PureRef - The simple reference viewer PureRef - The simple reference viewerPureRef - The simple reference viewerPureRef - The simple reference viewerPureRef - The simple reference image viewer by Idyllic PixelIdyllic Pixel - Creating things we enjoy!

Changelog

Show beta versions

Version 1.11.1
August 7th 2020

Fixes
- Crash on startup when "Number of recent loaded files" was set to something else than default.
- Some keybindings would not work on all keyboard layouts.

Version 1.11.0
August 6rd 2020

Features
- Slideshow selection. (Alt+S)
- When enabling auto save PureRef will now auto save to your temp directory until you have decided where to save the scene. Any auto saved scenes that are lost during unexpected shutdowns will be restorable from a new dialog on startup of PureRef.
- Added a transform gizmo that can scale and rotate the selection by dragging handles. (Can be disabled in the settings)
- Distribute Horizontal / Vertical functions (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Up/Down).
- Option to invert the scroll wheel.
- Escape now clears the selection.
Tweaks
- Moved the open save file name to the start of the window title so it is easier to see in the task bar.
- Made snapped rotate snap to the closest 45 instead of the next 45.
- The Save As dialog now uses the current save file name as a suggestion instead of "NewScene".
- Added warning when saving scenes that originates from newer versions of PureRef than the one you're saving with.
- Selected text now has a background.
- Windows: Added always on top toggle button to the windows taskbar preview.
Fixes
- Issue where toggling maximized would stop working if it was toggled off during loading of a scene.
- Some keybindings would not work on all keyboard layouts.
- Bug where disabling "Select and pack new" would not add undo actions when adding new images.
- Fixed incorrect image transform after zooming in multiple croppings.
- Maximized pan should now work while canvas is locked.
- Issue where stepping with arrow keys would miss one image and instead reset the camera position.
- Issue where Reset Camera Zoom needs to be toggled twice to actually reset the zoom level correctly.
- Issue where setting one keybinding alias to System Global would make all of that action's keybindings System Global as well.
- Rare issue where copies of linked images would become broken after relinking.
- Crash when trying to relink deleted missing images.
- Resizing the window from the top or left edge now doesn't move the canvas.
- Changing colors in settings is now a lot smoother.
- Windows: Modernized the installer.
- Windows: Maximize no longer covers the taskbar on secondary screens.
- Windows: Fixed warnings about an invalid signature of the executable.
- Windows: Taskbar thumb buttons would sometimes not show.
- Mac: Crash when shutting down through the menu bar.
- Mac: Issue where PureRef would become unresponsive.
- Mac: The context menu should now be a bit more responsive.
- Mac: Issue with black screen after unmaximizing when using "Show maximized in its own space" setting.

Version 1.10.4
April 16th 2020

Features
- Focus canvas action. (Ctrl+Space)
- Normalize Scale function. (Ctrl+Alt+Down)
- Setting to disable finishing note editing with enter.
- Setting to disable selecting all text in a note when starting editing.
- Button to manually check for updates in settings.
Tweaks
- Lock icon in lower right corner when canvas is locked, and a setting to change its placement or to disable it completely.
- Improved the force load option to have a better chance at recovering corrupted scenes.
Fixes
- Window would sometimes get stuck outside the screen.
- Drag dropping of URLs to load all images of a web page. It will only work for sites that doesn't rely on javascript.
- Incorrect scaling when pasting notes parented to notes.
- Paste or add notes was possible while the canvas was locked.
- Issue where auto save would trigger the Save As dialog if the scene filename was changed externally.
- Notes now support input methods, for example Chinese Pinyin.
- Double clicking an image to focus now works even if Select is not bound to Left click.
- Dragging text in notes would create a new identical note.
- Pre-focus zoom is now retained even after using the arrow keys to step between images.
- The text in the empty canvas should now refer to the correct help keybinding even if it was changed.
- Editing notes in overlay mode.
- Crash when removing key binding aliases.
- Incorrect undoing of transforms for parented notes.
- Background option wouldn't work when exporting a scene.
- Scale creeping when executing subsequent normalize size actions.
- Mac: Window transparency was lost after minimize.

Version 1.10.3
March 7th 2020

Fixes
- 1 pixel artifacts while moving images on screens with fractional high-DPI scaling values.
- Crash on load of some scenes.
- Images with rotation in their metadata should now show the same rotation in PureRef.
- Crash on load when having "auto load last scene" enabled.
- PureRef would sometimes hang when cancelling loading.
- Adding multiple items now only creates one undo action.
- Undoing and redoing a note paste would make the note lose its parent connection.
- Changing color of a note is now undoable.
- Undoing a text change would still show the old text, but squished to the new size of the note.
- Stop note editing when new items are added.
- Pasted notes now gets the default note color.
- Packing a selection that contains a child note behaved strangely.
- Copies of missing linked images would not show up after load.

Version 1.10.2
February 26th 2020

Fixes
- Crash when editing notes on some setups.
- Mac: Minimizing would sometimes close the window completely.

Version 1.10.1
February 23th 2020

Tweaks
- When saving as, the current save path is used instead of the last browsed path as initial path for the browse dialog.
Fixes
- Rare issue that would happen on specific hardware setups where different parts of PureRef would lock up, look strange or even crash.
- Regression where snap rotating a single image was not relative to world.
- Auto save triggers even if there was no change to the scene.
- Pack sometimes didn't work.
- Resaving older save files would sometimes lose one image.
- The shortcut for arrange actions wouldn't work when no images was selected.
- Creeping of subsequent arrange actions.
- Resize to selection works a little bit better now if the selection is outside the screen.
- Crash on shutdown.
- Windows: Incorrect backup error message when saving to a subst drive.
- Mac: Crash when changing window state on some setups.

Version 1.10.0
January 29th 2020

Features
- Upon load of a .pur with missing linked images a new re-link dialog will be shown, providing easier mass re-linking for folders, it also has the option to remove any unresolved missing images from the scene. (CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+R)
- Added support for EXR, SVG and improved support for TGA.
- Added popup notifying window mode changes. It can be disabled in the settings "Show popup when window state changes".
- Added setting "Default window mode".
- Added option to completely disable the frame of the main window "Main window border".
- PureRef will now first try to load settings from within its own directory before looking in the user configuration directory. This can be used to use PureRef completely portable.
- Added some basic command line arguments, for more information run PureRef with the command line flag -h.
Optimizations
- Added caching for notes, this improves rendering performance significantly in scenes with many notes.
- Improved image rendering on downscaled images at the cost of RAM usage, added an option to switch back to the old rendering "Zoom quality".
Tweaks
- Missing local images are now displayed as a question mark and can be double clicked to re-link them.
- The Pack action now tries to pack all images within a rectangle with the same aspect ratio as the PureRef window.
- Renamed "Clear Canvas" to "New Scene" and moved it to the root in the right click menu.
- Made it possible to save an empty scene.
- If a backup that is newer than the current save file exists when loading ask if the user wants to load that the backup instead.
- Trying to move PureRef while it is maximized will now restore the window to normal by default. There is a setting to bring back the old behaviour called "Lock window while maximized".
- Better checking for out of disk space when saving.
- Added check mark to check boxes.
- It is now possible to close dialogs with escape.
- While editing notes pressing Return now finishes editing, to add new lines use Shift+Return.
- Resize to selection now doesn't creep and tries to move the PureRef window around the image to avoid it visually moving.
Fixes
- Stability of saving and loading has been improved and in the rare case anything goes wrong more options will be provided to the user to recover any partially saved data.
- Improved speed of loading scenes.
- Improved scaling on high-DPI screens.
- Fixed a lot of issues when zooming out or in very far, also added a message when max/min zoom is reached.
- Fixed rare crash when deleting images.
- Fixed bug where closing PureRef from the task bar would not warn for unsaved changes.
- Fixed name overriding during image export if no arguments are provided.
- Fixed jittery per image opacity change controls.
- Fixed so that "Pan while maximized" and "Pan while locked" can have the same key binding.
- Fixed issue where the "Warn before closing unsaved scene" check box would show the wrong value.
- Fixed issue where auto downscaled linked images would not be downscaled upon load of a .pur.
- Fixed rare case where the scene would be marked not dirty even if it was and not warn before closing it.
- Fixed color picking on high-DPI scaled screens.
- Fixed jumping notes when editing notes outside the view.
- Fixed linked images on windows not working on other platforms.
- Fixed memory leak when using auto save.
- Fixed focus bug when having multiple instances of PureRef with always on top enabled.
- Windows: Maximize should now work when enabled from the Windows taskbar.
- Windows: The windows installer should now support silent uninstalls and display an icon in remove programs.
- Mac: PureRef should work better on retina screens now.
- Mac: Fixed overlay mode.
- Mac: Fixed issue where keys would get stuck after minimize.
- Linux: Improved Gnome support.
- Linux: Fixed permission issue of application metadata on KDE.

Version 1.9.2
June 10th 2017

Tweaks
- Added settings for adjusting the right click move threshold and the width of the resize border handle to make it easier to use with tablets on high res screens.
- Added setting to auto load the last opened scene on startup.
- Mac: Delete is now properly mapped to backspace by default.
Fixes
- Pressing delete with nothing selected no longer adds an undo command.
- Fixed issue where PureRef wouldn't restart propertly after an update.
- PureRef now asks for save before updating when having unsaved changes in the scene.
- Pasting from external sources ends up under the cursor again instead of the center of the scene.
- The text in message and error dialogs are now selectable and copyable.
- Windows: PureRef should no longer look for config files on the D: drive on startup.

Version 1.9.1
May 27th 2017

Fixes
- The Always On Top and Always On Bottom features should now be saved properly between restarts.
- Fixed issue where PureRef could get stuck outside the screen when the desktop geometry changed.
- The color picker now only closes when focus returns to PureRef.
- Fixed size calculation of right click menu when it is close to the screen edge.
- Paste now propertly retains the Z-value of the copied selection.
- Fixed color picking outside of PureRef on multi monitor setups.
- Mac: Fixed so that PureRef works on OS X 10.9+ instead of 10.11+.
- Mac: Fixed pasting, including pasting between PureRef instances.
- Linux: Fixed issue where PureRef would get wrong permissions after using the auto updater.

Version 1.9.0
May 6th 2017

Features
- Toggle grayscale on selected images(ALT+G).
- Toggle grayscale mode on the entire scene(CTRL+ALT+G).
- Added Reset Camera Zoom.(CTRL+SHIFT+G)
- Paste now works properly between PureRef instances, all image data and metadata is now sent to the receiving instance.
- Color picking now works outside the PureRef window.
- Dragging html or pasting an url will now try to load all images on that webpage or html snippet.
- Added option Normalize Size which will normalize the scale of images depending on their orientation.(CTRL+ALT+UP)
Tweaks
- Better neighbour snapping when alignment padding is set to a high number.
- Better scale that does not invert the image sometimes.
- Added a "copy to clipboard" button in the color picker.
- The color picker will now automatically select the color when the mouse button is released.
- Cropping an image now also rotates the bounding box.
- Pressing escape while editing a note will now finish editing.
- PureRef will now show a lock icon when the window is attempted to be moved while locked.
- Drag drop from firefox now support transparency the same way as chrome does.
- "Resize to selection" now moves the PureRef window to where the selection was before the action.
Fixes
- The depth value of images should now be properly saved and undoable.
- Fixed so master opacity works in overlay mode.
- Fixed issue where cancelling a load would sometimes crash.
- Fixed issue where the save warning wouldn't pop up sometimes.
- Fixed a bug where loading local images would fail if the file ending of the image was incorrect. (png instead of jpg for example).
- Fixed issue with images being deselected when transitioning from an edit command.
- Packing a selection with child notes no longer moves the selection every time pack is triggered.
- Undoing add / delete does no longer add the item to the current selection.
- Fixed so that it is possible to perform Save As directly after a load again.
- Re-added missing shortcut text in warning dialogs.
- Fixed issue where PureRef would not instantly move when click-dragged, which resulted in a strange move offset to the cursor.
- Global keybindings should now work more reliably.
- Fixed an issue where a PureRef window with a size bigger than the screen would be moved outside the screen instead of into it.
- Fixed a crash when rebinding move window to left mouse button.
- Fixed issue with num lock blocking input.
- Fixed issue with "Select New" setting not being saved correctly.
- Fixed issue where moving the window would sometimes not work when quickly transitioning to the window from another application.
- Fixed issue where notes rotation would sometimes not reset correctly on undo.
- Allow saving even if no change has happened, to be able to save the current camera position.
- Fixed super sensitive controls for changing image opacity when zoomed out.
- Made it possible to undo note text changes.
- Canceling loading a lot of images from a webpage now works correctly.
- Fixed issue where the window size would sometimes be saved incorrectly after maximizing the window.
- The setting "Scale scene on window resize" will now work properly along with maximize on all platforms.
- Improved the way PureRef windows are moved into the screen area if it for some reason is located outside all screens.
- Windows: Fixed issue where global keybindings would stop working after locking windows.
- Mac: Fixed wrong order of global mouse buttons.
- Mac: Fixed pinch zoom.
Known bugs
- Mac: Overlay mode has been disabled on OS X due to issues making it not work properly.

Version 1.8.0
September 3rd 2016

Features
- It is now possible to bind mouse buttons in the keybinder.
- Entries in the keybinder can now have multiple keybindings assigned to them using the +("Add alias") button.
- Optimal packing has been improved with a new algorithm and can be retriggered for a different result.
- Neigbour snapped move(SHIFT+SPACE+LMB).
- It is now possible to zoom inside the cropping of an image.(SHIFT+V+LMB)
- It is now possible to pan inside the cropping of an image.(V+LMB)
- Added a search field in the keybinder.
- Added commandline interface.
- Added commandline option, --settings to specify a custom settings path. This can be used to run multiple instances of PureRef with different settings.
- Added commandline option, --brute-force. This can be used to brute force load all images in a corrupt .pur file, skipping all metadata.
- Added setting to toggle bilinear sampling on a per image basis.(ALT+T)
- Added setting to disable automatic bring to front when selecting images.
- Added send to back and bring to front.(UP/DOWN ARROW)
- It is now possible to batch rename images when exporting them from PureRef.
Tweaks
- The setting for MMB functionality has been removed from the preferences and can now instead be set in the keybinder.
Fixes
- Fixed issue with corrupt save files on failing/full disks or bad network drive connections.
- Packing subnotes now behave less strangely.
- The "Export All Images" action now works again.
- Fixed crash when editing note colors.
- Setting the "Maximized above taskbar" setting should now save properly.

Version 1.7.1
November 21st 2015

Features
- Added Reset Transform(CTRL+SHIFT+T) action.
Tweaks
- Copy/paste to another program will now use the source resolution if only one image is selected.
- Greatly improved the responsiveness of the touch controls.
- Better scaling of gui elements for desktops with gui scaling enabled.
Fixes
- Fixed issue where maximize would save its size until next start up.
- Saves with missing linked images will now overwrite the old save file correctly.
- Images with a faulty filename suffix will now load correctly.
- It is no longer possible to reset camera position in overlay mode.
- Fixed issue with saving through the warning dialog before a load or clear.
- Fixed issue with color picker on transparent images.
- Improved accuracy of zoom.

Version 1.7.0
October 3rd 2015

Features
- Added Overlay mode(CTRL+Y). A mode which makes PureRef even more slim, letting your images float around on your screen freely, without a background.
- Added option to set the behaviour of the scroll wheel between zoom, pan or nothing (for users with mouses supporting x and y scrolling like the mac magic mouse).
- Added zoom canvas option to scroll click settings.
- Added "Arrange By" option in the arrange menu to arrange images by name or addition.
- PureRef now supports SSL(HTTPS) image sources.
- It is now possible to add global notes.
- Added Always On Bottom mode(CTRL+SHIFT+B).
- Added Auto Downscale option to downscale large images and avoid excessive RAM usage.
- Added option to set the arrange method used when adding items to the scene.
- Added option to set if the scene should scale when the window is resized.
- Windows: Implemented support for the Windows taskbar, showing progress and buttons for settings and toggling mouse transarency/overlay modes.
Tweaks
- All loading operations have been greatly improved by making them threaded. This also makes it much more intuitive to abort operations.
- Save and load progress has been improved. Loaded images will now pop in as they are loaded.
- It is now possible to move PureRef and navigate the scene while images are loading.
- Notes are now a bit easier to handle and multiple notes can be selected and transformed at once. They will also no longer be affected by form changing transformations to the parent.
- Restructured the right click menu to make it more compact.
- If nothing is selected when an arrange option is selected PureRef will arrange all images.
- Flipping now always flips horizontally or vertically independent of rotation.
- Added the Select All option to the right click menu.
- The Open Source action now works on the current selection.
Fixes
- Locking the canvas no longer clears the selection.
- It is no longer possible to edit unselected notes when in text editing mode.
- Snapped drag no longer glitches depending on where you start the drag.
- Fixed issue where saves would always be fully resaved after setting to not embed local files.
- Copy & paste now works between PureRef instances again.
- Resize to selection is now blocked in maximized mode.
- Notes now longer accepts rich text, which wouldn't be saved anyway.
- Fixed issue with glitchy zoom after focusing images with the arrow keys.
- Fixed so that the border of PureRef is visible against the canvas background.
- Fixed rare crash after multiple saves.

Version 1.6.0
February 14th 2015

Features
- Added auto save functionality.
- Added option to not embed local images into .pur save files.
- Added first time setup dialog.
- Added axis aligned movement(SHIFT+Drag).
- "Resize To Selection" action added(CTRL+SHIFT+R).
- Added hotkeys for changing master opacity(CTRL++/-).
- Added option to lock window position and size(CTRL+W).
Tweaks
- Copy & paste within PureRef has been improved and will no longer increase RAM usage or combine pictures into one.
- The minimum size of PureRef is now 50x50px.
- Keyboard + mouse zoom now also considers the mouse start position when zooming.
- The color selection for notes now remember the last selected colors.
- Better touch screen navigation.
- More navigation allowed in locked mode.
- The currently open .pur filename will now show in the window title / taskbar.
- Better initial placement of notes.
- Added option to save the scene in the unsaved warning dialog as well as a "Don't show again" option.
- Better progress display and cleanup in case of aborted loading.
Fixes
- Small memory leak when deleting images.
- Fixed issue where the unsaved warning would show up right after load if you only had one image.
- Fixed issue where rebound global hotkeys would not work.
- Windows: Fixed issue where it sometimes would not work to "open with" in windows.
- Mac: Fixed buggy context menu on mac.
- Mac: Fixed broken resize in OS X 10.10.

Version 1.5.3
September 14th 2014

Fixes
- Resolved a bug where the canvas would not be redrawn properly in some cases.

Version 1.5.2
September 14th 2014

Features
- It is now possible to load images via the right click menu.
- Added option for exporting the current selection.
- Added additional arrange option "Stack".
- Added option to select and pack new images as soon as they are dropped into PureRef, enabled by default.
- PureRef now also supports DDS, ICNS, MNG, JP2 and WEBP image formats.
Tweaks
- Added rough initial support for touch controls.
- Increased the thickness of the resize border.
- Keyboard panning and zooming as well as color/coordinate picking is now allowed while the canvas is locked.
Fixes
- The saving / loading is now more robust.
- A case where the packing would miss an item has been fixed.
- Next / previous image does no longer select text items.
- It is now possible to copy values from the color/coordinate picker.
- PureRef should no longer fall behind windowed fullscreen applications when in Always On Top mode.

Version 1.5.1
July 3rd 2014

Fixes
- Bug where the save files would get corrupted in some cases when using notes and cropping.

Version 1.5.0
June 26th 2014

Features
- Notes: It is now possible to add notes in customizable colors and sizes to an image(CTRL+N).
- Added setting to change the behaviour of scroll click; delete or pan.
- Reset cropping(CTRL+SHIFT+C).
- Option to open image location, both for local and remote files(CTRL+SHIFT+O).
- Color picking(S+Mouse).
- Image coordinate picking(D+Mouse).
Optimizations
- Rewrote saving: Added image compression within the save file.
Tweaks
- The "Export Images" now has an option to export the images with or without cropping.
- Pasted images now end up under the mouse or where the right click menu was opened.
Fixes
- Improved detection of actions which had no effect and should not be saved in the undo stack.
Build
- Windows: PureRef is now also available as a 32bit version for Windows.

Version 1.4.1
May 20th 2014

Features
- Arrange menu: Alignment options for aligning the current selection left/right/up/down(CTRL+left/right/up/down).
- Arrange menu: It is now possible to normalize the height/width of the current selection(CTRL+ALT+left/right).
- Arrange menu: Packing can now be applied on the current selection, called "Optimal" under the align menu(CTRL+P).
- Added shortcut for selecting all items(CTRL+A).
Tweaks
- The customize window is now a bit larger.
- Moved the default shortcut for always on top mode to(CTRL+SHIFT+A).
Fixes
- Improved drag & drop support for Chrome.
- Drag & drop .pur files now works again.

Version 1.4.0
May 1st 2014

Features
- Cropping(Mouse+C).
- Packing functionality(CTRL+P). Automatically stack images as close together as possible.
- Reset camera(CTRL+G).
- Mouse transparency mode(CTRL+T). Enabling this mode will make mouse events fall through PureRef. Can be used to paint through a transparent PureRef window.
- Zooming with the mouse(Z+Mouse).
- Key bindings for changing color presets(ALT+0, 1, 2...).
- It is now possible to bind the keys for drag actions.
- Added "Recent Files" quick access menu under the load menu.
- Key binding to load the most recently loaded save file(CTRL+SHIFT+L).
- Double clicking an empty canvas will now open load.
- Color settings for the selection rectangle.
- Master opacity settings.
- Glass theme preset.
- Option for locking the canvas.
- Option for disabling image borders or show borders only on selected images.
- Option for setting how many actions to save in the redo history.
- Option to set whether PureRef should take focus after dropping an image or not.
- Option to set whether PureRef should be on top of the taskbar in maximized mode or not.
- Export scene now has a settings window. Because of this the export view action has been removed.
- Pan with only right mouse button if PureRef is in fullscreen mode.
Tweaks
- It is now possible to pan outside the canvas a bit.
- Focusing on an image that was already focused will return to the camera position before the first focus.
- Background color now only affects the main window, the help/about/customize window gets their background color from the menu background color and shares it with the right click menu.
- New, less bloated color picker.
- New, more relevant help dialog after key bindings was added.
- The .ini file for PureRef will now be stored in the AppData folder to avoid permission problems.
- Fullscreen mode is now remembered between sessions.
- Drawing performance optimizations.
Fixes
- Actions that made no change to the scene will no longer be saved.
- Transformations will now work correctly even after optimize canvas.
- The focus next/previous image actions now continues from the last selected image.
- Resize arrows will no longer show up when a window is maximized.

Version 1.3.3
September 6th 2013

Tweaks
- Pasted images now end up on the position of the last click instead of in the middle of the canvas.
Fixes
- Better drop support for chrome.

Version 1.3.2
August 21th 2013

Fixes
- Minimize is now working as it should.

Version 1.3.1
August 18th 2013

Fixes
- Crash that would occur after clearing the scene and then using the "Focus Next Image" feature.
- The export menu can now be seen again.
- Lots of bugs in the key bindings.

Version 1.3.0
August 17th 2013

Features
- Functionality for cycling through images with the arrow keys.
- It is now possible to customize all key bindings in the customize window.
- Support for global key bindings.
Tweaks
- The border of a selected image is now slightly thicker.
- The auto updater is now slightly bigger.
Fixes
- Scaling to fast will no longer sometimes invert the image.
Known bugs
- After minimizing the window the gui will now longer redraw, this is a bug in qt which is fixed in an upcoming release.

Version 1.2.4
July 4th 2013

Features
- Option for disabling automatic update-check.
Fixes
- Bug where the program would not exit cleanly sometimes.

Version 1.2.3
June 30th 2013

Features
- Support for Adobe Photoshop files (.psd)
- Changelog in the updater.

Version 1.2.2
June 29th 2013

Fixes
- Always on top now works again.
- Memory leak when deleting images.