Proref: Art Reference Boards

Reference boards & art journey

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

Proref is where your references live while you draw — and where the finished piece goes afterwards. GATHER YOUR REFERENCES Drop everything you're looking at onto one huge canvas and arrange it into a board. Import from Photos, your camera, Files, a web link, the share sheet, or by dragging straight in from Safari. Zoom from 2% to 25,600%, so the board grows with the project. WORK BESIDE THEM Proref is built for Split View: your references on one side, your drawing app on the other. Sketch and annotate over them with Apple Pencil, with pressure. Tune brightness, contrast and saturation, or crop non-destructively — the original is always recoverable. A minimap shows where you are, and saved views jump you back to any spot in one tap. KEEP THE PIECE, AND THE LESSON When something's finished, keep it. Attach a piece to the board it came from, open it full screen, and see everything you've made on a dated timeline — as a gallery to swipe or a list to scan. Note what worked and what didn't while it's fresh, star the things to carry forward, and those notes sit in a pane on the board while you draw the next one. If you'd rather Proref stayed purely a reference app, turn the art journey off in Settings and it does. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT No accounts. No sign-in. No server. No tracking, no analytics, no ads. Your boards, your artworks and your critique notes stay on your device. FREE, WITH A ONE-TIME UNLOCK Proref is free to use with 2 boards, 10 images per board, 3 saved views, 5 finished artworks, and 3 focused critique notes per piece. Proref Pro removes those limits and unlocks every feature — a single one-time purchase, not a subscription. Buy it once and restore it on your other devices.

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Back up everything, and put it back. Proref keeps your work on your device and has no accounts — which has always meant that reinstalling, or moving to a new iPad, lost it. Not any more. • Export a backup from Settings: one file holding every board, image, finished piece, critique note, saved view and setting. • Restore it three ways — replace everything, add it to what you already have, or pick just the boards you want back. A finished piece comes with the board it was made from. • Backing up and restoring are free. They are how you keep your work, not a reason to charge you. • Settings shows when this device last backed up. Also new: a short tour the first time you open Proref, showing you round the canvas on a practice board that clears away afterwards, and a separate tour for the art journey. Both can be replayed any time from Settings.

The developer, John Oliver Atienza, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

  • Data Not Collected

    The developer does not collect any data from this app.

    Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

    The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More

    Seller
    John Oliver Atienza
    Size
    46.4 MB
    Category
    Graphics & Design
    Compatibility
    Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
    • iPhone
      Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
    • iPad
      Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later.
    • iPod touch
      Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
    • Mac
      Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
    • Apple Vision
      Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
    Languages
    English
    Age Rating
    4+
    In-App Purchases
    Yes
    Copyright
    © 2026 Oliver Atienza