Thursday, March 4th, 2021 Posted by Jim Thacker

Anastasiy releases MagicRefs 2.0 for Photoshop


The original demo video for MagicRefs. Version 2.0 of the Photoshop reference image manager makes it possible to tag images, organise them into collections, or interact with them in a new Comic Strip mode.


Photoshop tools developer Anastasiy Safari has released MagicRefs 2.0, the latest version of his ‘superpanel’ plugin for working with reference images inside the software.

The update makes it possible to tag images and organise them into collections, manipulate them in a new Comic Strip mode, and bulk-import them from Google Drive or from Pinterest boards.

Streamline and supercharge reference images workflows within Photoshop
First released in 2018, MagicRefs offers illustrators and concept artists a more user-friendly alternative to importing reference images into separate Photoshop windows or viewing them on a second monitor.

Users can drag and drop folders of images directly from their PC, or download them from a specified URL, and have them appear in a resizeable, Hi-DPI-display-compatible panel within the Photoshop interface.

Once imported, images can be arranged in colour-coded groups, and dragged and dropped between them.

Groups of images can be linked to individual Photoshop documents, so they display only when that document is open, helping to reduce unnecessary use of screen space.

New in version 2.0: tagging, collections and Comic Strip mode
Version 2.0 of the plugin adds the option to tag images, then filter them using a new Search function.

Users can also organise entire groups of images into collections.

In addition, the update introduces a new Comic Strip mode which enables users to scale or rotate images, then save and restore those changes for entire sets of images at a time.

Workflow improvements include the option to zoom in on a particular point on an image by double-clicking, and to import only the current layer from a document to the MagicRefs panel.

Users can also now bulk-import images from Google Drive collections and Pinterest reference boards.

Pricing and availability
MagicRefs 2.0 is available for Photoshop CS5 and above on Windows and Mac OS X. It costs $19.


Read a full list of new features in MagicRefs 2.0 on Anastasiy’s website