Reference

What is Reference?

Reference is a private visual board app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It’s designed to help you collect inspiration, organize moodboards, and quickly discover related visuals—while keeping your boards synced across Apple devices.

The core purpose of Reference is to give you a searchable, multi-device place for visual references. You can build boards on an “infinite canvas” (described for Mac), add mixed media, and use search capabilities (including OCR) to find what you need from your saved images and boards.

Key Features

• Infinite canvas mood boards (on Mac): Spread out inspiration and create multiple mood boards without feeling limited by a fixed layout.
• Powerful library search: Search across your saved library by color, style, scene, and your own words, then convert result sets into a new board.
• OCR search on images: Reference automatically recognizes visible text inside images so that labels, titles, packaging, and other text fragments remain searchable.
• Automatic organization with tags and cues: As you save, Reference generates tags, descriptions, custom tags, and visual cues to help keep your library organized.
• Mixed media boards: Add images, video, YouTube videos, and GIFs to the same board, plus sticky notes for text.
• Cross-device sync via iCloud: Keep your references and boards in sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac within the Apple ecosystem.
• Browser extension support: Includes a Safari extension today; a Chrome extension is noted as coming soon.

How to Use Reference

1. Install Reference from the App Store on your iPhone, iPad, and/or Mac.
2. Create one or more mood boards and start collecting inspiration by saving visuals into your library.
3. Use search to locate references—by words you type or by attributes like color, style, and scene—and create new boards from search results.
4. Add context directly on boards using sticky notes, and include other media types (images, video, YouTube videos, GIFs) alongside your references.
5. Rely on iCloud sync to view and continue the same boards across your devices.

Use Cases

• Fashion and product design moodboarding: Save reference images and packaging/label shots, then use OCR search to quickly find specific text like product names or categories.
• Visual research for creative direction: Discover related visuals using color, style, and scene search, then assemble a new board from the results.
• Multi-format reference collections: Build a single board that mixes images, video clips, YouTube videos, and GIFs with sticky-note annotations for notes and decisions.
• Iterative concept exploration on Mac: Use the infinite canvas to spread ideas across multiple mood boards and refine selections while browsing without constraining your layout.
• Cross-device continuity: Start curating references on one device and continue organizing and searching on another, with boards synced through iCloud.

FAQ

• Is Reference a subscription or a one-time purchase? Reference is a one-time purchase and currently costs $2.99, depending on your App Store region.

• Is Reference private? Yes. The app states that it does not track you, lock you in, or sell your data. Your references are described as private, and sync occurs through iCloud across your own Apple devices.

• Does Reference include a browser extension? Yes. It includes a Safari extension today, and a Chrome extension is noted as coming soon.

• What kinds of content can I add to a board? You can add images, videos, YouTube videos, and GIFs, and you can use sticky notes for text so your ideas and references stay in one place.

• Can Reference download YouTube videos? No. Reference can play YouTube videos inside the workflow, but it does not download them because of YouTube’s terms.

Alternatives

• General-purpose note-taking apps with media support: These can store images and text, but may not provide the same combination of board layouts, mixed-media workflow, and visual search/OCR features described for Reference.
• Digital moodboard or inspiration board tools: These focus on organizing visuals into boards, but the approach to search (including OCR) and cross-device syncing may differ.
• Photo library management tools: These often provide searchable tags and OCR-like capabilities, but may not support the specific “board” workflow (infinite canvas mood boards, sticky notes, and converting search results into new boards) outlined for Reference.
• Productivity apps with web clipping/browser extensions: These can help capture inspiration from the web, though they may require more manual organization and may not include the same board-first experience and automatic organization mentioned here.