
Eagle App
BeeRef
Milanote
Pinterest
Adobe Bridge
FrameRef
Kuadro
The simple way to view and organize your multiple reference images.
Which is more popular?
Based on our record, GIMP seems to be a lot more popular than PureRef. While we know about 59 links to GIMP, we've tracked only 4 mentions of PureRef.
Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.
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| Website | pureref.com | gimp.org |
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What each product offers, as listed by its team.


Possible disadvantages
Possible disadvantages
An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.


No analysis of PureRef yet.
Overall verdict
Why this product is good
Recommended for
GIMP is recommended for beginners, hobbyists, and professionals who need a robust image editor without a financial commitment. It's suitable for users who are comfortable with learning open-source software and those who need a tool for basic to mid-level image editing tasks.
Walkthroughs and reviews on video.
The Best Free Tool for Artists - PureRef
More videos
How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.


Share your experience with using PureRef and GIMP. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.


We have no reviews of PureRef yet. Be the first one to post
You can use GIMP as a basic paint tool, a high-quality photo editor, a tool to process many images at once online, a way to make lots of images, or even to change the format of an image. GIMP can do even more because...
There are 1,439 votes for GIMP and 14 votes for Photopea. GIMP gets 4.3/5, and Photopea gets 4.8/5. These rankings come from real user reviews and can help you choose between the two based on your industry’s needs.
In our experience, GIMP was slightly less responsive and used a few more resources than its proprietary counterpart, but this can be easily forgiven on the basis that GIMP always has been and always will be free and...
Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.


I mainly use offline means: organising all my files in a hierarchy of folders and using pureref (which I highly recommend) to make moodboards, and ofc an external hard drive to save backups. The only online means I use is google drive... Source: about 4 years ago
If you just want the image to be a transparent overlay while you draw 'through the image'(with it being unchanged) you can use something like Pureref(pureref.com) to set the image as always on top + turn opacity down a bit. Source: about 4 years ago
If you can’t get it to work inside of max, I thought of a free easy workaround you could try. I use the software pureref to manage and quickly access reference images. You could just resize an empty pureref window to cover your username.... Source: over 4 years ago
Image Creative Commons (CC) BY-SA-NC 2005-2017, developed, designed and written by René K. Müller Graphics & illustrations made with Inkscape, Tgif, Gimp, PovRay, GD.pm Web-Site powered by FreeBSD & Debian/Linux - 100% Open Source. Source: over 3 years ago
Paint.NET for a familiar paradigm with nicer features. Pinta for an old school, simple Paint experience. Krita for more advanced drawing. Gimp for editing/manipulating photos. Source: over 3 years ago
If you don't want to pay for photoshop, check out the Gnu Image Manipulation Program at http://gimp.org which is free. It has most of what you'd want photoshop for. Source: over 3 years ago
When comparing PureRef and GIMP, you can also consider the following products.

Unify your creative inspiration in one place. Store anything – inspiring images, design mockups, illustrations, screenshots and more.
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Adobe Photoshop is a webtop application for editing images and photos online.
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Affinity is the imaging and design suite for creative professionals exclusively for Mac.
Compare Affinity Photo to PureRef or GIMP:


Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to seaffordable art tools for everyone. Concept art. texture and matte painters, illustrations and comics.
Compare Krita to PureRef or GIMP: