Overview

Reference Photo is a fast, local-first image board — right in your browser, with nothing to install. Drop in reference photos, arrange them freely on an endless canvas, and keep working at any zoom level without slowdown, even with hundreds of images open at once.

It opens straight onto an empty board rather than an upload step: start a new board and you're dropping in photos immediately.

See Getting started for the first-run workflow, or jump straight to Keyboard shortcuts if you just want the reference table.

What it's for

• Collecting reference photos for a build and laying them out side by side, at any scale, without a canvas-size limit
• Taking quick notes directly on the board, next to the photos they refer to, and marking photos up with freehand lines and arrows
• Grouping, aligning, and distributing photos precisely, with snapping to help line things up by eye
• Picking exact colors from your photos and collecting them as a palette, with HEX, RGB, HSL, and HSB values
• Tidying a messy board in one step — pack, grid, line up by name or date, or resize photos to match — and judging values in grayscale, mirrored, or with adjusted brightness and contrast
• Stepping through your references one at a time, or as a timed slideshow
• Floating your references in an always-on-top window next to your drawing or modeling app (Chrome, Edge, Opera and other Chromium-based browsers on a computer)
• Keeping a private, offline copy of a board as a single .cosref backup file, and reopening it here later

Where to go next

1. Getting started

   Start a board, drop in your first photos, and arrange them.

2. Canvas and import

   Panning, zooming, and adding photos — by file picker, drag-and-drop, or paste.

3. Selection, groups, and layers

   Multi-select, grouping, the layers panel, and stacking order.

4. Notes and crop

   Pin styled text notes to the board, draw lines and arrows, and crop a photo without losing the original.

5. Align, distribute, and snap

   Line photos up precisely, space them evenly, and let the board snap edges together automatically.

6. Copy and paste

   Duplicate items within a board, or move them between two different boards.

7. Backup and restore

   Export a board as a .cosref file and reopen it later, plus what happens when your browser's storage runs low.

8. Colors, arranging, and export

   Pick colors and build palettes, set opacity, adjust the view, arrange and normalize, export the board or each photo as PNG or JPG, download the original photos, and float the board in its own window.

9. Keyboard shortcuts

   The full reference, and how to change any shortcut.

10. Slideshow and animations

    Step through photos one at a time, run a slideshow, and play animated GIFs.