![A group of people in various poses, with a focus on a woman in white attire, overlayed with the text 'SWITCHX' and the tagline 'SWITCH [ANYTHING]. KEEP WHAT MATTERS.' The scene is set against a beach background at dusk.](https://i0.wp.com/digitalproduction.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/beeble-switchx-hero.png?resize=110%2C110&quality=72&ssl=1 "a group of people in various poses with a focus on a woman in white attire overlayed with the text switchx and the tagline switch anything keep what matters the scene is set against a beach background at dusk digital production")
Pureref, a tool popular with artists and designers for organising and viewing reference images, has released version 2.0. The update brings a refreshed user interface, a new simple drawing tool and support for animated GIFs. There are also playback controls for scrolling through individual frames.
Pureref 2.0 also includes a new rich text editor for notes. This allows you to use links, checklists and advanced formatting options. The update introduces a hierarchical grouping system. This allows you to create and display any hierarchy via a tree menu. This makes it easier to manage complex projects.
The “Image streaming” function ensures that images are displayed correctly on different devices. In addition, images are now cached on the hard drive, which saves memory. The previous “Zoom quality” setting has been replaced by the more efficient “Cache on hard disc” mode. The update also ensures that everything runs faster and requires less memory.
Operation is now also easier, for example you can use gestures on the trackpad to pan and zoom or control the slideshow. The coordinate selection has been improved so that it now also displays selections and prints out pixel measurements. The name and source of the moved file are also displayed.
Price and availability
PureRef is still available as donationware free of charge for testing – for larger teams or commercial use there are both “permanent licences” and subscriptions – the permanent licence, for example, costs 49 US dollars and includes all updates of version 2.x.
