Learn how to outline lettering in Procreate without having to freehand around your lettering. This tutorial will show you the easy way! You’ve just created a beautiful lettering piece but it feels like something is missing. You decide that your lettering needs an outline but when you try to freehand it, your outline turns out super wobbly and doesn’t look right at all. Sound familiar? I’ve been there and when this happened I I knew there had to be an easier way. A way to get a perfect outline that makes a stunning impact. Fortunately there is an easy way so today I’m going to show you how to outline your lettering in Procreate quickly and easily.
Before I get into the details of this tutorial, here are some basic Procreate posts. If you are a beginner, these are the perfect place to start. So you want to learn how to outline lettering in Procreate? Since we are working with lettering and not text, there is not an outline tool that we can use like there is when working with text. But that doesn’t mean that we are out of luck.
Choose your starting elements
First, you need some lettering. It doesn’t matter what words you use but keep it simple when you are starting out. I’m using the word “outline”. My one suggestion is that you use a brush that has clean edges. I’m using a monoline brush. The outline that we will be making will have the same edge as the brush that you use for the lettering. The cleaner the edge, the sharper the outline will be. Choose the color that you want your outline to be. I suggest a darker color than your text.
Prepare the base and create the initial outline
Tap on the bottom layer, tap on ALPHA LOCK and then tap FILL. This will fill the bottom layer with the outline color. Slide your Apple Pencil across the screen to the right to increase the amount of blur. Tap on your lettering and slide the Apple Pencil to the right. An outline will appear around your lettering. With your layer still selected, add a new layer and select the hard brush from the Airbrush set. You can check it out here.
Quick note - The amount of gaussian blur might be different depending on the size of your canvas. For reference, I’ve selected ‘’Screen Size’’. For you, it might be a bit more or a bit less. The important is that you create a small outlined blur around your lettering piece.
The offset shadow technique: making the outline pop
Now THE MOST IMPORTANT PART! This will create an offset shadow effect. Hey, I’m Max. I’ve been drawing and messing around with letters since 2011. I don’t have a formal art degree-my background is actually in the kitchen as a former chef and on the streets painting graffiti with my friends. Over the last decade, through a ton of trial and error, I somehow turned that obsession into a full-time gig. These days, I design custom logotypes for global brands and paint large-scale murals. I started Lettering Daily just to create the kind of honest, no-BS tutorials I wish I’d had when I was starting out.
As a Procreate user, you may find yourself wanting to add white outlines around a subject, sort of like how you would when designing a sticker. This is something that is usually done using strokes and offsets. Although this is a process that requires several steps, it’s still a relatively simple and quick thing to do once you have the steps down. Considering that we’ll be applying a white outline, it would be a good idea to turn off the visibility of your background layer if it is currently white.
To do this, tap on the Effects menu and then select Gaussian Blur from the list. When prompted, choose Layer rather than Pencil. The amount of blur you should apply will depend entirely on your image and its size. The final step in our lesson is to simply fill the selection with white.
Using this method to add a white outline in Procreate may not be ideal. Gain a complete understanding of your favorite design apps with my comprehensive collection of video courses.
How to OUTLINE LETTERING in Procreate
| Step | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choose clean-edge brush | Monoline recommended |
| 2 | Fill bottom layer with outline color | Use ALPHA LOCK and FILL |
| 3 | Blur to create outline | Adjust blur based on canvas size |
| 4 | Add new layer for hard brush | Use Airbrush set |
| 5 | Apply offset shadow/outline | Experiment with offset distance |
Final note: turning off background visibility can help when outlining against white or light backgrounds, and the chosen blur strength should balance readability with stylistic impact.