The new update from Procreate 4.2 to 4.3 has brought us some exciting new changes and opened up a lot more possibilities when creating artwork in Procreate. These include the new text and typography features and a gif animation feature!
I had a look at the notes on new features in the updates, there is currently no official documentation yet. I’ve played around with the new features and here’s how to use them to save you some time trying to figure out where the new functions are and how to use them. I suggest you have the Procreate application open while reading this post and try out the different features as you read along.
Text and Typography
You can now add text in your artworks!
Under the actions on the top menu bar -> add -> add text
You will see an add text option. Click on it and a keyboard will pop up for you to enter your text. On the top right of the keyboard, there is a blue button with ‘edit style’ written on it. click on that and the keyboard will be switched to the typography interface. You can choose different fonts, styles, edit the design and attributes. Below are some of the things you can play around with in the typography interface.
Font
List of preset fonts and any other fonts you’ve imported into the app.
Style
Each font comes with different styles such as bold, plain, light etc.
Design
Size
The size of the text
Kerning
Changes the spacing between the left and right characters of where the cursor is, it is more precise and usually results in a more pleasant look compared to tracking.
When the whole text is selected, it works like tracking.
Tracking
Changes the spacing between all characters equally
Doesn’t work if the cursor is present.
Leading
Distance between lines of text
Baseline
The imaginary line where your text sits.
Increasing the baseline moves your text upward, decreasing the baseline moves your text downward.
Opacity
The transparency of your text. Decreasing the opacity makes your text more transparent. At 100% opacity, your text will be opaque.
Attributes
Alignment: left centre right justified
Underline: underlines selected text
Text border/outline: gives your text a border, as shown below(no text border & text border)
Capitalisation: capitalises selected text.
Change text orientation
select the text layer, tap on the text on your canvas so that a blue rectangle box appears around it. Double tap on the text and a list of options will show up. There is a vertical orientation option. If you are already in the vertical orientation, there will be a horizontal orientation option. Along with it are some other basic editing options: cut, copy, select all, delete.
Change text colour
tap on the left side of the layer of text you want to change the colour of, a list of options will pop up, tap on the edit text option. Then open the colour interface on the top right of the screen and adjust the colour as you wish.
Import Fonts
Can’t find a font you want? The procreate app now allows you to import your own fonts!
use the split screen function on the iPad to drag and drop your fonts from your files into the procreate app or tap on the import font option on the top right of the typography interface.
Share Layers
under actions icon > share
you’ll see a new block of options under share layers: PDF, PNG and animated Gif
Exports all your layers as pdf pages, from the bottom to the top. So the bottom layer will be the first page of your pdf file
PNG files
Export each of your layers as a png file. The file name is the layer name, so make sure to name them properly so you can find your layers easily in the future.
Animated Gif
Plays the layers from bottom to top. There’s an option to change the frame rate per second. This is a great opportunity to create some simple animation! Personally, I am very excited about this new feature, and I hope that in the future more features towards animation will be developed so more advanced animation can be done on the application.
View Single Layer
There is now an option to quickly hide all layers and only show one selected layer.
To do this, on the layer that you want to see, tap and hold on the visibility checkbox. This will hide all other layers and only leave the selected layer visible.
Tap and hold on the same layer again to make all the other layers visible again.
New Layer Blend Modes
Some new layer blend modes are added in this update:
Darken group
– darker colour
Lighten group
– lighter colour
Contrast group
– vivid light
-linear light
-pin light
-hard mix
Difference group
– divide
Option to disable undo and redo
you can now disable undo and redo gestures! However, the undo and redo buttons on the side slider still works.
Disabling undo and redo gestures may be a good thing, it can help you think about your artwork and brushstrokes more. I think it’s also good if you also do traditional art where there’s no undo and redo options, it can make you more aware of what you’re doing. Sometimes when I’m drawing in my sketchbook after drawing on the Procreate app, I double tap the sketchbook by habit, hoping to redo the mistake!
So above are the new features that have been added from the update from Procreate 4.2 to 4.3! Pretty interesting and exciting. There is also some improvement in pressure smoothing. I’m looking forward to more updates and making the procreate app more like a portable photoshop app!
Try out the Apple Pencil to bring your creative process to the next level on the Procreate App!
These artist gloves for digital painting are a must for me when I paint on the iPad, when I don’t wear the gloves, sometimes the Procreate app sense my palm resting on the screen as 2 fingers tapping and holding and start undoing! Or sometimes it starts colour picking. I’ve tried the different palm support options but I still get the problem sometimes. If you’re having these kinds of problems as well, the gloves may be your solution, it makes you feel and look more professional too!
I hope you were able to learn something new from this post.
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