Benefits of reference image as plane?

[Raiju]

In this situation what is the benefit of importing the reference image as a plane instead of as a reference object? Maybe it’s something that will come up in a future lesson, but it seems like it would be better to import it as a reference object for being able to display it on top of everything so that you can see it through the mesh you’re working on.

Importing the reference as a plane makes it so the cylinder covers the reference image, and the reference image can only be seen in material preview or rendered mode. Importing the reference as a reference object, you can set it to be seen through the cylinder mesh and it is visible in solid mode.

[NP5]

I suspect it is that it always used to be images as planes and the other forms were new. Habit.

They have different aspects and each can therefore be used in different ways according to the visibility you want.

[Raiju]

Thank you for your answer.

I was thinking that the reference object might be a newer feature or something along those lines. I was finding it difficult to find any benefit of using a plane over a reference object.