Reference apps often describe themselves by how much they can hold. On iPad, we care more about how quickly a large library gets down to the few items you need today.
An iPad gets used in short sessions: before a review, beside a drawing, across a table from a client. Nobody wants the whole archive in those moments. They want the set for this project, at full size, with the notes still attached.
Hive on iPad is built around that set.
Narrowing a Library
Archives are usually arranged for filing, by client, by date, or by source. A working session is arranged around a question, and the references that answer it may sit in three different folders.
In Hive, folders hold projects, and tags describe ideas that appear across them. Stars mark the items you're likely to use. Filters narrow a collection by tags, folders, stars, and markup, and search finds folders and images by name or note.
Filters can be combined. Picking a project's tag and then three stars or more turns a couple of thousand items into a few dozen.
A filter you use often can be saved as a Smart Folder. New items that match it show up there without being moved by hand. Full Smart Folders are part of Pro.
From an image's detail view, you can also search the library for images that look like it. That gathers every version of an idea, even when the items were never tagged the same way.
Beside Your Work
On iPad, Hive can sit next to the app you're working in. You can use Split View, open an image in its own window, and drag items between apps. A keyboard and trackpad work if you have them, and holding Command while clicking an item opens it in a new window.
When you're drawing from a reference, locking the canvas keeps the image still, so an accidental touch doesn't pan or zoom it.
Looking Closely
Images zoom in up to 20 times, which is enough to study a joint or a stitch. Black-and-white mode shows values without color, a rule-of-thirds grid helps with composition, and a histogram shows the spread of color and brightness.
You can mark up an image with Apple Pencil, crop and rotate it, and lift a subject out of its background. Video scrubs frame by frame, and the current frame can be saved as an image.
When the set is ready to show, Slideshow presents it full screen without exporting anything.
The Link and the Note
Finding the right image is half of what a review needs. The other half is being able to say something about it.
Each item in Hive keeps its source link, your note, and any comments. When someone asks where a reference came from or why it's in the set, the answer is on the same screen.
Some folders shouldn't be on that screen at all. A folder can be locked with a password, and while it's locked its contents stay out of the All view, which matters when the iPad is handed across a table.
Offline, in a Folder You Choose
Browsing, searching, and organizing work without a connection, so a set opens on a plane the same way it does at the desk. Syncing and importing links need a connection.
The library is a folder you choose. With Pro, the same library stays in sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
A Smaller Set
The archive can be as large as it needs to be. Hive on iPad is for the part of it you're using this week.
A few tags and stars, added whenever there's a moment, are enough for that. On the day of a review, the set is one folder to open.
On quieter days, sorting a folder at random is a good way to come across things you'd forgotten you saved.