What Is BeeRef and What Is It Used For?

Updated

BeeRef is a simple reference image viewer: it lets you quickly arrange reference images and view them while you create, in a minimal interface designed not to get in the way of your creative process. It is aimed at artists, designers, and anyone else who works while consulting a set of reference pictures. If you only need to look at one image at a time, a normal image viewer is enough; BeeRef is worth considering when you want many references arranged on screen next to your art program.

What BeeRef does

The core idea is a single canvas of reference images that stays open beside the tool you are actually working in. According to the project page, its features are:

  • Move, scale, rotate, crop and flip images
  • Mass-scale images to the same width, height or size
  • Mass-arrange images vertically, horizontally or for optimal usage of space
  • Add text notes
  • Enable always-on-top mode and disable the title bar, so the BeeRef window floats unobtrusively above your art program

That last item is the feature that defines the workflow: instead of switching windows or alt-tabbing to a folder of references, you keep a floating, chrome-free board of images over your canvas.

Installation

BeeRef runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. Get the file for your operating system from the latest release.

  • Linux: the different Linux versions are built on different versions of Ubuntu. They should work on other distros as well, but you might have to try which one works. Linux users need to give the file executable rights before running it. Optionally, if you want BeeRef to appear in the app menu, save the desktop file from the release section in ~/.local/share/applications, save the logo, and adjust the path names in the desktop file to match the location of your BeeRef installation.
  • macOS: the page points macOS users to detailed instructions if they have problems running BeeRef.
  • Windows: no extra steps are described beyond downloading the release for your system.

The .bee file format

When you save a board, all images are embedded into the .bee file as PNG or JPG. The format is a SQLite database, with the images stored in a sqlar table. That means you can extract them without BeeRef at all, using the SQLite command line program:

sqlite3 myfile.bee -Axv

Options for exporting from inside BeeRef are planned, but the command above always works independently of BeeRef — useful if you want your references back and the application is unavailable.

Troubleshooting

You can access the log output via Help -> Show Debug Log. If BeeRef doesn't start at all, the log file is at:

  • Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\BeeRef\BeeRef.log
  • Linux and macOS: /home/USERNAME/.config/BeeRef/BeeRef.log

License and who it suits

BeeRef is published under the GNU General Public License v3.0. It fits best if you want a lightweight, always-available reference board that stays out of the way of your main creative application, and if you are comfortable installing a release manually — especially on Linux, where you may need to set executable rights and try a build that matches your distribution.