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Reference image viewer - PureRef

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Arookh
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Arookh polycounter lvl 10
Hi!

I know this topic might've come up a few times before but with this program we've tried to take it one step further. :)

When working with 3d and 2d there are all kinds of different specialized tools for almost every step in the process, but there is one area that i feel have been neglected, and that is software for handling my reference images. Most of my friends still use the windows photo viewer with its bloated user interface, taking up most of the space that could have been used for the images themselves. At first I tried to find an alternative but couldn't find anything that was both slim and functional. Because of this, me and a friend of mine have been developing an advanced but minimalistic program specialized for solving this problem, we call it PureRef.

PureRef is a lightweight program that keeps the user interface clean off all the functionality while still having everything you need easily accessible through right click menus or keyboard shortcuts. It contains a lot of functions specifically designed to fit the use of reference images, such as always on top mode and the possibility to make the window transparent and even letting you paint through the window itself. We have also added a lot of customization options and all the basic image handling functions that you would expect from this kind of a tool, rotating, scaling, flipping and cropping.

Here's a screenshot of it in action:

purerefScreen.jpg

If this sounds cool, please give it a try and let us know what you think! You can download it from our webpage: www.pureref.com.

Feel free to PM me or find us in our forums on the site. Thanks! :)

Replies

  • Bryan Cavett
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    Bryan Cavett polycounter lvl 19
    Pretty slick little reference tool with a lot of nice features and minimal interface. Nice work!
  • kurt_hectic
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    kurt_hectic polycounter lvl 10
    interesting;

    features request:
    -crop
    -scale (I was unable to find it)

    +
    In 3 min. I restarted soft like 10 times, don't know how :\ I was just clicking random buttons because I wanted to find scale...'restart' should be an option 'hidden' in pop up menu.
  • Bryan Cavett
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    Bryan Cavett polycounter lvl 19
    kurt_hectic: Hit Ctrl+u to view all the hotkeys and customize the ui, crop and resize do exist. Also take a brief look at their website. Not sure about the restart issue though...
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    interesting;

    features request:
    -crop
    -scale (I was unable to find it)

    +
    In 3 min. I restarted soft like 10 times, don't know how :\ I was just clicking random buttons because I wanted to find scale...'restart' should be an option 'hidden' in pop up menu.

    Hey, thanks both of you for trying it out, I'm glad you like it!

    Crop and scale already exist, you can find them both in the keybinder.

    By default, scale is Ctrl+Alt+LMB.
    Cropping is done by selecting the image/s you want to crop, then holding down the 'C' key and using the selection rectangle to specify what part of the current selection you want to crop.

    Do you mean you acidentally hit Close in the right-click menu? Or if you just clicked buttons on your keyboard you might've pressed Ctrl+x which is the shortcut for close.

    You can tick the 'Warn before closing unsaved scene' box in the settings so you don't accidentally close it.

    Hope that helps! :)
  • kurt_hectic
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    kurt_hectic polycounter lvl 10
    OK I'll check the shortcut list.

    I meant that I loaded 3 images or so, do some random click and boom, they disappeared. I think I'll just learn the soft and avoid any missclicks.
  • zOffTy
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    zOffTy polycounter lvl 16
    Nice viewer!
    I like always on top :)

    there is no color picker ?
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Currently there is no color picker no, but it has been requested before and is on the roadmap for a future release :)
  • Silver
    Man! This tool VERY POWERFUL! Thank you very much!
    This program my dream. You read my mind.

    I will soon share ideas.
  • Leksey
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    Leksey polycounter lvl 6
    If you use "Always on Top", FPS in maya falls down 50%.
  • OBlastradiusO
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    OBlastradiusO polycounter lvl 11
    I just ordered this two days ago. Never received the program. Any explanations? Tried emailing so I'd thought I'd try here.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Silver: Thanks a lot, looking forward to it! :)

    Leksey: Could you provide some more details so that we can try to reproduce this? The always on top mode just uses the windows topmost feature and should not have any impact on the performance of the program. Are you in a big scene while having a lot of big images in PureRef that could be filling up the RAM?

    OBlastradiusO: You should have been redirected to the download page after completing a paypal transaction.
    Try going to the download page and enter 0 in the name your price-box and press download and the download should start. To which adress did you send the mail? We haven't received any email from you. Sorry that you had problems but thank you for supporting us, give me a shout again if the problem persists!
  • OBlastradiusO
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    OBlastradiusO polycounter lvl 11
    Arookh wrote: »
    Silver: Thanks a lot, looking forward to it! :)

    Leksey: Could you provide some more details so that we can try to reproduce this? The always on top mode just uses the windows topmost feature and should not have any impact on the performance of the program. Are you in a big scene while having a lot of big images in PureRef that could be filling up the RAM?

    OBlastradiusO: You should have been redirected to the download page after completing a paypal transaction.
    Try going to the download page and enter 0 in the name your price-box and press download and the download should start. To which adress did you send the mail? We haven't received any email from you. Sorry that you had problems but thank you for supporting us, give me a shout again if the problem persists!

    Cool. I knew it had to be something like that. I'll try that out. Thanks
  • SsSandu_C
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    SsSandu_C polycounter lvl 13
    Nice app! I was wondering if there is any way of zooming in and out inside a picture tile?
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    SsSandu_C wrote: »
    Nice app! I was wondering if there is any way of zooming in and out inside a picture tile?

    Glad you like it!
    Sorry, but right now there is no such functionality. We'll try to think of a way to make it possible though. Thanks for the suggestion!
  • arvidburstrom
    This is on the rise!
    It's a lot like refboard but even slimmer in design and also (the biggest sell for me personally) supports drag and drop from your browser. I'd say grab it while it's hot!
  • passerby
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    passerby polycounter lvl 12
    Best reference viewer app i have found yet, thanks for mentioning it to me on Skype avrid.

    Got 1 simple feature request and 1 more advanced one.

    The simple one, first, i would love for it to support Maya style navigation, "alt+middleMouse" to pan, and "alt+rightMouse" to zoom. The way zoom works if drag to left to zoom out and right to zoom in.

    Could make the settings accept mouse buttons and well as keys to do this, or just have a check-box for maya style nav. May not seem like a big deal, but for a lot of people this navigation style is muscle memory, especially when you model in maya, and use something like unity as a game engine, which shares the same nav scheme.

    The 2nd thing that would be nice, is if it supported drag and drop to photoshop or other applications. This would let users do quick paint overs of things in there reference sheet.

    Think this would be possible if everything in the reference sheet, was stored in a temp folder somewhere, and the app just passes that location to a image editing app on a drag and drop. After that could just watch the file for changes and reload into the reference sheet.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks arvidburstrom and passerby!

    Passerby: I get what you mean, thing is we'd have to support Max/Modo/etc nav as well in that case. We're trying to find a way to let users customize mouse buttons right now. We'll see how that goes, we might just make different setups if it doesn't work out.

    We've thought about drag-dropping outside the program too, thanks for the suggestion with temp, we'll keep it in mind and see if it's possible!
  • PolyHertz
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    PolyHertz polycount lvl 666
    Just tried this, and its easily the best app of its kind I've ever tried.
    One suggestion though: Instead of only letting the user disable the invisible/ignore mouse feature via ctrl+T, it should also appear as an option in the start menu right click menu. I think this method would actually be slightly faster/safer.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    PolyHertz wrote: »
    Just tried this, and its easily the best app of its kind I've ever tried.
    One suggestion though: Instead of only letting the user disable the invisible/ignore mouse feature via ctrl+T, it should also appear as an option in the start menu right click menu. I think this method would actually be slightly faster/safer.

    Thank you PolyHertz, really glad to hear that!

    That's a great idea, it will probably only be Windows-specific in that case but we'll look it up.

    Thanks for the suggestion!
  • stry
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    stry polycounter lvl 11
    Fantastic program!

    Middle mouse button for Pan would be great. Holding ALT is fine (or remapping it to Space, for that Photoshop feel), but most programs use MMB for pan, and my brain doesn't want to let go of it. I keep trying it and getting frustrated that it does nothing :)
  • Torch
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    Torch interpolator
    Very nice replacement for Irfanview, cheers bud :)

    EDIT: Quick q - is there any way to make MMB pan instead of LMB? Or at least to turn off MMB functionality in the app as I keep accidentally going to pan with MMB and deleting my image XD
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Thanks guys!

    We're working on that. The reason we don't want to have it as default is for cross-platformers. We're working on making both Mac and Linux versions as well and want to keep the controls as similar as possible.

    We'll try to figure out a way to have some kind of Maya/Max/Modo-control setting for Win-users though. :)
  • stry
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    stry polycounter lvl 11
    I'd like to use the middle mouse button in the mac version, as well :)
  • stry
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    stry polycounter lvl 11
    We'll try to figure out a way to have some kind of Maya/Max/Modo-control setting for Win-users though

    I was thinking about not having to use ALT at all when panning with the MMB, though. It's the thing you'll be doing a lot once you have the images up on the board, and requiring the user to hold down hotkeys on the keyboard seems like a bit much.
  • joebount
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    joebount polycounter lvl 12
    Fantastic software, congrats guys!
    The only thing that is driving me bonkers is MMB :)
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Latest update is out!

    - Middle Mouse Button can be set to PAN in the settings menu. (Thanks for all the requests guys, hope it feels better now! :) stry: it will work for Mac as well later.)

    - There's now a 32bit-version available.

    - Notes can be added to images.

    - Open image location (both local and web).

    - Color and coordinate picking.

    Check the changelog for a more thorough description: www.pureref.com/changelog.php
    Let us know how it's working for you! :D

    Next step is Mac and Linux versions!
  • S@murai
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    S@murai polycounter lvl 6
    Hello!
    I have a problem. I was using PureRef for some time and it's fantastic!
    I loaded my refrence file today and I'm left with this:
    5SdpEZK.jpg
    File is 50mb so where are my images?

    Is there any way to recover images?
  • stry
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    stry polycounter lvl 11
    Yes! Thanks for the update!
  • pasha_sevez
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    pasha_sevez polycounter lvl 13
    Great app! I've been waiting for so long to see such a cool ref viewer )) Keep trucking!
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    S@murai wrote: »
    Hello!
    I have a problem. I was using PureRef for some time and it's fantastic!
    I loaded my refrence file today and I'm left with this:
    5SdpEZK.jpg
    File is 50mb so where are my images?

    Is there any way to recover images?

    Glad to hear, stry and pasha-sevez!

    But I'm sorry to hear that S@murai, it seems to be a bug in the new save/load handling. Do you think you could upload the corrupt save file somewhere so that we can take a look at it?

    Also, if you remember, it would be really helpful if you could describe how you got to that state:
    - Was the save file originally from the previous version (1.4.1)?
    - How many images did you have loaded?
    - Did you delete any images inbetween loads and saves?
    - Did you use cropping or notes?

    If anyone else has this problem, please tell us so we can solve it as soon as possible.
  • mediochrea
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    mediochrea polycounter lvl 10
    Wow, this is brilliant. Loving the interface, and seconded for the 3d application-like navigation, I keep trying to zoom with alt+RMB. :poly142:
  • shogunato
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    shogunato polycounter lvl 12
    exellent tool
    thank you
  • kurt_hectic
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    kurt_hectic polycounter lvl 10
    Probably I've found a bug:

    I have PV on a 2nd monitor in full screen mode. On top of it I have windows explorer- an opened folder. I've tried to drag and drop some image from that folder to my 1st, main monitor and that cause freeze of the windows explorer. I had to close the process.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Probably I've found a bug:

    I have PV on a 2nd monitor in full screen mode. On top of it I have windows explorer- an opened folder. I've tried to drag and drop some image from that folder to my 1st, main monitor and that cause freeze of the windows explorer. I had to close the process.

    By "PV", do you mean PureRef?
    Do you mean you have PureRef in fullscreen on your second monitor, and windows explorer on top of it, and then drag an image from windows explorer to your primary screen? Where do you drop it on your primary screen? Is it into a program, the desktop or something else?

    Which process did you have to force close? PureRef or windows explorer?
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    1.5.2 is now available with some new features:
    - Load images via the menu
    - Export selection
    - Auto pack new images
    - Support for more image formats
    http://www.pureref.com/changelog.php

    We fixed a bug that had to do with save/load which would corrupt the scene. If you have experienced this, please send us a message on our homepage and we'll try to restore it.

    Mac version is just around the corner! If you feel like helping out by testing with us, just give us a shout!
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    PureRef is now also available for Mac!
    Just choose Mac in the download section :)
  • GlowingPotato
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    GlowingPotato polycounter lvl 10
    This piece of software blew my mind.
  • geothefaust
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    geothefaust polycounter lvl 9
    I just wanted to say that I've been using this tool for a few days now, and it is freakin' stellar. It has a ton of options and various hotkey states (global, application, etc.). I really like how it deals with multiple images. Serious cool piece of tech for work. :)
  • ericwu
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    ericwu polycounter lvl 4
    Hi dear PureFre team, awesome app! But just a small problem I encountered...

    I can't resize my PureRef App windows to whatever I need, I'm using a Mac 10.10 system, and every time I tried to resize the main window from the corner, it freezed as the original size and not even able to move around with right click...

    So please, what happened? Can you help me? Thanks! :)

    Eric
  • Fwap
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    Fwap polycounter lvl 13
    Hey dude, awesome tool.
    Small problem though, i just updated to the latest version, I can no longer drag and drop images onto the canvas.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Fwap wrote: »
    Hey dude, awesome tool.
    Small problem though, i just updated to the latest version, I can no longer drag and drop images onto the canvas.

    Sorry to hear that, what OS and OS version are you using and from what source are you drag-dropping? We'll try to help you as best we can. In the meantime, you can load images through the load menu.
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    We recently released a new version, 1.6.0
    It includes some new features and tweaks such as:
    - Auto save
    - Axis aligned movement
    - Better touch screen navigation.
    - Smaller minimum window size

    Also the bug reported on OSX 10.10 concerning resize has been fixed.
    Please tell us if you experience any problems!
  • geothefaust
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    geothefaust polycounter lvl 9
    Thanks for the update! Especially for the global hotkey fix. :)
    Arookh wrote: »
    Latest update is out!

    - Middle Mouse Button can be set to PAN in the settings menu. (Thanks for all the requests guys, hope it feels better now! :) stry: it will work for Mac as well later.)

    - There's now a 32bit-version available.

    - Notes can be added to images.

    - Open image location (both local and web).

    - Color and coordinate picking.

    Check the changelog for a more thorough description: www.pureref.com/changelog.php
    Let us know how it's working for you! :D

    Next step is Mac and Linux versions!
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Introducing some major highlights with the new v.1.7.0:
    - Overlay mode. Slim PureRef down even further and let your references float freely without a background.
    - Redesign and optimization of the right-click menu.
    - Global notes. No need to connect notes to images anymore.
    - And much more!
    See full changelog at http://www.pureref.com/changelog.php
  • Synaesthesia
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    Synaesthesia polycounter
    Excellent! I absolutely love this tool. Thanks so much for updating it!
  • CreativeSheep
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    CreativeSheep polycounter lvl 8
    There is an update, some tools I tend to neglect when it comes to updates :) I love this tool as well, I gave a donation to it a while ago at the time of downloading; I really like this tool :)
  • CreativeSheep
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    CreativeSheep polycounter lvl 8
    Any reason why running the install of the latest version of PureRef causes Windows10 to prompt me that it's protecting my computer ?
  • Arookh
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    Arookh polycounter lvl 10
    Any reason why running the install of the latest version of PureRef causes Windows10 to prompt me that it's protecting my computer ?

    Thanks Synaesthesia and Creative Sheep.

    Creative Sheep, Windows will do that to any .exe that is not officially Windows licensed software, and that license costs more per year than what our donated budget allows. :)
    Windows usually prompts after every update since it's a new .exe but there's nothing different with the update other than that you might've not updated PureRef on a Win10 yet.
    Please tell us if you experience any problems.
  • geothefaust
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    geothefaust polycounter lvl 9
    Thank you again for another excellent update. I'm really enjoying overlay mode. :)
  • CreativeSheep
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    CreativeSheep polycounter lvl 8
    Windows10 won't install the latest version of PureRef, I get an error that I need to find a version for my PC ?
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