diff --git a/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/.gitignore b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8fc28cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+md-badges.md
diff --git a/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.awk b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.awk
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..07667e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.awk
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+BEGIN{
+  # initialize vars
+  TRUE=1;
+  FALSE=0;
+  count=0;
+  shouldSkip=FALSE;
+  # 'delete' initializes a var as an array
+  delete labelsArray[0];
+  delete defsArray[0];
+  delete refsArray[0];
+  # printf "" > "errors.txt";
+}
+/^| \[/{
+  # initialize our variables
+  shouldSkip=FALSE;
+  label=$2;
+  url=$2;
+  # extract the label by removing everything before and after it
+  gsub(/^[[:space:]]*\[!\[/, "", label);
+  gsub(/\].*$/, "", label);
+
+  # extract the URL by removing everything before and after it
+  gsub(/^[^\(]*\(/,"",url);
+  gsub(/\)\].*$/,"",url);
+
+  if (label == "") {
+    # print "label is empty: '"label"'; url='"url"'\n" >> "errors.txt" ;
+
+    shouldSkip=TRUE;
+  }
+
+  # ensure our label is unique by appending _alt to it
+  if (shouldSkip == FALSE) {
+    while(label in labelsRecordArray && shouldSkip == FALSE) {
+      # print "Found duplicate label: '"label"'; labelsRecordArray[label]=='"labelsRecordArray[label]"'; url='"url"'\n" >> "errors.txt" ;
+      if (labelsRecordArray[label] == url) {
+        shouldSkip=TRUE;
+      } else {
+        label=label"_alt" ;
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (shouldSkip == FALSE) {
+    # append this label to the set of unique labels
+    labelsRecordArray[label] = url;
+
+    # generate the markdown code for this label and url
+    refcode = "!["label"]["label"]";
+    defcode = "["label"]: "url" \""label"\"";
+
+    # store our markdown code against the label
+    labelsArray[count] = label;
+    defsArray[count] = defcode;
+    refsArray[count] = refcode;
+    count++;
+  }
+}
+END{
+  # output the markdown table
+  print "| Preview | Reference Markdown Code | Definition Markdown Code |"
+  print "|---------|------------------------|------------------------|"
+
+  for(i=0;  i<count;  i++) {
+    print "| "refsArray[i]" | `"refsArray[i]"` | `"defsArray[i]"`|" ;
+  }
+  
+  # blank line to end the (visible) table and start the (non-visible) reference definitions
+  print;
+
+  # output the references
+  for(j=0;  j<count;  j++) {
+    print defsArray[j];
+  }
+  print;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.sh b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..aecb727
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# #################################################################################
+# extract-refstyle-badges.sh
+#
+# Description:
+#   Creates a table of reference-style markdown badges from the table rows in README.md
+#
+# #################################################################################
+
+# get a reference to the current directory
+DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"
+READMEFILE="${DIR}/../../../README.md"
+
+# extract the table rows from README.md, sort them, and pass them to 
+#  the awk script to generate the reference-style link for each row.
+# Add a newline at the end and write to md-badges.md
+readmerows=$(
+  cat "${READMEFILE}" | \
+  grep -E '^\| \[' | \
+  sort 
+)
+
+# add a newline before processing with awk
+printf "%s\n" "$readmerows" \
+  | awk -F '|' -f "${DIR}/extract-refstyle-badges.awk" \
+> md-badges.md
+
+# now insert the generated md-badges.md content into README.md
+
+lead='^<\!-- ### BEGIN GENERATED CONTENT -->'
+tail='^<\!-- ### END GENERATED CONTENT -->'
+
+sed -e "/$lead/,/$tail/{
+  /$lead/{
+    p;
+    r md-badges.md
+  };
+  /$tail/p;
+  d
+}" "${READMEFILE}" > "${READMEFILE}.tmp"
+mv "${READMEFILE}.tmp" "${READMEFILE}"
+
+# echo "${READMEFILE}"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/extract-refstyle-badges.yml b/.github/workflows/extract-refstyle-badges.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efd4779
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/extract-refstyle-badges.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+name: Extract refstyle badges
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+      - feature/reference-style-table
+jobs:
+  extract-refstyle-badges:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - name: extract refstyle badges
+        run: ${{github.workspace}}/.github/scripts/extract-refstyle-badges/extract-refstyle-badges.sh
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a1b5591..cce9fad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ An extensive list of static Shields.io badges, sorted by category.
 * [Version Control](#-version-control)
 * [Virtual Reality](#%EF%B8%8F-virtual-reality)
 * [Website Status](#-website-status)
+* [Reference-Style Badges](#reference-style-badges)
 
 > **Tip:** Use <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd> to quickly search for and find a badge.
 
@@ -974,6 +975,14 @@ An extensive list of static Shields.io badges, sorted by category.
 
 ---
 
+## Reference-Style Badges
+
+The table below is automatically created. It contains the above badges, in a reference-style format.
+
+<!-- ### BEGIN GENERATED CONTENT -->
+<!-- any content between the above and below lines will be overwritten by the github action script -->
+<!-- ### END GENERATED CONTENT -->
+
 ## CLI
 
 If you want to find badges from directly within your terminal, check out [mdbadges-cli](https://github.com/inttter/mdbadges-cli), which includes all the badges listed under this repository, and also offers various commands, like creating custom badges!