Procreate offers a powerful Crop & Resize feature that lets you adjust the canvas size, maintain or change aspect ratios, and manage how resizing affects your artwork. This guide compiles the essential steps and options from the provided material to help you crop, resize, and resample with confidence.
Accessing the Crop & Resize Interface
Open the Procreate app and select a new or current artwork. Tap the Wrench tool and click on “Crop & Resize.” This brings up the Crop and Resize interface, which adds a grid overlay to your image. The edges of this box represent the new edges of your canvas. A readout in the notification bar will track how many layers your new canvas size can offer.
In Procreate, you can also access Crop & Resize through Settings. Tap Settings → Crop to summon the crop measurements, or tap Settings → Resample to summon the resample options. The two options here are Resample and Crop. The canvas is bounded by a white box that indicates its current area. When you crop your canvas of a Flipbook only, you will see a bar down the bottom. Tap here to confirm your changes and apply the crop. Similarly, when you resample, you’ll find a bar at the bottom for confirming changes and applying the resampling.
Cropping Your Canvas
To make sweeping changes to your canvas from one simple menu, use the Crop function. The edges of the grid overlay automatically snap to the edges, or the horizontal and vertical centre points of your canvas. You can begin cropping manually by selecting a corner or center, or go to Settings to make adjustments. The bottom toolbar includes numerical readouts that display the width and height of your canvas in the unit you set when you created it.
To specify exact dimensions, tap the width or height readout to invoke the keypad and type a numerical value for that axis. If you want to preserve a specific shape, you can toggle the Aspect Lock (the chainlink button between the width and height readouts) to lock the ratio of image width to height. If you need to crop from a particular edge automatically, entering dimensions will crop automatically from an edge and you can then adjust manually.
Notes: The Crop tool can be used to crop while artwork remains on the canvas, but if you crop artwork with layers inside, those layers will be cropped as well. Before cropping, it’s wise to duplicate your artwork to preserve the original. After cropping, you cannot revert to the previous canvas size without restore from a duplicate.
Resampling: Changing Size Without Distorting Content
Resampling changes the overall size of the canvas while optionally preserving content. When you toggle Resample on, the Aspect Lock is automatically engaged. With Resample switched on, adjusting the size of the crop overlay won’t change the dimension readouts; instead, the numerical dimensions you enter set the canvas area. Resampling enlarges or shrinks the image by creating new data from existing pixels using bicubic interpolation. This can alter how the image looks because new pixels are created to fill the new size.
In the Crop & Resize interface, you can also adjust the resolution (DPI). DPI tells you how many pixels are in each inch of your canvas and affects print quality. The standard DPI for printing is 300, while screens typically use 72-144. Changing DPI will alter the physical size of your canvas in millimeters, centimeters, and inches. If you need to maintain the same composition while changing dimensions, use Resample with Aspect Lock to preserve the ratio.
Practical Tips for Cropping and Resizing
- Always consider duplicating your artwork before cropping or resizing to preserve the original.
- Use the Aspect Lock to maintain a proportional change when resizing, especially for animations or pages in a flipbook.
- When cropping, you can input exact dimensions or adjust manually with the grid overlay for more control.
- Resampling is useful for altering composition without changing overall dimensions, using bicubic interpolation to generate new pixels.
- If you work in Procreate Pocket, the same concepts apply, with Pocket-specific variations in terminology (e.g., Modify > Actions > Canvas > Crop and Resize).
Additional Features Related to Canvas Adjustments
Procreate’s features extend beyond basic cropping and resizing. You can flip your canvas horizontally to reveal composition issues, sign your artwork with a signature, and adjust titles and image sources. Animation Assist provides a Timeline, onion-skinning, and play/pause controls to help manage animated sequences, while Page Assist turns layers into digital pages with a visual timeline. Drawing Guides help structure your composition as you crop or resize.
The Reference Companion window lets you reference another image or canvas while you work. Activate it via Actions → Canvas → Reference, and you can resize the Reference Companion window or switch between Canvas, Image, and FacePaint references. FacePaint uses AR to map guides on your face for positioning during painting and can be activated from the Reference window or the main Actions menu. Sharing and exporting options are available for finalized FacePaint creations.
Another important aspect is the Time-lapse video recording. Procreate can generate a Time-lapse of your process, with a quality setting that affects file size and pixel detail. The DPI, resolution, and compression (codec) all influence how your final time-lapse or artwork appears on different devices or in prints.
Common Workflow Scenarios
- To resize the canvas while keeping the same content, enable Resample and adjust the dimensions while using Aspect Lock.
- To crop to a precise size for a page or cover, enter exact width and height values and confirm the crop.
- To enlarge artwork for printing, increase DPI to 300 and adjust canvas dimensions as needed, keeping in mind the potential impact on file size.
- To maintain the original composition while experimenting with layout, duplicate the artwork, then crop or resize on the duplicate.
Notes on Versions and Compatibility
Some instructions refer to “older versions” of the Procreate Handbook, and certain terminology may vary between Procreate (standard) and Procreate Pocket. The core concepts of Crop & Resize, Resample, Aspect Lock, and the grid overlay remain consistent across platforms, with interface paths differing slightly between iPad and iPhone versions.
