Color Profiles

Create your art with Color Profiles designed to achieve the best results on screen or in print. Choose from Pocket's native sRGB, P3 Wide Color, and CMYK options, or import your own custom color profiles (.icc files).

Screen vs. Print - the Basics

Screens and printers differ in how they manage color.

In a nutshell, screens use a combination of red, green, and blue light to produce color. This is called 'additive color', because a combination of 100% red, green, and blue light will produce white.

Traditional printers use a combination of cyan, magenta, and yellow ink to produce color. This is called 'subtractive color', because generally the material the printer is laying ink on is white paper, and adding 100% cyan, magenta, and yellow ink will produce a black result.

Procreate Pocket and Color Profiles

Procreate Pocket allows you to set color profiles that will afford you different color options based on what your intention for the artwork is. For most cases where your artwork will be viewed digitally (i.e. on a screen), you'll be fine with RGB color profiles.

Try using sRGB IEC61966-2.1 if you're unsure. Display P3, if your phone can support it, will allow for much more vibrant colors.

If you're planning on printing your artwork on a basic or home printer, 'Generic CMYK' could be a good option for you, and will work for most printers. If your artwork is destined for professional printing, your best option is to contact the printing team that will be performing the print, and setting your artwork up ahead of time with their specifications.

Accessing Color Profiles

Access Color Profiles when creating a custom canvas in the Gallery.

In the Procreate Pocket Gallery, tap the + icon in the bottom right to bring up the New Canvas menu.

Tap the smaller plus button in the top right of this popout to enter the custom canvas interface:

From here, tap the Color profile icon (second from the top left), to enter the Color Profile menu for custom canvas creation:

Pre-loaded Color Profiles

Procreate Pocket comes pre-loaded with standard RGB and CMYK color profiles.

You can choose these when creating a custom canvas.

For screen artwork, we offer six RGB profiles. Choose between Display P3 on compatible devices, or five industry-standard sRGB profiles. Use Display P3 for richer colors, or sRGB IEC61966-2.1 if you're unsure or want a highly-compatible digital color experience.

Procreate Pocket also has a number of various industry standard CMYK profiles based on common printer settings for print artwork.

Import Color Profiles

You can download custom color profiles, or create your own.

Tap the Import icon (box with arrow above) to add these to Procreate Pocket:

Change Color Profiles

If you have made an RGB artwork, you can afterwards change it to other RGB profiles, but not to a CMYK profile.

The same is true for a CMYK artwork - you can change to another CMYK profile, but not an RGB one.

To change your color profile, expand your top toolbar and tap Actions → Canvas → Canvas information → Color profile. From here choose the color profile you wish to change to.

Even though you can change Color Profiles you can’t change color spaces from RGB to CMYK or vice versa.

NOTE: Changing an artwork’s Color Profile can have a sudden dramatic effect on your Time-lapse. If you want to avoid this, change your Color Profile once your artwork is finished.