This review is focused on consideration of the influence of ligands and synthetic conditions on the structure and optical properties of a variety of metal complexes based on derivatives of quinoline, quinoxaiine, and quinazoiine. It has been established that changing of substituents in a given ligand provides an opportunity to tune color and intensity of the photoluminescence of the corre¬sponding Al(III) and Zn(I I) complexes, while variation of auxiliary ligands in cyclometalated complexes leads to emission emergence at ambient temperature. Difluoroboron complexes of metals with N,O-bidentate ligands proved to exhibit a strong photoluminescence in both solutions and the solid state. Some complexes of this type are useful for electroluminescent or solar cell devices. Biologi¬cal activity of quinoline complexes is governed mainly by the metal nature.