An Online Reference Board Maker for Working Artists

Reference boards and mood boards are different tools

A mood board is made to be shown — it argues for a direction in a pitch or a client deck. A reference board is made to be used: it’s the sheet of images an artist keeps open beside the canvas while actually painting, modeling, lighting, or grading. Concept artists collect anatomy and costume studies. Illustrators pin lighting setups and hand poses. 3D artists gather material close-ups. Film crews pull frames from other movies to hold a look steady across a shoot. The job is fast visual recall at working speed — glance, zoom into a detail, glance back — and a reference board maker is judged on how little it interrupts that loop.

Why artists reached for desktop apps first

For years the answer to this job was a desktop program — most famously PureRef, a lightweight stand-alone app for Windows, Mac, and Linux that’s free for personal use. It earned its reputation honestly: it opens fast and stays out of the way. The limits only appear at the edges of a solo workflow. The app installs anywhere, but the board itself is a local file — it only travels between the studio workstation and the laptop if you move it yourself, and getting it in front of an art director means sending files around instead of sending a link. That isn’t a flaw in the software — it’s simply the shape of desktop software.

What a browser-based reference board changes

Moving the board into a browser tab removes those walls without changing the job.

• One board, every machine — open the same URL at the studio, at home, or on an iPad and pick up exactly where you left off.
• Nothing to install — handy on locked-down studio workstations and borrowed machines alike.
• Share by link — a clean read-only view opens in anyone’s browser, no account required, so feedback doesn’t wait for an export.
• Comments land on the image — a note from your art director pins to the exact card it’s about, not to a chat thread somewhere else.
• Real-time collaboration — on a shared board you see teammates’ live cursors as they move through the reference.

Tools that match how reference actually gets used

Clusters treats a reference board as a working surface, not a gallery.

• Check your values — flip any image to black and white, or nudge brightness, contrast, saturation, and warmth. Every adjustment is non-destructive.
• Steal the palette — extract a color palette from any image and keep it on the board beside the work it came from.
• Reference beyond stills — boards hold video, audio, PDFs, links, and rich-text notes alongside images; Creator accepts any file type.
• Sketch over it — draw directly on the canvas to mark a gesture line or call out a detail.
• One board per problem — nest boards inside boards so a project’s costume, lighting, and environment reference each stay findable, and auto-tagging files a dropped image to the right board for you.

Free to start, flat when you grow

The Demo tier is genuinely free: no credit card, no trial countdown, and a generous card cap. Collaborators can view Demo boards read-only. When a team needs shared editing, any file type, or serious storage, Creator is a flat $25 a month — not per seat — with unlimited boards, 100GB of storage, and Edit Mode for collaborators.

The case for staying on desktop

A browser tool isn’t the answer for everyone, and it’s worth being plain about it. Clusters needs a connection — it can’t ride along on a flight or an air-gapped workstation. If your reference never needs to leave your own machine, a local app like PureRef is hard to argue with: pay-what-you-want for personal use, and it does one thing very well. The honest split is this — work alone and offline, and the desktop standard fits; work across devices or with other people, and the browser wins. If you’re weighing the two directly, our full PureRef comparison includes the rows PureRef wins.

How to make a reference board

1. Gather everything in one place — Drag images, screenshots, and stills straight onto a new board. Paste links to pieces you found online, and drop in video clips or PDFs when your reference isn’t a still image.
2. Arrange by what you’re studying — Cluster the board around the problem — one area for lighting, one for anatomy, one for materials. The infinite canvas never runs out of room, and you can zoom from the whole board down to a single edge.
3. Tune the reference, not the file — Flip an image to black and white to read its values, nudge brightness or warmth to match your scene, and pull a color palette from any image. Adjustments are non-destructive, so the original stays intact.
4. Open it wherever you work — The board lives at a URL, so the same reference is on your workstation, your laptop, and your tablet — no files to move, nothing to install.
5. Show it when you’re ready — Send one link and your art director sees a clean, read-only version of the board in their browser — no account required.

Made with Clusters

Real boards published from the canvas — open one and explore it live.

• Film Noir Look Book
• Japandi Living Room
• World Cup 2026 Moodboard

Frequently asked questions

What is a reference board?

A reference board is a collection of images an artist keeps in view while working — anatomy studies, lighting setups, material close-ups, frames from films. Unlike a presentation deck, it’s built for the artist’s own eyes: the point is fast glancing and zooming while you paint, model, or shoot.

What’s the difference between a reference board and a mood board?

A mood board communicates a direction to other people; a reference board supports the work itself. Mood boards get presented once, while reference boards stay open for the whole life of the piece. Clusters handles both, but this page is about the working kind.

Is there a free online reference board maker?

Yes — Soleil Clusters’ Demo tier is free with no credit card and no trial clock, and comes with a generous card cap. It runs in the browser with nothing to install.

Do I need to install anything to make a reference board?

No. Clusters runs entirely in the browser on any machine, which matters on studio workstations where you can’t install software. Native iOS and Android apps are also available if you prefer one on mobile.

Can I use a reference board on an iPad?

Yes. Boards open in the tablet’s browser, and there’s a native iOS app as well — the same board you arranged on your workstation is waiting when you pick up the iPad.

Can my team or art director see my reference board?

Yes — one public link opens a clean, read-only view in any browser, with no account required. On the Creator plan, collaborators can also edit the board live, with real-time cursors and comments pinned to specific images.

Can a reference board include video or other files?

Yes. Cards can be images, screenshots, links, video, audio, PDFs, notes, and color palettes — and on Creator, any file type. Motion reference sits on the board right next to your stills.

How does an online reference board compare to PureRef?

PureRef is a beloved offline desktop app — free to use personally, and excellent when the board never leaves your machine. Clusters trades offline for a board that follows you across devices and shares with a link. Our full PureRef comparison breaks it down feature by feature.