Jeff, it was mentioned as a good alternative when Adobe decided to go in the cloud. Many found the rent you had to pay for several CC programs as too high and the programs too proprietary. Photoline has a lot of features, from vector to bitmaps, RGB to CMYK, RAW image editing to graphic design features. I like it. Printing still a Qimage Ultimate task. Three years back or so I got a Photoline license and I can still upgrade to a newer version when I want to. Meanwhile Adobe came with a better affordable price on Photoshop + Lightroom CC, so I took that for as long as I will be commercially busy. If that ends I probably renew the Photoline license and skip Adobe as a whole. I also have a Xara Extreme license but did not upgrade that one for two years. That is what I mainly used for vector arts, graphic designs in the past. The Adobe Premium Design suite was there to suit my customers when something had to be altered in the last minute, now I tell them to transfer the changed PDF. In the end I probably have Photoline, Qimage Ultimate and one of the good open source programs like RawTherapee or Darktable. Some people play Sudoku to keep alzheimer at a distance, I try to learn new programs :-) try I wrote.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst

http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
March 2017 update, 750+ inkjet media white spectral plots

I've been a Serif customer for a long time and use their Page Plus and Draw Plus. They offered me to try out the beta versions of Affinity which I did. More recently I tried it again with the trial version.
Conclusion: Affinity is ok for straightforward "nice day" shots but QU raw processing beats it hands down with better highlight detail and tonal range as well as being easier to use with it's unique smart processing, minimal sliders and simple way of selecting priority areas of the image for exposure.
Terry

There are a set of 3 videos here, scroll down the list to the Raw section.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u/learn.htm
Also see here about ODR (optimal dynamic range)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WxfITitP88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoIyaKR6AWY&t=227s
and post with video link
http://ddisoftware.com/tech/qimage-ultimate-challenges/challenge-75-another-trip-to-scary-odr-land/

Terry

Some of our Camera Club Members have gone to Affinity, to avoid PS monthy subs.

I am giving it a trial,  so far seems to do the job, I will not be using it for raw,  editing and things like creating email/web res images etc, but it will be a cheaper option than updating to latest PS Elements.
I only use 'external' progs occasionaly - for the things QIU does not cover.

Jeff