Photoline is one of the best-kept Mac secrets; a professional graphics workhorse that does everything but the dishes. Other apps claim to replace Photoshop, but only Photoline & GIMP really do.
Photoline, Photoshop & GIMP all do similar things in different ways. But for serious image work, SVG drawing or page layout, Photoline’s simplicity, stability & power is second to none. It’s the easiest, most versatile graphics app I’ve used since Freehand bit the dust. It runs flawlessly on OS X, & costs about the same as renting Photoshop for 3 months.
Photoline’s spartan but fully customizable interface provides a range of advanced, very customizable tools, filters, effects, brushes, KB shortcuts, layer & mask modes, a killer SVG drawing mode, vector distortion, perspective, 3D mode, image-tracing, multi-page layout features, 32 & 64-bit modes for Photoshop plugins, dozens of import/export formats & a lot more. Photoline can also host & run other apps to utilize their features. And it does it all in a clean 63 MB (Adobe bloatware it ain't!).
The learning curve isn’t steep, but the terminology & actions are unique & a bit unorthodox (for example, ’feathering,’ is called ‘soft edge’). As with most graphic apps, experimenting promotes proficiency.
I also use GIMP, the award-winning free professional open-source Photoshop rival with countless free plugins online. AffinityPhoto & AffinityDesigner also have many great features. Together, these apps do way more than Photoshop for a fraction of its cost. And no Adobe adware.
