Stellar population synthesis including planetary nebulae

Few works have attempted so far to predict the properties of PN populations in galaxies by means of population synthesis approaches. We revise the state of the art, discussing: the present grids of PN evolutionary tracks; the methods used to produce synthetic samples of PNe; the basic predictions regarding the distribution of PN properties such as ionised masses, radii, electron temperatures, densities, emission line ratios, CSPN mass distribution; the main uncertainties related to ill-known parameters affecting PN evolution. Most of the work in this field has been dedicated to make predictions about the PNLF, revealing a serious difficulty in explaining be observed invariance of the PNLF bright cut-off between early and late-type galaxies.