efficiently. These often occur in PDF files, which meant that previously imported PDF files could become significantly larger when exported. This has been improved.
• macOS: HEIC
  The HEIC export now also saves metadata.
• macOS 13: AVIF
  Starting with macOS 13, the AVIF file format is now also be read on macOS.
• Resolution
  If no resolution is specified in a file, the resolution from the EXIF data is used.

• Symmetric filters optimized
  Symmetrical filters such as the Gaussian Blur or Unsharp Masking have been accelerated. This has a particularly strong effect with many processor cores and large images.
• Moving Hand tool
  Synchronous zooming of all open documents now also works with the double-click that sets the zoom to 100% (and back again). It works if the move hand was selected in the toolbar, but also if it was only activated temporarily via the spacebar. In the latter case, the Shift key must also be pressed.
• Vector operations
  Vector operations such as union, intersection, etc. now often provide more accurate results for paths with curves.
• Unregistered version
  The unregistered version has no functional limitations anymore. Only the splash screen is displayed for 10 seconds when the program is started.

• Version 23
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