Interface

The main aspects of Procreate Pocket's interface are detailed in this section, and will help you know how to navigate Procreate Pocket.

Painting Tools (top left)

On the top left menu bar you’ll find your main painting tool and a button to expand the toolbar.

The main tool is paint by default, and you can expand by tapping the ellipsis icon to the right. The expanded tools are explained below this section.

Paint, smudge, and erase. These are your primary painting tools in Procreate Pocket.

Paint is the default tool you'll see, but if you expand the tools (tap on the ellipsis to the right), switch to smudge or erase, then contract the tools, you'll see the icon for your current tool here instead.

Tap again on this icon to access your Brush Libraries. In here you can select, create, organise and share your brushes.

Tap the ellipsis icon to access your expanded tools. The points below contain a basic breakdown, but the next section on this page has more details:

1. All your primary painting tools - paint, smudge, and erase. Tap on any to set them as your current tool, and tap them again to open Brush Libraries

2. Layers - the Layers interface, where you can add, arrange and modify your canvas layers

3. Colors - the Colors interface, where you can select colors using different methods, and create, access, and save color palettes

4. Actions - access preferences for your canvas, add images and text, use drawing guides, modify canvas properties, etc.

5. Adjustments - make image adjustments to your layers, such as adding blurs, changing coloration, cloning and liquefying your content

6. Selections - Selections is where you can isolate parts of your image using different selection methods

7. Transform - Transform allows you to move, scale, rotate, stretch, skew, and shear your content in all manner of ways

Use the Brush Sliders to adjust your brush sizes and pressure or opacity. The sliders live on the left side of your interface by default.

Drag the top slider up to make the brush larger, and drag it down to make the brush smaller.

To make finer adjustments, hold the slider and drag your finger sideways. Without lifting your finger, drag up or down. Notice that the slider now moves in smaller increments.

If your iPhone has 3D Touch then this slider will alter opacity. Increase the opacity of your brush by dragging the bottom slider upwards. Decrease its opacity (make it more transparent) by dragging the same slider downards.

If your iPhone doesn’t have 3D Touch then this slider will by default be set to alter pressure and its effect on your brush. To increase or decrease the pressure of your brush drag the bottom slider up or down.

To swap the slider from Pressure to Opacity, tap and hold the slider button until you feel a haptic tap. If your phone doesn’t support haptics the button will visually pulse when swapping between Pressure and Opacity.

For more accurate opacity or pressure changes, hold the slider and drag your finger sideways away from the slider. Without lifting your finger, drag up or down. The further away from the slider your finger is, the smaller increments change.

Expanded Tools (tap the ellipsis icon )

Tap the ellipsis icon in the top left to expand the available tools. Swipe them back upwards to minimise them.

Your primary tool, which by default is paint. Tap here to open up the Brushes interface and select a brush, or change your brush set or brush library.

Paint is the tool you use to lay marks down on your canvas using any of the brushes from any brush library.

Blend your artwork, mix colors, and achieve a variety of textures using the varied brushes in the different Brush Libraries.

Tap twice to open Brushes. Here you can select any brush to use with the smudge tool.

Fix mistakes and make fine adjustments with the erase tool.

Tap twice to open Brushes. Here you can select any brush to use with the erase tool.

Layers let you paint overlapping objects without altering work you've already done.

Open Layers to add, modify, blend, organise, share, and mask the layers in your canvas.

Select, adjust, and harmonize the color in your creations. Do this using various interface options to suit your workflow. Save, import and share palettes, plus drag and drop color into your art using ColorDrop.

The Gallery is where you organize and manage your artworks. You can create new canvases, import images, and share your creations with the world.

Tap the left-facing arrow in the expanded tools to exit your current artwork and return to the Gallery where your other artworks live.

The Actions menu has all the practical features you need to insert, share, adjust your canvas or any of the elements within it. Here you can also adjust interface and touch settings to get more out of your workflow.

Add those important finishing touches with professional image effects in the Adjustments menu. Make complex color adjustments fast, including Gradient Mapping. Adjust your image with Blur, Sharpen, Noise, Clone, and the mind-bending power of Liquify. Plus add special effects like Bloom, Glitch, Halftone and Chromatic Aberration.

Selections let you isolate any part of your image with four versatile selection methods. There's also a range of advanced options that offer finer control over how you modify your work.

Transform allows you to stretch, move, and manipulate your image for fast and easy edits. From simple scaling to versatile warp meshing, Transform makes complex image manipulation easy.

Swipe Cards

Procreate Pocket presents certain interface elements and menus such as Colors and Layers with a popout view that appears from the bottom of the screen.

This is the default popout view of Colors. The same format and positioning is true for Layers.

This affords you more of a condensed view to allow you to see your canvas while you work in other menus. This can be important for things like selection of color and seeing blending changes affecting layers in realtime, for example.

Drag this handle upwards to see an expanded view of the menu interface. In this example the menu is Colors, and when you drag this handle upwards you'll see your Color History and current active palette.

Drag it down a little to contract the interface, or all the way down to close the inteand simply tap back on the canvas to continue your work.

Customize Interface

Tweak the Procreate Pocket interface to look and feel the way you like it.

Dark / Light interface

The Procreate Pocket interface has two visual modes.

Dark interface is an unobtrusive charcoal interface that keeps the focus on your artwork. Light interface mode is higher contrast, ideal for when you’re working in bright environments.

Tap the ellipsis → Actions → Prefs → Dark interface to switch to Light Interface. You may have to swipe upwards or downwards in Prefs to see the Light interface option.

Brush cursor

See the shape of your brush before you make your mark.

When you activate the Brush cursor, the outline of your Brush shape will appear every time you touch the canvas. This is so you can see the shape of the mark you're making.

Tap the ellipsis → Actions → Prefs → Brush cursor to toggle your Brush Cursor on and off. You may have to swipe upwards or downwards in Prefs to see the Brush cursor option.

Hide Interface

Work on your art with one brush and zero distractions.

Want the interface to take a step back so you can focus on your work? Tap 4 fingers on the screen to invoke Full Screen mode. The interface will slide away to give you a clean view of your canvas.

To bring the interface back, tap with 4 fingers again, or tap the Full Screen indicator in the top left corner.

Project Canvas

Work on fine details in Procreate Pocket while keeping an eye on the big picture.

Connect a second display via cable or AirPlay to display your canvas only, full-screen. Enjoy no interface, no zoom, and no interruptions.

Tap the ellipsis → Actions → Prefs → Project canvas to project your work onto a second screen.