"Reference manager" covers a wide range of scope, and the file formats a given tool handles usually reveal which end of that range it sits at. A narrow tool built around images and video looks very different from one that markets itself as managing an entire creative library, and the format list is the fastest way to tell which one you're looking at.
The formats most of the category shares
Nearly every reference and moodboard tool on a Mac handles the common raster formats without issue — JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIC, GIF — because these are the formats a camera, a screenshot or a downloaded reference actually arrives in. Video support is close to universal too, at least for common delivery formats like MP4 and MOV, since a growing share of reference material today is a clip rather than a still.
Beyond that common ground, tools start to diverge:
- RAW camera formats are supported by some tools and not others, and even where supported, usually as a preview rather than something the app can edit.
- Layered files like PSD show up in tools aimed at production pipelines, rarely in ones aimed purely at browsing references.
- PDF and document formats appear in tools that lean toward general asset management rather than staying focused on images.
- Vector and 3D formats are the least common of all, mostly limited to tools built for a specific pipeline that needs them.
~/Pictures/Reference- RAW imports
- Video clips
- Client boards
- coii-thumbnailswritten by Coii Ref
- coii-proxieswritten by Coii Ref
- coii.dbwritten by Coii Ref
Where Coii Ref sits in that range
Coii Ref is deliberately narrow: images and video, full stop. No PDFs, no document formats, no 3D files. That's a real limit worth knowing before choosing it — a library that also needs to hold fonts, project files or layered production assets needs a broader tool. Eagle is the broadest example named in this category; the full comparison covers what importing any file format actually buys someone against staying image-and-video-only.
Why the narrow answer is a deliberate trade, not a gap
A tool that handles everything has to build import, preview and metadata handling for every format it claims — a real and ongoing cost. Staying to images and video means Coii Ref never has to get a PDF's preview or a 3D file's thumbnail right, which is capacity spent instead on the search and canvas behaviour for the formats it does support. What a reference manager is actually for is the wider question this trade sits inside.
The practical check before choosing
The honest way to answer "does it support my format" is to look at what's actually in the folder you'd point the app at today, not what you might collect someday. A library that's entirely photographs and video clips loses nothing by choosing a narrower tool; one that already mixes in PDFs, fonts or 3D assets needs to check that specific format's support before assuming any reference manager will simply handle it.
A format that previews correctly is also not the same thing as a format the app actually understands. Most operating systems can generate a thumbnail for formats an app never specifically supports, which is enough to browse but not enough to search by anything meaningful — a PDF that only ever shows up as a generic page icon isn't giving a search index anything to filter on, even if it opens fine when double-clicked.