hashColor vs Art Reference
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Art Reference
This app provides traditional artists with digital tools to aid in physical art creation. Features include value studies, gridlines, side-by-side reference viewing, and curated project collections. It offers a clean, ad-free experience designed for painters and illustrators.
- Value study mode
- Gridlines for sketching
- Side-by-side reference/canvas view
- Crop and frame tools
- Curated project collections
- Color harmony experimentation
- Offline functionality
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Art Reference at Free against hashColor's $1.99. Art Reference also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). hashColor's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On 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
Art Reference is free to download; hashColor costs $1.99 up front. Art Reference sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. hashColor asks for nothing beyond the download.
hashColor ships an update every 3 months, Art Reference every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | hashColor | Art Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | — | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | — | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 172 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blake HARRIS | Gil Osborne |
In-app purchases
hashColor
No in-app purchases
Art Reference
- Lifetime Full Access$9.99
Questions
Is hashColor free?
Is Art Reference free?
Do hashColor or Art Reference have ads?
Which is updated more often, hashColor or Art Reference?
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