Software Alternatives & Reviews

PureRef VS Gromit-MPX

Compare PureRef VS Gromit-MPX and see what are their differences

PureRef logo PureRef

The simple way to view and organize your multiple reference images.

Gromit-MPX logo Gromit-MPX

Create annotations by directly drawing on your screen.
  • PureRef Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-23
  • Gromit-MPX Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-13

PureRef videos

The Best Free Tool for Artists - PureRef

More videos:

  • Tutorial - PureRef tutorial: a free, cross-platform virtual board for artists!
  • Review - PureRef Review

Gromit-MPX videos

Desktop Annotation, Draw Anywhere on Screen: Gromit-MPX for Thinkpad Yoga 12 on Ubuntu

More videos:

  • Review - On-screen annotation (Free draw on desktop): Gromit-MPX vs Compiz Annotate

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PureRef and Gromit-MPX)
Image Editing
48 48%
52% 52
Digital Drawing And Painting
Document Automation
77 77%
23% 23
Graphic Design Software
13 13%
87% 87

User comments

Share your experience with using PureRef and Gromit-MPX. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PureRef should be more popular than Gromit-MPX. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

PureRef mentions (4)

  • how do u guys organize your visual inspiration/refs digitally?
    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 for online backups. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • HELP! So I want to trace this Image(704x702) into a Pixel art (32 x 32 or 40 x 40) but when I resize it, it gets like this (2nd picture) and if I don't, then the pixels are too small, What do i do?
    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: almost 2 years ago
  • Hide user name in menu bar.
    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. Change the color and opacity to whatever you want, lock the window and switch turn on the transparent to mouse option and you should be good to go! Source: about 2 years ago
  • Hello Reddit! this is my 1st time posting and i'm excited to share some of my sketches with you guys. I like drawing dynamic poses, it's a really fun exercise!. These 4 girls are from reference pics out of Pinterest. Suggestions are welcome :D. Have a great day!
    The high kicking girl on the right is in a PureRef board I keep to practice gesture. Source: over 2 years ago

Gromit-MPX mentions (2)

  • Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?
    I have an XP-Pen as well. Works great in Linux. I'm still amazed at how high quality these non-Wacom tablets are today. I had one of those cheap 6" Wacom Graphites back in the early 2000s and that was the best you could get. My XP-Pen blows that thing away. Still haven't found a great place to put it though. I'm just stashing it off to the side but it's awkward moving it around all the time. If you're on Linux,... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Image viewer with annotations (etc add rectangle)
    I use Gromit-MPX. With it you can toggle "painting mode" with a hotkey (e.g. F9), making your screen essentially a big whiteboard on which you can draw in various colors and thiccnessess. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PureRef and Gromit-MPX, you can also consider the following products

Kuadro - Kuadro is an image viewer that allows you to open as many windows as you want, lay them out as you...

Epic Pen - A windows tool for drawing over your desktop and applications

gInk - An on-screen on-screen annotation software for Windows.

MacinCloud - MacinCloud is a Mac cloud platform that provides on-demand Mac cloud servers, flexible dev workload infrastructure and comprehensive Mac in the Cloud solutions

Pylote - To draw on the screen and to handle the instruments of geometry there.

VirtualMacOSX.com - vmOSX -- is your affordable, Mac-based home on the web.