diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 2581cbc9..ba300180 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -40,17 +40,18 @@ julia = "≥ 1.0.0"
 
 [extras]
 FileIO = "5789e2e9-d7fb-5bc7-8068-2c6fae9b9549"
+Gtk = "4c0ca9eb-093a-5379-98c5-f87ac0bbbf44"
 ImageMagick = "6218d12a-5da1-5696-b52f-db25d2ecc6d1"
 Images = "916415d5-f1e6-5110-898d-aaa5f9f070e0"
 LaTeXStrings = "b964fa9f-0449-5b57-a5c2-d3ea65f4040f"
 Pkg = "44cfe95a-1eb2-52ea-b672-e2afdf69b78f"
+PlotReferenceImages = "c5e800db-1e6b-5f72-915a-308d267b7a19"
 RDatasets = "ce6b1742-4840-55fa-b093-852dadbb1d8b"
 Random = "9a3f8284-a2c9-5f02-9a11-845980a1fd5c"
 StatsPlots = "f3b207a7-027a-5e70-b257-86293d7955fd"
 Test = "8dfed614-e22c-5e08-85e1-65c5234f0b40"
 UnicodePlots = "b8865327-cd53-5732-bb35-84acbb429228"
 VisualRegressionTests = "34922c18-7c2a-561c-bac1-01e79b2c4c92"
-BinaryProvider = "b99e7846-7c00-51b0-8f62-c81ae34c0232"
 
 [targets]
-test = ["BinaryProvider", "Pkg", "Test", "Random", "StatsPlots", "VisualRegressionTests", "LaTeXStrings", "Images", "ImageMagick", "RDatasets", "FileIO", "UnicodePlots"]
+test = ["Pkg", "Test", "Random", "StatsPlots", "VisualRegressionTests", "LaTeXStrings", "Images", "ImageMagick", "RDatasets", "FileIO", "Gtk", "UnicodePlots", "PlotReferenceImages"]
diff --git a/src/examples.jl b/src/examples.jl
index 6dd1b7f4..14fb710e 100644
--- a/src/examples.jl
+++ b/src/examples.jl
@@ -238,12 +238,12 @@ build with the method `text(string, attr...)`, which wraps font and color attrib
 """,
     [:(begin
 y = rand(10)
-plot(y, annotations = (3,y[3],text("this is #3",:left)), leg=false)
-annotate!([(5, y[5], text("this is #5",16,:red,:center)),
-          (10, y[10], text("this is #10",:right,20,"courier"))])
+plot(y, annotations = (3,y[3], Plots.text("this is #3",:left)), leg=false)
+annotate!([(5, y[5], Plots.text("this is #5",16,:red,:center)),
+          (10, y[10], Plots.text("this is #10",:right,20,"courier"))])
 scatter!(range(2, stop=8, length=6), rand(6), marker=(50,0.2,:orange),
          series_annotations = ["series","annotations","map","to","series",
-                               text("data",:green)])
+                               Plots.text("data",:green)])
     end)]
 ),
 
diff --git a/test/imgcomp.jl b/test/imgcomp.jl
index 206b8d50..22c617d5 100644
--- a/test/imgcomp.jl
+++ b/test/imgcomp.jl
@@ -1,34 +1,6 @@
 import Plots._current_plots_version
 
-# Taken from MakieGallery
-"""
-Downloads the reference images from ReferenceImages for a specific version
-"""
-function download_reference(version = v"0.0.1")
-    download_dir = abspath(@__DIR__, "reference_images")
-    isdir(download_dir) || mkpath(download_dir)
-    tarfile = joinpath(download_dir, "reference_images.zip")
-    url = "https://github.com/JuliaPlots/PlotReferenceImages.jl/archive/v$(version).tar.gz"
-    refpath = joinpath(download_dir, "PlotReferenceImages.jl-$(version)")
-    if !isdir(refpath) # if not yet downloaded
-        @info "downloading reference images for version $version"
-        download(url, tarfile)
-        BinaryProvider.unpack(tarfile, download_dir)
-        # check again after download
-        if !isdir(refpath)
-            error("Something went wrong while downloading reference images. Plots can't be compared to references")
-        else
-            rm(tarfile, force = true)
-        end
-    else
-        @info "using reference images for version $version (already downloaded)"
-    end
-    refpath
-end
-
-const ref_image_dir = download_reference()
-
-function image_comparison_tests(pkg::Symbol, idx::Int; debug = false, popup = isinteractive(), sigma = [1,1], tol = 1e-2)
+function image_comparison_tests(pkg::Symbol, idx::Int; debug = false, popup = !is_ci(), sigma = [1,1], tol = 1e-2)
     Plots._debugMode.on = debug
     example = Plots._examples[idx]
     Plots.theme(:default)
@@ -39,36 +11,9 @@ function image_comparison_tests(pkg::Symbol, idx::Int; debug = false, popup = is
     # ensure consistent results
     Random.seed!(1234)
 
-    # reference image directory setup
-    refdir = joinpath(ref_image_dir, "Plots", string(pkg))
     fn = "ref$idx.png"
-
-    # firgure out version info
-    vns = filter(x->x[1] != '.', readdir(refdir))
-    versions = sort(VersionNumber.(vns), rev = true)
-    versions = filter(v -> v <= _current_plots_version, versions)
-    # @show refdir fn versions
-
-    newdir = joinpath(refdir, string(_current_plots_version))
-    newfn = joinpath(newdir, fn)
-
-    # figure out which reference file we should compare to, by finding the highest versioned file
-    reffn = nothing
-    for v in versions
-        tmpfn = joinpath(refdir, string(v), fn)
-        if isfile(tmpfn)
-            reffn = tmpfn
-            break
-        end
-    end
-
-    # now we have the fn (if any)... do the comparison
-    # @show reffn
-    if reffn == nothing
-        reffn = newfn
-    end
-    # @show reffn
-    # return
+    reffn = reference_file(pkg, idx, _current_plots_version)
+    newfn = joinpath(reference_path(pkg, _current_plots_version), fn)
 
     # test function
     func = (fn, idx) -> begin
@@ -78,13 +23,6 @@ function image_comparison_tests(pkg::Symbol, idx::Int; debug = false, popup = is
         png(fn)
     end
 
-    # try
-    #     run(`mkdir -p $newdir`)
-    # catch err
-    #     display(err)
-    # end
-    # # reffn = joinpath(refdir, "ref$idx.png")
-
     # the test
     vtest = VisualTest(func, reffn, idx)
     test_images(vtest, popup=popup, sigma=sigma, tol=tol, newfn = newfn)
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index e2f7b9c5..2f12d588 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,15 +1,18 @@
 using VisualRegressionTests
 using Plots
 using Random
-using BinaryProvider
 using Test
 using FileIO
+using PlotReferenceImages
+using Gtk
+
 
 include("imgcomp.jl")
 # don't actually show the plots
 Random.seed!(1234)
 default(show=false, reuse=true)
-img_tol = isinteractive() ? 1e-2 : 10e-2
+is_ci() = get(ENV, "CI", false)
+img_tol = is_ci() ? 10e-2 : 1e-2
 
 @testset "GR" begin
     ENV["PLOTS_TEST"] = "true"