Reference Board Features

Everything Reference Board does for visual research.

A complete overview of the user-facing workflows in Reference Board, grouped by how creative references actually move through a project.

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Visual First

Canvas + regionsBoards stay spatial, zoomable, and easy to revisit even when the reference wall gets big.

Searchable

OCR, tags, colorsReference Board understands the details inside images, videos, links, notes, and metadata.

One-Time Purchase

$5.99 ProNew customers receive Pro with one upfront purchase. Existing Free users can unlock the same unlimited, shareable experience for $5.99 once.

Complete Feature Map

Grouped by the jobs Reference Board helps you do.

This page is intentionally practical: every list below is a user-facing workflow or a friendly feature that makes boards easier to collect, shape, search, revisit, or work with through an approved AI client.

Collect And Import

Drag and drop files onto a board
Paste images and URLs from the clipboard
Import photos and videos
Import any file on Mac
Share sheet import on Mac, iPhone, and iPad
Browser extension image picker
Right-click web image import
Selected text import from the web
Website links with visual preview cards
X/Twitter posts and Maps links as visual cards
Public images shared from Instagram, X, and Pinterest
Multi-image Instagram post import
YouTube link import with metadata
Import from URL via Shortcuts
Import latest photos via Shortcuts
Import from clipboard via Shortcuts
Continuity Camera photo, scan, and sketch capture on Mac
Automatic grid placement for batches

Organize The Board

Infinite spatial canvas
Multiple boards
Canvas and masonry grid board views
Compact and tile board list views
Folders for grouping related boards
Drag boards between folders or move them from a context menu
Full-screen grid browsing with previous and next navigation
Pinch to scale selected board items
Responsive item tilt while dragging
Marquee multi-select on iPhone and iPad
Arrange selected items into a grid
Create a new board from selected items
Move items forward, backward, to the front, or to the back
Rename and delete boards
Theme-colored selected board state
Named regions
Region thumbnails
Previous and next region navigation
Minimap with viewport position
Sticky notes
Quote cards
Map location cards
Default sticky note colors
Always-on-top board window on Mac

Edit Images And Video

Reversible image cropping
Reversible image flipping
One-step image background removal
Transparent cutouts added directly to a board
Play and pause videos on the canvas
Scrub through video frame by frame
Capture an exact video frame as a full-resolution image reference
Looping video playback on the board

Understand Every Reference

Generated descriptions
Editable descriptions
Automatic title and caption data
Custom tags
Learned tag suggestions
Face naming
Manual face area placement
Object and segment detection
Scene category detection
Primary and secondary content types
Primary and secondary scene types
Dominant color swatches
Sharpness and blur signals
Body pose signal

Search And Rediscover

Command palette search
Natural-language search terms
Search all boards
Search board names
Search descriptions and titles
Search custom tags and suggested tags
Search face names
Search detected objects and segments
Search visible text inside images and video frames
Filter images, videos, faces, text, and sticky notes
Color filters and color picker search
Search by camera model, editing software, and capture year
Search YouTube title, channel, tags, and source terms
Open boards and items from Spotlight

Inspect And Use Details

Draggable inspector
Close-up board detail view with the L key
Movable, resizable loupe on iPhone and iPad
Four-finger loupe access for inspecting images and live video
Recognized text section
Copy OCR text
Highlighted text snippets
Similar image suggestions
Clickable color swatches
Source link card
YouTube title, channel, description, and tags
Camera model, ISO, aperture, shutter, and capture date
Resolution and timestamps
Location coordinates
Add a location map to the canvas
Download original when available
Preview-only state for synced items

Share, Export, And Back Up

Share boards directly from their context menu
Share preparation status before inviting collaborators
Share, leave, and stop sharing boards
iCloud shared boards
Shared With You collaboration control
Live collaborator avatars and statuses
Pull to refresh shared board lists
Publish a view-only public board preview to the web with Reference Pro
Browser access for viewers without buying or installing Reference
Update or unpublish a public web preview at any time
Export boards as PNG images
Export boards as PDFs
Board archive export
Board archive import
Automatic backup cleanup and recovery safeguards

Work With AI Clients On Mac

Connect compatible AI clients through MCP
Guided setup for Codex, Claude, and other compatible clients
Search boards and inspect item details
Add and arrange board content
Run visual analysis
Create and manage saved regions
Import Reference archives through connected clients
Export PNGs, PDFs, and Reference archives through connected clients
Inspect sync and sharing status
Create and manage share links
Built-in prompts for discovery, analysis, organization, curation, and board reviews
Local-first connections that are off by default and secured with pairing tokens
Read-only, read-and-add, and full-control permission levels
Explicit approval for sensitive actions and separate original-media access
Recent MCP activity in Settings

Apple-Native Workflows

iCloud sync across devices
Apple Pencil annotations on iPad in light and dark appearances
Handwritten notes pinned to the canvas
Two-finger undo while annotating
Home screen and desktop image widgets
Random or tag-filtered widgets
Project-filtered widgets
Open widget items directly
Create board shortcut
Add image shortcut
Open board and open recent board shortcuts
In-app What's New release notes
Reference Board screen saver on Mac
Reference Pro across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with Family Sharing
Localized app text across supported languages

See how it plays across devices.

Each screen shows a different part of the moodboard flow, from finding a visual instantly to letting Reference understand, organize, and connect what you save.