Comparison

hashColor vs Art Reference

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

hashColor

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Creating and sharing color palettes should be be easy, but most design software makes it too complicated. hashColor helps transport colors from design to development by organizing colors in the flexible SVG file format. The hexadecimal format is a convenient source of truth for your colors, whether you are designing for the web or otherwise. And SVG files can be opened in design software, code editors, and even browsers. Your colors won’t be locked away in an app or proprietary file. Any file created in hashColor should be viewable on almost any device. hashColor can read any html, css, svg or text file that contains hexadecimal colors. Color swatches can be imported and exported via drag-and-drop. Create and organize palette files for reference, or simply use it to quickly grab colors from a file.

About

Art Reference

This app provides digital reference tools for traditional artists working with physical media. It offers features like value studies, gridlines, side-by-side comparison, and composition adjustments to aid in creating accurate and balanced artwork.

Highlights
  • Value study mode
  • Gridlines for accurate sketching
  • Side-by-side reference and canvas view
  • Crop and frame reference images
  • Curated starter project collections
  • Color harmony experimentation
  • Offline functionality
Features
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Artists Reference is made for painters, illustrators, and traditional artists who work with real materials, not pixels. It gives you the digital reference tools you need while you're creating physical art. Key Features - Gallery: Take a photo of your finished work, add a frame, and view them all together in your personal gallery. - Value Study Mode: Instantly view your reference in 7-value scale to see shadows and highlights or greyscale to see tone and contrast clearly. - Gridlines: Helps get your under-sketch down accurately. - Side-by-Side View: Compare your reference and your canvas at the same time, optimized for tablets and stands. - Crop and Frame Tools: Adjust composition and aspect ratio of your reference to match your canvas before you begin. - Collections: Curated starter projects to help you practice and improve, including Animals, Architecture, Botanical, Figure, Landscape, Master Study, Portrait, and Still Life. - Color harmonies: Experiment with color harmonies to define the feeling if your piece and save swatches - Offline Friendly: Works anywhere, even in the studio or outdoors. - Clean, Focused Design: No ads. No clutter. Just the reference tools you need. - All of your artwork is private and only saved in your personal icloud. No artwork is visble to the internet or AI models Made for Traditional Artists Whether you're painting with oils, gouache, watercolor, or charcoal, Artists Reference helps you translate what you see into confident compositions and balanced values. Start with curated Collections to build your skills, or bring your own references for any project. No AI art is used for any of the starter project references in this app. All photos are attributed to the original artists with links to their portfolio.

Screenshots

hashColor2 screens
Art Reference4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: hashColor at none against Art Reference's 1. hashColor also leads on iOS requirement (18.5 vs 26.0). Art Reference's advantage is update cadence (every 11 days vs every 3 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Art Reference sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. hashColor asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

hashColor ships an update every 3 months, Art Reference every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
hashColor versus Art Reference: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterhashColorArt Reference
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.7 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB182 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBlake HARRISGil Osborne

In-app purchases

None

hashColor

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Art Reference

One-time1
  • Lifetime Full Access$14.99

Questions

Is hashColor free?
hashColor is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Art Reference free?
Art Reference is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do hashColor or Art Reference have ads?
Neither hashColor nor Art Reference shows ads.
Which is updated more often, hashColor or Art Reference?
hashColor ships an update every 3 months, and Art Reference every 11 days. Most recently, hashColor was updated on September 14, 2026 and Art Reference on September 9, 2026.

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