u/virtuviking

Given the response on my last post, I'm really glad some of you loved the idea and a few even bought the early beta and shared feedback. That feedback directly shaped this update — so thank you genuinely.

After the first patch I added click-through mode and some basics people said were missing. This update goes further:

• GIF support with play/pause and frame-by-frame stepping — so you can actually study motion, not just watch it loop
• Image isolation — press I on any image, everything else fades out
• Better grouping — background tint, title, resize from inside, easy ungroup
• Trackpad dragging — Space + left click to pan the canvas
• Context menus cleaned up with proper submenus for rotation, flipping etc
• Auto-updater introduced (still early)

Biggest change: it's now free to try. Full features, no card, no paywall — just download and see if it works for you. Previous beta had a $9 entry, removed that based on feedback.

Worth being upfront: this is still beta. Updates come fast, some things are still getting polished. The major focus right now is on performance and a few features that I think make Lumaref genuinely different — a lightweight built-in browser that saves tabs per project, asset management with a tag editor.

If you try it and have thoughts — good or bad — I'd love to hear them. I just created r/lumaref if you want a place to drop ideas or report things. I'll post updates and progress there too.

I launched my first app few days ago on itch.io.

The app is called Lumaref. It's a desktop reference board for artists — think PureRef, but with a built-in browser, asset library, color palette extraction, and annotation tools. All offline. $9 beta price, free upgrade to v1.0 when it ships.

I'm an indie dev. I built this because my own art workflow was broken — too many tabs, too much switching, kept losing references mid-session.

Here's what I've built so far:
— Infinite canvas with pan/zoom
— Built-in light weight browser with adblocker (ArtStation, Pinterest, Google Images — all inside the app)
— One-click image capture from browser to board
— Asset library with tags and search
— Auto color palette on every image
— Annotations (draw over your references)
— Study tools (grayscale toggle, isolation mode)
— Everything in one .lref file, 100% offline

Currently got some feedback and bought by some users and I also released those updates with new beta and still waiting for new beta users who will also get stable v1 at early beta price.

What I still need:
— 50 real artists to try it and tell me what's wrong
— People to join my Discord so the feedback loop is short

If you're an artist or know one: link in comments. Free keys available in exchange for honest feedback. I will personally reply to every single one.

This is my first product. I'm building in public. Follow along if you want to watch either a slow success or an instructive failure — both are probably worth watching.

https://iamhemant.itch.io/lumaref

and learn more about it here: https://bloomeex.org/lumaref

PureRef is genuinely one of the best tools in my workflow. I'm not here to trash it.

But there's always that one thing it can't do: browse the web. and asset management too so that I don't have to switch to different browsers or programs for that.

Every time I needed a new reference mid-session, I'd have to: open Chrome, go to ArtStation or Google Images, drag the image over, resize it in PureRef, then go back to painting. Sometimes the tab would be gone when I came back. Sometimes I'd end up down a rabbit hole and lose 40 minutes.

PureRef doesn't know what you haven't found yet. It's great at organizing what you already have. But the hunting part? That's still fully on you, in a separate browser, in a separate window.

I started building Lumaref because I wanted the hunt and the board to be the same app.

It has a full browser built in (Chrome-engine based, with an adblocker — ArtStation actually loads clean). You hover over any image while browsing, click once, and it drops straight onto your board. No alt-tab. No drag across two monitors.

and very light weight than other apps Lumaref is only about 6-9mb...!

It also has an asset library with tags, auto color palette extraction on every image, and annotation tools. And it works completely offline. One .lref file.

It's in beta right now — $7–9 on itch. I'm an indie dev who built this for myself first, and I'm looking for artists who want to actually help shape it into something great.

Happy to answer any questions about how it works or what's coming. Feedback is literally why I'm posting.