Switch from PureRef to refern Without Losing Your Workflow (2026)

TL;DR: refern imports a PureRef 2.x .pur board from Settings > Import and rebuilds it as an editable canvas with its content, layout, and positions intact. Supported notes, drawings, groups, nested placement, transforms, scale, visible group containers, and note fills carry over. Small styling differences can remain where the two apps use different property models. Existing workspace images can be reused in place; other images are copied into the new folder. The source .pur file is not modified.

What transfers, what does not, and what gets better

PureRef is a genuinely excellent tool. It is free for personal use, extremely lightweight, and the best in class for putting references on screen while you paint. If you have used it for years, the overlay habit is real muscle memory.

The reason artists switch is almost always the same: PureRef has no search, no tags, and no persistent library. [pureref.com/handbook/features] Each .pur file is a standalone board. Once your reference collection grows past a few hundred images, finding anything specific requires scrolling through a spatial canvas by eye. There is no filename search, no color filter, no "show me everything tagged anatomy."

refern is the other side of that problem. It is a desktop reference manager that combines Eagle-style library organization with a PureRef-style infinite canvas and an Obsidian-style relationship graph. It costs $35 one-time and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What transfers: the content, layout, and element positions from your .pur board, including supported images, notes, drawings, groups, nested placement, transforms, image scale, visible group containers, and note fills. Version 1.7 fixes group and note background loss from PureRef 2.1.3 imports. Existing workspace images can be reused in place; external, embedded, web, and clipboard images are copied into the imported folder. The overlay habit also transfers because refern has pin-on-top, adjustable transparency, and mouse click-through.

What may differ: The owner assesses current fidelity at approximately 90 percent. That is a qualitative estimate, not a weighted benchmark score. The remaining differences are small property-model conversions: PureRef's separate text-run and text-container backgrounds map into refern's single container background; font families use refern's canvas font; independently styled rich-text runs become one refern text element; note-background alpha is dropped; and irregular crops may be approximated to an axis-aligned crop. PureRef 1.x files are not supported; re-save them in PureRef 2.x first. The source .pur file stays unchanged.

What gets better: everything search-related, everything library-related, and anything involving references across more than one project.

Before you start

Here is what to check before migrating:

1. Gather your .pur files and any loose image folders. PureRef embeds images inside the .pur file, so some of your references may exist only inside those binary files with no corresponding folder of loose images. refern's PureRef importer reads the images out of a .pur directly, and it can index a folder of loose images and video in place. Collect both.
2. Decide what to import. You can point refern's PureRef importer at each .pur board to reconstruct its images and layout in your workspace, add folders of loose images as a workspace, or both.
3. Decide on a folder structure. refern treats a folder on disk as a workspace. A flat "all references" folder works, but folders by project, subject, or category give you more to search against later.
4. Download refern. The 30-day free trial requires no account. Download at refern.app.

Step 1: Create a workspace in refern

Open refern and choose "New Workspace." Point it at the folder that contains your reference images. If you already have a well-organized folder (by project, by subject, etc.), point refern at the root of that structure.

refern scans the folder and builds a SQLite index plus generated thumbnails in the workspace's associated data location. Normal workspace indexing reads the existing media paths in place. Explicit imports and later file actions are separate workflows and can create or change files.

A progress card shows the scan and thumbnail phases. Initial indexing time depends on the collection, formats, storage, and machine.

Step 2: Import your .pur boards

Open Settings > Import and choose Import PureRef Board. Select a PureRef 2.x .pur file. refern creates a new folder in your workspace, acquires the board's images, and rebuilds the layout as an editable canvas with notes, drawings, groups, nested placement, image scale, visible group containers, and note fills. Repeat for each board you want to bring across.

The Reuse files already in this workspace option is on by default. When a board references an image that already lives inside your library, refern places that existing item on the imported canvas instead of writing a duplicate. External, embedded, web, and clipboard images are copied into the new folder.

Boards whose originals moved. If you renamed or relocated files after saving a board, the importer recovers those images anyway instead of skipping them, so boards you saved years ago still come across intact.

A note on source URLs. PureRef does not store source URLs per image in a machine-readable format. If you have notes on a board with URLs, copy them to refern's metadata sidebar manually for the images you care about. refern stores source URL, creator, description, and notes per image, all searchable.

Step 3: Verify the imported canvas and overlay setup

Open the imported canvas and verify the image placements, notes, drawings, and groups. The canvas remains editable, so you can adjust anything that rendered differently from PureRef.

Then restore the overlay behavior you use while working:

• Pin on top: in the window frame controls, enable "always on top." The canvas window stays above Photoshop, Blender, ZBrush, or any other application.
• Window transparency: use the opacity slider to make the refern window semi-transparent, so you can see your painting underneath.
• Mouse click-through: enable click-through mode. Mouse events pass through the refern window to whatever is underneath. You can eye-drop colors from references without switching focus.

The result supports the same core overlay workflow. The main difference is that you opened refern's canvas from a library that has search and tags, so you can find specific references before opening them on the overlay.

One thing PureRef does slightly better here: the "pin above a specific application" feature (added in PureRef 2.0), which keeps the overlay on top of one target app only. [pureref.com/blog/pureref2] refern's pin-on-top keeps the window above all applications. For most single-monitor setups this does not matter, but if that specific feature is load-bearing for your workflow, it is worth noting.

Step 4: Tag and organize your imported references

Once refern has indexed your images, open the library and start tagging. This is optional but transforms the value of the tool, and you do not have to do it all by hand.

Auto Tagger. refern ships an opt-in Auto Tagger that suggests tags, reads text inside an image, and can describe it. Its model files are downloaded when the user requests them; inference then runs locally. Run it across the whole workspace or selected folders, then accept or skip suggestions in a keyboard-driven review.

Tags. Click any image, open the metadata sidebar, and add tags. Tags are hierarchical (you can have "Character > Anatomy > Hands" as a nested structure), support tag groups, and linked tags. Once you have tags, tag:anatomy returns matching anatomy references across folders.

Smart folders. In the sidebar, create a smart folder with a saved search query. "All character references rated 4 or higher" or "all images from ArtStation" becomes a live folder that updates automatically as you add more images. Smart folders can be nested, reordered, and reparented, and the tree travels with the workspace. Each child remains an independent query and does not inherit its parent's rules.

Directory presets. Right-click any folder and set a metadata preset. Any image you drop into that folder automatically gets the preset's tags and metadata applied. Useful if you have a "Lighting reference" folder where every incoming image should be tagged "lighting" without manual work.

Color labels and ratings. Use the five-star rating system and color labels (18 colors) to mark quality and category at a glance. Both are filterable via the search bar.

Step 5: Extend the imported canvas in refern

Your imported PureRef board is already an editable refern canvas. Use it as-is, or extend it with images from the searchable library.

Open the imported canvas and drag more images from the library onto it. You can create layers (named, nestable, with optional background fill), group images, add text annotations, freehand draw with the pen tool, and use any of nine shape primitives.

On sharpness, the thing PureRef users check first: images on a refern canvas swap to full resolution as soon as you display them larger than their thumbnail, so a reference you zoom into stays crisp rather than going soft. Scaled-down images keep their contrast instead of looking washed out. If you work with pixel art or sprites, flag those files as Pixelated and they render with hard pixel edges everywhere in the app, canvas included.

For the overlay use case, keep the canvas as your current-project board. Add images from the library as you need them. Because the library is persistent and searchable, you do not need to pre-load everything onto the canvas at the start of a project the way you would with PureRef. Search for "anatomy hands," open the results, drag the three you want onto the canvas. Done.

What may need a small visual touch-up

refern preserves the PureRef 2.x board's content, layout, and positions, but the two apps do not model every style property identically. Check text that uses multiple run styles or separate text and container fills, custom fonts, translucent note backgrounds, and irregular crops. Version 1.7 fixes group and note-background loss from PureRef 2.1.3 boards. Keep the source .pur file until you have reviewed the imported canvas.

The PureRef color picker. PureRef's transparent-to-mouse mode includes a built-in color readout (RGB, HSV, HEX values displayed live as you move the cursor). [pureref.com/handbook/features] refern's click-through mode lets you pick colors in your painting app, but refern itself does not display a color value overlay. If the specific HEX readout while in click-through is part of your muscle memory, you will notice its absence.

Session-scoped habit. PureRef's model (open a .pur, work, close it) has zero startup overhead and zero concept of a "library." refern adds a workspace concept. For artists who genuinely want a scratch pad with no persistence, PureRef is still the right tool. There is no shame in keeping both.

Should you keep PureRef alongside refern?

Yes, if any of these apply:

• You use PureRef for quick scratch boards that you discard after a session and do not want to manage in a library.
• You rely specifically on the "pin above one application only" feature.
• You are on a team where others use PureRef and share .pur files.
• You are comfortable with both tools running side by side.

Many artists settle on this split naturally: refern for the persistent searchable library and anything that crosses project boundaries, PureRef for a single focused session where you want zero overhead and a familiar canvas feel.

Quick comparison

Next steps

Once your images are in refern and your overlay setup is working, a few things are worth exploring:

• The refern vs PureRef comparison goes deeper on feature-by-feature differences if you want the full picture before committing.
• The relationship graph view connects your images, folders, canvases, and tags into a navigable map. Open it from the navigation bar to see your whole library as a graph.
• The browser extension (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) lets you save images from any site directly to your library without leaving the browser, something PureRef has no equivalent for. [pureref.com/handbook/features]
• Smart folders can replace a lot of the manual curation you may have been doing inside PureRef boards. A smart folder like "tag:lighting, rating:>=4" stays current automatically.

If you are also coming from Eagle or Allusion, refern has dedicated importers for both. The Eagle importer has full parity across its named supported transfer surface, creates a refern-side media copy for the first placement, and links later placements. The Allusion importer recreates folders, colored hierarchical tags, and provenance from a backup, while PSD, KRA, and EXR entries are skipped.