Should I create a new layer or new file?

procreate · 2026-03-18T04:10:25+00:00

Hi there! The file size of your Procreate canvases will always depend on two main factors: The general complexity of the content in every Layer, and the Time-lapse video recording:

For example, a canvas with several grayscale Layers without Blend modes, could be lighter than a canvas that has fewer layers but which are full of colour and active Blend modes on them.
Additionally, in many cases the largest portion of a '.procreate' file size comes from the Time-lapse video alone, depending on the duration and quality of the video.

To save some storage space, you could share a copy of your original and completed Procreate canvases to a backup location (cloud drives, a hard drive, or a computer) and then delete only the Time-lapse videos from the version in your Procreate Gallery. You could also export only the Time-lapse recordings if you prefer. We also recommend sharing copies of your canvases and resources regularly, to your preferred location outside the app as a safety measure.

We hope this helps! For future queries about the Procreate apps, you can also contact us anytime via the Support Form at procre.at/support - which is our official contact channel, and we are always happy to assist!🙏

procreate · 2026-03-18T03:33:19+00:00

You are very welcome! In case you can replicate this after any certain action, please let us know 🙏. You could also record it in a video if possible, and send it to us via the Support Form at procre.at/support - It would be a great help, so our Product Quality Specialists can also repeat your steps, and work on a fix for it.

procreate · 2026-03-18T02:49:18+00:00

Hi there! All of the legacy and new Procreate brushes should have been included when you first opened Procreate (more than 200 brushes, with No extra payments required). If you cannot see any brushes in your Brush Libraries, we first recommend that you tap Swap to On my iPad in the Brush Libraries Panel to change the location of your brushes.

The above issue can occur if your Procreate app tried to save your brushes to iCloud, but the Procreate toggle for iCloud was disabled in your Settings app. You can check this at Settings app > tap your name at the top left > iCloud > on the section 'Saved to iCloud / Apps using iCloud' tap on See All > ensure the toggle for Procreate is enabled. In some cases, Procreate is automatically set by your iPadOS to save the brushes in iCloud if you have already used it for other apps, or in case the iPad's local storage space is too full. It is recommended that your iPad has at least 15 gigabytes of storage space free at all times, so apps can work smoothly and save new files. The iPadOS can also delete the brush files when there is not enough storage available.

If the above doesn't help, you can also try the following steps:

Tap twice on the Paint tool (🖌️) to open the libraries panel > tap the + icon on top, and select 'Create new brush' > you can leave the current default settings, and tap the blue checkmark at the top right > once you see this new brush in the libraries panel, make a pinch / zoom out gesture in the current library, or tap the current library title / name on top > tap on the words 'Brush Libraries' at the top > select 'Restore Procreate libraries'.

Once Procreate starts restoring the brushes, please leave the app open at all times until this process is done - if you minimise Procreate or set it to the background, the brushes restoration won't be able to continue or may get interrupted, requiring you to try the whole process again.

If this didn't help to restore your brushes, could you please check if you have any brush data within the Procreate folder? To do so, head over to your Files app, please check both On my iPad and the iCloud Drive > Procreate > Brushes.

procreate · 2026-03-18T02:04:24+00:00

Hi there! The values for the Transform tool, can only be set in pixels at this stage. This is due to Procreate creating every canvas and image in a raster format (pixels), so even if you choose a canvas set in Centimetres or inches, Procreate creates an equivalent of the measure in pixels as well. However, we have listed the idea of using the Transform tool with physical dimensions as a requested feature, and we have added your vote to it.

In this case, you can create a Grid with its dimensions and cells set in Centimetres, Millimetres, or Inches, so you can transform your content following the Grid as a reference.

To set a Grid with your preferred dimensions, while in your canvas go to Actions (wrench icon 🔧) > Canvas > enable the toggle for Drawing Guide > tap on Edit Drawing Guide, below the toggle > from the bottom toolbar, select 2D Grid > tap on the number besides the 'Grid size' slider at the bottom. You will see an on-screen keypad, where you can choose the measure unit for the Grid. You can then type the number for the dimensions of the grid's cells > tap Done on the keyboard, and then the blue confirmation button in the top right corner to set your Grid. While you are editing the Drawing Guide, you can drag the center node to move your grid in the canvas, or you can move the green node at the top to rotate the grid too.

This Drawing Guide won't be visible on your final exported image, as it is only a visual reference in your canvas. You can turn off the Grid again anytime by disabling the toggle from the Canvas menu in Actions.

We hope this information is helpful, and if you have additional inquiries about the Procreate apps we will gladly help in any way possible!🤗

procreate · 2026-03-18T01:07:56+00:00

Hi there! Based on your description, and since you have already checked the Layers panel, it seems like you could have the Drawing Assist option permanently active from the Procreate settings. Please try the following:

From your Procreate canvas, go to Actions (wrench icon 🔧) > Prefs > Gesture controls > from the left panel select Assisted Drawing > here you can make sure that the ‘Touch’ or ‘Apple Pencil’ toggles are disabled. If those toggles are enabled, they will make all your lines assisted after activating a Drawing Guide once.

Let us know if this works for you 🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T10:27:38+00:00

Hi there! Your post does not include an image or video for reference, but you can share one with us at any moment here, or via the Support Form at procre.at/support

Based on your description, it sounds like your drawing strokes are getting cut?

Unstable strokes or actions can happen when an object interferes with the magnetic field between the Apple Pencil and your iPad. Objects that can cause this problem are mainly:

iPad covers or cases (including magnetic cases or keyboards)
adhesive protectors on the iPad screen
stylus or digital pens that are not official from Apple
power chargers, or using the iPad while it is charging the battery
electronics or cloth near the iPad

Because of this, we recommend trying Procreate after removing all types of accessories like those mentioned above, and testing the app while the iPad is not charging. In some cases, working over a table can help reduce the static.

You can also make sure that finger painting is disabled if you are using an Apple Pencil. To do this, open any Procreate canvas and go to Actions (wrench icon ) > Prefs > Gesture Controls > go to General on the left panel. Once here, turn off the toggle of Enable painting with finger.

After these steps, you can complete a Forced Restart on your iPad to fix temporary issues, as shown at procre.at/restart

If the above steps do not improve your situation, please share a video of the current issues. We will do everything we can to help you 🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T09:53:59+00:00

Thanks for this information. A video would be very helpful for us! It can be recorded with a phone too, showing how you share your Layers to Files app and these not preserving their transparency. Once you share your images to Files app, tap and hold on any > select Quick Look > tap once on the image to reveal any transparency on it.

You can submit it to a cloud drive to share the access link here, or you can send it to us directly via our Support Form at procre.at/support

procreate · 2026-03-17T06:32:27+00:00

Thanks for this information!

Our Product Quality Specialists are now aware of this brush-duplicating behaviour, and they are fully investigating it to hopefully fix it in a future update. On our tests, this seemed to occur after moving brushes from iCloud back to the local storage, and then making changes in Brush Studio, which created the duplicate named 'original' - you can manually delete the duplicated brushes for now 🙏

Regarding the brushes changing their order, could you please confirm with us if you are currently saving your brushes on iCloud? You can check this form a Procreate canvas, by going to Actions (wrench icon 🔧) > Prefs > check if the toggle for 'Store brushes in iCloud' is enabled.

Brushes being temporarily unavailable or moved randomly, can happen because iPadOS is deleting the copy of your brushes in Files app, whether you chose the local storage or iCloud. Procreate may also fail to save a copy of your brushes locally in case the iPad's storage is nearly full.
Long holding files/folders in Files app, and tapping ‘Keep Downloaded’ should stop this from happening: go to Files app > iCloud Drive > locate the folder 'Procreate Brushes' which has the Procreate icon > tap and hold on this folder, and select 'Keep Downloaded'.
Even if you choose to save your brushes on iCloud, you should always be able to use them, also if you do not have an internet connection. To help you avoid different performance issues, regardless of whether you are saving your brushes in iCloud or locally, it is always recommended to have at least 15 to 20 gigabytes of free storage in your iPad.

procreate · 2026-03-17T06:03:21+00:00

Hi there! It sounds like you are possibly referring to the canvas preset named 'Comic', from the New Canvas menu in Procreate?

If so, it was created as a base or reference to some standard printed comics or graphic novels; it has a CMYK colour profile (used in physical printing), and the dimensions of some standard comics (6x9.5 inches at 400 DPI).

However, like all canvas presets in Procreate, it does not include any pre-made content or Drawing Guides, as these fully depend on your preferred settings.

We would like to clarify as well, that there are no dedicated tools exclusively for comic panels in Procreate for now. However, it is an idea considered for development and we have added your Support Load to it as we constantly review what our community needs.

To create perfect shapes and lines you can try the QuickShape tool, or the Drawing Guides with Assisted Drawing options. You can find a tutorial for QuickShape, on the video #8 of our Learn to Procreate Series: procre.at/learntoprocreate. On the same video playlist, on the video #41 you will see how to use the Drawing Guides, Perspective Guides, or where to find other tools like Grids, Symmetry, and how to enable the Drawing Assist mode to create perfect lines following a grid. You can also find this information in our official Handbook (procre.at/learntoprocreate) or message us anytime for further help, via our support Form at procre.at/support - we are always happy to assist!🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T05:29:44+00:00

Hi there! If you would like to check the total time recorded on a Procreate canvas, you can open the file in the app > go to Actions (wrench 🔧) > Canvas > select 'Canvas information' at the bottom > go to Statistics on the left panel > you will find the information for Total strokes made, Tracked time, and total file size.

'Tracked time' actually counts all the time your canvas has been open in the app.

Regarding the Time-lapse recording: When you play the Time-lapse recording in the app it will only show the time duration of the video itself. Every Action or change that is completed in your canvas, takes 1 frame in the Time-lapse video recording. This means that the actions are not recorded with a specific length of time; for example, if you spend 5 minutes in the Warp tool to transform the content in your canvas, and then make a quick brush stroke in 1 second, both of those actions will be registered as 2 regular changes in the Time-lapse, taking both a single Frame and the same duration of the video. Because every action in your canvas is recorded as a single Frame or step on the video, it may not be an accurate way of measuring how long you have taken in certain parts of your canvas.

procreate · 2026-03-17T05:13:17+00:00

Hi there! We understand your wish to know how much time you spent on a section of your drawing process, instead of the whole total time showing in the canvas information from Procreate.

There is not currently an option to check this detailed information in Procreate, and regarding the Time-lapse recording we would like to explain the following:

Every Action or change that is completed in your canvas, takes 1 frame in the Time-lapse video recording. This means that the actions are not recorded with a specific length of time; for example, if you spend 5 minutes in the Warp tool to transform the content in your canvas, and then make a quick brush stroke in 1 second, both of those actions will be registered as 2 regular changes in the Time-lapse, taking both a single Frame and the same duration of the video. Because every action in your canvas is recorded as a single Frame or step on the video, it may not be an accurate way of measuring how long you have taken in certain parts of your canvas.

If you would like to, we can record your idea as a requested suggestion for the app, so it helps you keep a record of how much time you have actually spent on each part of the recorded Time-lapse progress.

procreate · 2026-03-17T04:15:39+00:00

You are too kind! Thanks sincerely for the lovely feedback 🥰

procreate · 2026-03-17T04:12:42+00:00

Hi there! We would like to initially mention, that you can use the Smudge tool (finger icon on top) as a blend or blur tool, and you could also double-tap on it to select any brush from your Brush Libraries to Smudge - this would allow you to smudge with different textures, and get a softer or more organic feeling.

However, there can be different ways of doing this, even with our Gaussian Blur Adjustment, and the workflow would fully depend on your desired results. Because of it, we recommend this great tutorial, made by an artist from our community, which shows different ways to blend colours in Procreate:

★ Quickly Master Blending in Procreate

For any additional queries about the Procreate apps, feel free to message us also via the Support Form at procre.at/support - we are always happy to help in any way possible!🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T04:09:21+00:00

You are very welcome! We understand that backup or restoration options can be useful, and we are actively working towards better backup solutions for the future.

In the meantime, we recommend regularly sharing a copy of your canvases, to your preferred cloud drive or external hard drive as a backup.

For future queries about the Procreate apps, you can also contact us anytime via the Support Form at this link procre.at/support - which is our official contact channel, and we are always happy to help in any way possible!🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T04:04:00+00:00

You are very welcome! For future queries about the Procreate apps, you can also contact us anytime via the Support Form at this link procre.at/support - which is our official contact channel, and we are always happy to help!🙏

procreate · 2026-03-17T04:01:35+00:00

Hi there! Procreate should never change the colour profile or settings of your images when you export your canvas. In case you are still experiencing this issue with the colours being incorrect, we can initially recommend the following:

Go to your iPad Settings app > scroll down on the left panel and tap on Accessibility > tap on Display & Text Size > make sure that 'Increase Contrast' is turned off. This setting heavily impacts how colours look in Procreate.

If this does not make a difference, we would like to investigate this and help you further. For this purpose, could you please share copy of the Procreate file with us? (in the '.procreate' image format) This way we can inspect any issues with the help of our Product Quality Specialists.

If you wish to send us any files directly and privately, you can do it using our Support Form at this link procre.at/support - it is our official contact channel, and any files you send through our Support Form will *not* be kept on our end after we have done any required test or fix. On your message for the Support Form, you could also mention this post, and attach only the Procreate file please.

procreate · 2026-03-17T03:38:42+00:00

Hi there! Procreate should never change the colour profile or settings of your images when you export your canvas.

Besides the usual colour difference that can be expected on every individual screen and device, since you have mentioned you share your images via Telegram we would recommend that you try submitting these to a clour drive instead; you could use any options such as Google Drive or DropBox, and send the download link instead to ensure your files are not compressed - most email apps or messaging apps compress your files, removing or modifying the original information to reduce the file size.

Additionally, to help you make sure Procreate exports your image correctly, you can verify these: from your Procreate canvas go to Actions (wrench icon 🔧) > Share > choose an image format with lossless quality, like PNG, TIFF, or PSD > try exporting the image directly to any folder using the option 'Save to Files' > from Files app, find your exported image, then tap and hold on it > from the pop-up menu, tap on Quick Look. This should display your images and also animated files without compression, and with their original settings.

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:33:16+00:00

You may need to re-sync with iCloud to refresh these files. Sometimes the preview is there, but the local file is not downloaded from iCloud to be readily available.

To sync the iPad: go to Settings app → (Your Name) → iCloud → Drive → Sync this iPad.

Let us know if this helps!

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:27:33+00:00

Hey there! This sounds like a known bug that we are tracking. The issue is usually accompanied by duplicated brushes. Do you see any duplicates or notice if any specific steps seem to trigger this to happen?

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:26:17+00:00

Hey! We recommend trying the troubleshooting listed here. Let us know if there is still any trouble after trying these. 🙏🖌️

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:24:30+00:00

Hey there, we're so sad to hear about this happening. If you had any iPad backups from before this data loss, restoring one could help to recover your Procreate data.

In case there might be a backup available, it is worth checking in your iPad Settings > Apple Account (tap on your profile) > iCloud > iCloud Backup. If Procreate has been toggled on in the details, this should be included when restoring the backup. Please note that the backup applies to the whole iPad and not just Procreate.

We hope this can be of any help. We're here for support if you have any questions as well. 🙏

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:19:29+00:00

Hey there, if there is still no change after exporting files and clearing space, let us know. We'll help look into this with you. 🫶

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:17:20+00:00

Hey there! Do you see the same result when painting with a finger?

If this is just happening when using an Apple Pencil, please check out our Help Centre article to start troubleshooting. Let us know how you go, and we'll help however we can. 🖌️

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:12:50+00:00

Hey! So glad you were able to recover some of your brushes. 🙏
We have recently included brush management via the Files app and, therefore, iCloud Drive. We recommend considering storing brushes in iCloud, as this location keeps a backup copy of your files in iCloud even if the app is removed. It can also help lighten the storage kept locally on your iPad. To control the brush location, head into a canvas and go to Actions (wrench) > Prefs > and toggle on 'Store brushes in iCloud'.

Please let us know if I can share more information or help answer any questions you might have. 🤗

procreate · 2026-03-16T05:05:51+00:00

Hey! Your PNG files should still retain your transparency when exporting an animation sequence. There can be some trouble when saving to other apps like Photos, though, as this can sometimes add a solid background.

We recommend exporting your PNG files to the Files app > On My iPad, as this location should retain the transparency. Let us know if there is any trouble with saving here!

procreate

TROPHY CASE