# How do you guys manage your references? **URL:** \ **Category:** Off-topic Chat\ **Created:** [October 28, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538 "2024-10-28T07:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/yetanotherpainter/32/1311579_2.png) [@yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/u/yetanotherpainter)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 7:02am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/1 "2024-10-28T07:02:33Z")
Do just search things online? Maybe are keeping things in your secret directory? 🙂 Or maybe Pinterest is enough? ---
**Author:** ![AlexeyAdamitsky](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/alexeyadamitsky/32/630057_2.png) [@AlexeyAdamitsky](https://blenderartists.org/u/AlexeyAdamitsky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/2 "2024-10-28T08:06:38Z")
Eagle App for massive inspiration database and Pureref as per project moodboard. ---
**Author:** ![marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/marcatore/32/20313_2.png) [@marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/u/marcatore)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 8:57am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/3 "2024-10-28T08:57:41Z")
PureRef here as per-project like @AlexeyAdamitsky ---
**Author:** ![yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/yetanotherpainter/32/1311579_2.png) [@yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/u/yetanotherpainter)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 9:09am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/4 "2024-10-28T09:09:56Z")
Nice, so it is always a combination of some sort of a database and the way to put these images into a canvas. ---
**Author:** ![SoundDifferent](https://blenderartists.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@SoundDifferent](https://blenderartists.org/u/SoundDifferent)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 9:10am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/5 "2024-10-28T09:10:47Z")
> [@yetanotherpainter](#): > > Do just search things online? Google images, yes. For management: +1 for Pureref ---
**Author:** ![yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/yetanotherpainter/32/1311579_2.png) [@yetanotherpainter](https://blenderartists.org/u/yetanotherpainter)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2024, 9:14am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/6 "2024-10-28T09:14:12Z")
I heard people also use Pinterest, but I found it annoying when you get email saying that some of the pins were removed due to… Reasons. So I tend to keep things on my PC. ---
**Author:** ![Galnart](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/galnart/32/1477055_2.png) [@Galnart](https://blenderartists.org/u/Galnart)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 12:28am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/7 "2024-10-29T00:28:29Z")
Reference folder ---
**Author:** ![RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/robwu/32/538640_2.png) [@RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/u/RobWu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 9:57am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/8 "2024-10-29T09:57:56Z")
Nice set of (sub)folders and XNView for tagging and thumbnail viewing. ---
**Author:** ![thorn](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/thorn/32/1035944_2.png) [@thorn](https://blenderartists.org/u/thorn)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 10:51am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/9 "2024-10-29T10:51:17Z")
I download pictures to named folders. No reason I’d ever use Pinterest. ---
**Author:** ![Musashidan](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/musashidan/32/570669_2.png) [@Musashidan](https://blenderartists.org/u/Musashidan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 11:03am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/10 "2024-10-29T11:03:26Z")
I store everything in pureref master files. For instance, I’ll have a ‘mech’ file, a ‘head/face anatomy’ file, etc, and I have these open and just drag and drop from online searches, directly into the master. These can then be grouped and tagged within pureref, and if I need images saved out as individual ref files I’ll just bulk select within pureref and export to folders. ---
**Author:** ![RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/robwu/32/538640_2.png) [@RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/u/RobWu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 11:11am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/11 "2024-10-29T11:11:08Z")
Does Pureref store the images, or are they just shortcuts to the originals? ---
**Author:** ![marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/marcatore/32/20313_2.png) [@marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/u/marcatore)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 11:15am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/12 "2024-10-29T11:15:16Z")
you can both ways. Obviously store the images give you bigger file size but you can archive it for future ignoring the web changes. ---
**Author:** ![Musashidan](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/musashidan/32/570669_2.png) [@Musashidan](https://blenderartists.org/u/Musashidan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 11:15am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/13 "2024-10-29T11:15:21Z")
I’m pretty sure it embeds them in the pureref file. ---
**Author:** ![RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/robwu/32/538640_2.png) [@RobWu](https://blenderartists.org/u/RobWu)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 11:16am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/14 "2024-10-29T11:16:01Z")
cheers! I will have a look at it as well 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Culver](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/richard_culver/32/646901_2.png) [@Richard\_Culver](https://blenderartists.org/u/Richard_Culver)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/15 "2025-10-22T19:16:10Z")
Pure ref gets a lot of use at our studio. But it is not a good team tool. For that we use Miro. Basically it’s like this, you can’t hog your refs in a file. Everything needs to be co-ordinated and in the open. We share Miro boards with the team and anyone at any time can update, note and edit. While there are many colab tools out there, we settled on a whiteboard because it is flexible and we can create as many as we need for different subjects and purposes. For an individual, pure ref is ok. But I find that tool annoying. Hate it actually. So if I do my own work I still use Miro. Thing is it is not always just images. But notes and charts and other tools that help with the brief. Not to mention external links and he team needs. And all of those things can be stored on the miro board. ---
**Author:** ![thomas\_p](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/thomas_p/32/637401_2.png) [@thomas\_p](https://blenderartists.org/u/thomas_p)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 8:47am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/16 "2025-11-04T08:47:23Z")
I used Miro recently when working for a studio. Seems alright for teamwork really but it’s too easy for my taste to move things around. You open it up, click-drag somewhere to pan the canvas and poof! you changed the layout. I probably deleted some things without noticing. 😅 How do you export images from there to your system anyway? I searched and searched and in the end screengrabbed them to put them in the Blender viewport. Not … optimal. For personal stuff I keep everything in local folders and use Picasa to browse. Yes, Picasa - bought and abandoned by Google around 2010. Still somehow the best to find stuff quickly and lazily scroll past tons of folders. Never found anything as convenient, stable with small memory footprint and performant with large databases (and offline!). ---
**Author:** ![marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/user_avatar/blenderartists.org/marcatore/32/20313_2.png) [@marcatore](https://blenderartists.org/u/marcatore)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2025, 8:53am UTC](https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-you-guys-manage-your-references/1555538/17 "2025-11-04T08:53:41Z")
> [@Richard\_Culver](#): > > Thing is it is not always just images. But notes and charts and other tools that help with the brief. Just to inform you that PureRef is adding some new features like you’re using on Miro > **[PureRef 2.1 beta | Blog | PureRef](https://www.pureref.com/blog/pureref21/)** > > PureRef version 2.1 is now available for beta testing, get it and try it out below! Anyway, I’ve used Miro in the past and I confirm that is useful when you have to share data with someone else. It’s quite flexible. At the moment I’m using PureRef as solo use and also because it creates a single file with everything inside that it’s fine for backup and archive.