Every reference you collect, in one place you own.
Save anything, from images and video to the working files beside them, and organize it your way. Lay it out on an infinite canvas, and see how every file, board, and tag connects. All on your machine, yours forever.
Organize your way.
Folders, nested tags, ratings, and labels, on images, video, and any other file type you index. Let the Auto Tagger suggest tags, so even a huge library labels itself.
Save everything you see.
The refern Clipper saves any image from any site in a click, source included, so nothing slips away.
Works wherever you browse.
One clipper for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Free on every store.
Save on hover
A save button appears on any image you point at. One click and it's in your library. Turn it off per site whenever it's in the way.
SaveTag it as you save
Add tags right in the clipper, so images land in your library already organized.
Always the highest resolution
On 15+ sites the clipper skips the preview and grabs the full-size file instead.
Save as you scroll
Open the side panel and it collects every image on the page while you scroll. Pick the keepers, save them all at once.
Other features you might love.
The story covers the highlights. Here are a few more that make refern the last reference tool you’ll set up.
Video, built in
Videos live in the same library as your images. Hover a clip in the grid to scrub it, step it frame by frame, mark an A and B point to loop or export that section, and drop it on a canvas where it plays in place.
0:12· frame 302A 0:11LoopB 0:14Not just images
A workspace indexes images and video out of the box. Turn on documents, design files, drawing app files, 3D and CAD, fonts, archives, code, or your own extensions, and they land in the same grid with a file-type icon: searchable by name, taggable, and organized like everything else, with a cover image you pick.
PSDhero-key-art.psd# key artBLENDclocktower-blockout.blendPDFstyle-guide-v3.pdfSwitched on per workspace, next to your imagesAuto Tagger
Tag a whole library without doing it by hand. An on-device engine suggests tags, reads text in images, and describes them, and you can block or rename any tag it uses. Offline and opt-in.
Suggested tags# library# bookshelves# interior+ Add allTag manager
Marquee select across your tags, restyle or delete a whole block at once, and pull a usage count for any tag when you want to know what is actually earning its place.
# anatomy# lighting# anatomy_old# anatomyy# foliage2 selected · 0 usesRestyleDeleteSearch by meaning
Describe what you want, like 'dramatic lighting', and refern surfaces it even when nothing's tagged.
dramatic lighting
4 matches · none of them taggedImport from Eagle, PureRef & Allusion
Bring your old library across in one move: Eagle folders and tags, a PureRef board's images, and Allusion's colored, nested tags. When a filename already exists, keep both, skip, or replace, per file or for the whole batch, and set the default once in preferences.
DoneEagle library3,204 items · folders & tags62%PureRef boardmoodboard-final-v2.purQueuedAllusion backupallusion-export.jsonKeep your metadata
Reads embedded keywords, ratings, descriptions, and sources (EXIF, IPTC, XMP) as you add images.
osaka-golden.jpg1620 × 1080 pxKeywords · from EXIF# sunset# golden hour# citySourceTwitter / XLinked references
Crops, groups, and the canvases an image lives in all stay connected back to the source.
autumn-leaves.jpg3 connectionsWarm light cropcropGolden hourcanvasAutumn palette studygroupEdit in place
Crop and adjust brightness, contrast, and color without ever touching the original file.
BrightnessContrastSaturationOriginal file untouchedPixel art stays pixel art
Flag a file as Pixelated and it renders with hard, crisp edges at any zoom, in the grid, the viewer, and on the canvas. No more blurred upscales, and is:pixelated finds every sprite again.
RenderingPixelatedTimed study
Full-screen study sessions for drawing from your own references, on your own clock. Run them in order by name, date added, or size, or shuffle at random and reshuffle whenever you want a fresh draw.
0:47· 3 of 12Reference overlay
Pin any window on top, dial down its opacity, and click straight through it while you work.
pinned reference
click-throughMultiple windows
Pop any image or canvas out into its own window. Lay references side by side, spread them across monitors, and keep working in the main app.
gamcheon.jpg
Summer trip · canvas
Drag it straight out
Pull anything out of the grid and drop it into another app or your file manager as a real file. One item, a whole selection, a folder, a canvas, or a group, on every platform.
Drop as filesDrag out3 filesShortcuts, your way
Rebind app commands on the Shortcuts settings page and they save with your profile, so refern matches the muscle memory you already have. In beta.
ShortcutsBetaOpen in new windowCtrlShiftOToggle history barAltHReload appPress keysMany folders, one library
Point a single workspace at several folders at once, even across different drives. refern indexes them together while every file stays exactly where it is.
HDDReferencesD:\Art\ReferencesNASClient workE:\2026\ClientsSSDDownloadsC:\Users\me\DownloadsIndexed together as one workspaceHidden folders
Hide a folder, or a whole content root. It stays indexed but drops out of search, grids, pickers, and counts, so drafts and private material stay out of the way. One click brings it back.
Anatomy1,284Client draftsHiddenEnvironments947Custom data folder
Keep a large library on a slow drive while its database, thumbnails, and backups live on a fast SSD. Your original images never move.
HDDImage libraryD:\Art\ReferencesSSDDatabase & thumbnailsC:\refern\dataYour original images never moveBuilt for huge libraries
A streaming indexer keeps libraries of hundreds of thousands of files responsive, and the grid selects like a file manager: click, Ctrl or Cmd click to toggle, Shift click to extend. Then move, tag, rename, or trash tens of thousands of items in one go.
24,318 selectedMoveTagTrashRecover from a backup
If a library's database is ever lost or corrupted, refern restores it in one click from an automatic backup or a refern export.
RestoreAutomatic backupToday, 09:12Automatic backupYesterday, 21:40refern exportrefern-library.zip
Built for illustrators and concept artists. And every creative who collects.
refern is a godsend for me. I have libraries of photo references I purchase from reference photography studios, but that piles up really quickly when you start getting those 600+ action pose reference packs. After a certain point it becomes almost impossible to find what you want searching through countless folders. But the ways refern allows you to organize everything makes all my photos searchable or easily found otherwise, so I can actually make use of all the photos I have packed away.
Before you download.
Everything you might want to know, answered.
Own your references. Forever.
Free 30-day trial, no card. Try the whole app before you pay. No subscription, nothing to cancel.