RefCanvas - Reference Board

Endvoid

In-app purchases

About this app

RefCanvas is an intuitive tool for artists and designers who need a comprehensive reference app to bring their creative vision to life.

Key Features:
- Import images and gifs.
- Notes - Add text notes.
- Move, scale and rotate references to create the perfect layout.
- Multi selection - edit multiple references at one.
- Nodes - Useful for grouping references.
- Drag and drop - Drag and drop files from others apps like the gallery.
- Paste files from the clipboard.
- Supports split screen and pop-up view: Use it as a companion app with your favorite drawing app like Ibis Paint or Infinite Painter.
- Save your progress as boards for future use.
- Auto set thumbnails for boards after saving.
- Eye dropper - Tap and hold to pick a color from your references as a hex code.

Animated GIF support:
- Reference your favorite animated gifs.
- Pause animation and play frame by frame to better understand referenced animations.
- Animation timeline gives you an interactive visual breakdown of all the frames.

Easy to use reference tools:
- Grayscale toggle.
- Flip horizontally and vertically.
- Add link - allows you to visit the source of your reference.


Using RefCanvas to make reference boards & mood boards is easy, simply import your images or gifs, and move them around the canvas to arrange them in the layout that works best for your project. You can adjust their size, rotation and position to your liking, giving you maximum control over your creative process.

Ratings and reviews

It's a pretty good mobile alternative to PureRef. I like that you can import gif animations. One big feature it's still missing is an auto-arrange photos, which would be very useful if you're importing 20+ images. There's also no way to change playback speed on gifs to aid in study. I'll increase my rating when these features get added in.

Good app, used as a reference when drawing on my tablet. Was going to upgrade to the Pro version ($3.50, worth the price for me) but seen it hasn't been updated in 2 1/2 years. There was mention of added features in the next update back in 2023. That's the main reason for the 3 stars, not sure if this will ever be improved. As it is, it works great as a way to collect images that can be zoomed and moved around as needed but free version is limited to one board and a set number of images.

This is a great app to have as an artist! The one thing I think it could use, though, is an auto-arriange feature when uploading new photos, so they do not overlap on each other when uploaded, and and automated feature for the people who probably forget to save very often (i.e myself.) Just a quality of life change, that's all.

What’s new

Added Nodes - nodes adjust their size automatically to fit near references.
-Nodes have a title and description (optional).
-Nodes move their contents when moved.

Links in notes are highlighted and clickable.
References can have links now - link is auto assigned when dropped from certain websites.

Some improvements and new settings.