To add a white border to artwork in Procreate, duplicate the layer, Alpha Lock the copy and fill it with white, then apply a Gaussian Blur. Use the Automatic selection tool on the blurred layer to create an expanded outline shape, then fill that selection with white on a new layer beneath your artwork. For a rectangular border around a whole picture, enlarge the canvas with the Canvas options under Actions and fill a new layer below the image with white.

Decide Which Kind of White Border You Need

"White border" means two different things in Procreate, and the techniques don't overlap.

• A contour outline follows the silhouette of a subject, like a die-cut sticker edge. Procreate has no offset or stroke-around-alpha command, so you build it by blurring and selecting.
• A frame border is a uniform white margin around the whole image, like a print with a white mat. This is a canvas-size job, not a selection job.

Both are covered below, along with the cleanup problems that tend to show up.

Method 1: The Blur-and-Select Outline

This is the standard approach for stickers, lettering, logos, and cutout characters. Your subject should sit on its own layer with a transparent background.

Step 1: Duplicate the subject layer

Swipe left on the layer in the Layers panel and tap Duplicate. Hide any background layer, or switch it to a dark color. A white outline on a white canvas is invisible, and you'll want to judge the edge as you work.

Step 2: Alpha Lock and fill with white

Set your active color to white. Tap the duplicate layer and choose Alpha Lock, then tap it again and choose Fill Layer. Alpha Lock restricts the fill to the pixels that already exist, so you get a pure white silhouette of the subject instead of a white rectangle.

Turn Alpha Lock off afterward. You need to be able to blur beyond the original edge in the next step.

Step 3: Blur the white silhouette

Open Adjustments (the magic wand icon) and choose Gaussian Blur. Select Layer as the target, then slide your finger or pencil across the canvas. A low blur gives a thin border and a high blur gives a thick one. Values around 10 to 20 percent are common starting points, but the right number depends on canvas resolution and how far you want the outline to extend.

The blur works because it spreads white pixels outward into the transparent area. That spread is what becomes your border.

Step 4: Turn the blur into a hard selection

Pick the Selection tool (the S icon) and set it to Automatic. Tap the blurred white layer. Keep your pencil or finger held down and drag left or right to adjust the threshold. This sets where the soft falloff gets cut, which in practice controls how thick the final border is. Dragging left tightens the selection to the subject, and dragging right expands it.

You can tune thickness in two places, blur amount and selection threshold. Blur sets how far the white spreads, and threshold sets where you cut it.

Step 5: Fill the selection on a new layer below

With the selection active, add a new layer beneath your artwork. Tap its thumbnail and choose Fill Layer using white. Then delete or hide the blurred duplicate. You now have a white shape sitting behind the original artwork with a clean, hard edge.

If you want a different color border, change the fill color in this step. The process is otherwise the same.

Method 2: A Faster Variation Using Brightness

If your artwork has color, there's a shortcut for step 2. Instead of Alpha Lock plus Fill, duplicate the layer and open Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Set Saturation to zero and Brightness to 100 percent. The duplicate becomes a white silhouette in one move.

Drag that layer beneath the colored original, then continue with Gaussian Blur and Automatic selection as above. Once the selection is active, you can fill a new layer with white. If you do this with Color Fill enabled in the selection toolbar, you can sometimes skip the manual fill step, but behavior depends on your Procreate version, so test it on a throwaway layer first.

This method can behave differently depending on brush softness and semi-transparent edges. Soft-edged brushes or low-opacity strokes can leave wavy or inconsistent borders because the blur and threshold are reading partial alpha. If a border looks lumpy, tidy it with a hard-edged brush on the border layer.

Method 3: A Rectangular White Border Around the Whole Image

For a framed-photo look:

1. Open Actions > Canvas.
2. Enlarge the canvas by dragging the edges outward or entering larger dimensions. Add equal margins on each side for an even frame.
3. Confirm the change. Your artwork stays the same size and sits inside a bigger canvas.
4. Create a new layer below the image and fill it with white.

If you need a border inside the existing canvas dimensions, scale the image layer down with the Transform tool and keep a white layer behind it.

Fixing Common Problems

The border is invisible. You're probably looking at it against a white background. Hide the background or set it to a dark color while you work.

There are holes or white islands inside the shape. Automatic selection can pick up interior gaps. Either increase the blur so the silhouette fills in, or paint the gaps white on the border layer with a hard brush.

The edge is bumpy. A hard, round brush on the border layer lets you smooth contours manually. Use it as a final pass, not for the whole outline.

The border is too soft or too sharp. Revisit both blur and threshold. A high blur with a low threshold can still produce a tight border, so adjust them together rather than in isolation.

Fine details like hair or thin text drop out. Increase the blur so thin parts merge into a single shape, or accept that you'll need a manual cleanup pass.

You need a shadow too. Duplicate the white border layer, place it at the bottom, invert it to black, blur it, and lower opacity.

Export Without Losing the Border

If the outlined artwork is headed to print, a cutter, or a compositing app, hide the background layer before exporting. Export as PNG to keep transparency. For print-and-cut workflows, a flat white border layer gives you a clear shape to trace.

Keep the border on a separate layer rather than merging it, so you can recolor or remove it later. If you're delivering to a motion pipeline, export the artwork and the border as separate PNGs so the compositor can treat them independently.

Taking an Outlined Procreate Asset into a Motion Pipeline

A Procreate outline is baked into raster pixels. It's right for a static sticker or a still, but it gets awkward if the character or element will move, scale, or change shape in a compositing app.

For animated work, consider building the border in your compositing app instead, so the outline can update with the layer. Use the Procreate method when you need a one-off, hand-tuned shape that won't be animated, or when the border itself is part of the art.

Quick Reference

Final Notes

The Procreate outline technique is a workaround, but once you've done it a few times, it goes quickly. Remember the two controls, blur for spread and threshold for the cut, and keep the border on its own layer. For stills and stickers, that's enough. For anything headed into motion, decide early whether the border belongs in the artwork or in the composite, and you'll avoid redoing it later.

To add a white border to artwork in Procreate, duplicate the layer, Alpha Lock the copy and fill it with white, then apply a Gaussian Blur. Use the Automatic selection tool on the blurred layer to create an expanded outline shape, then fill that selection with white on a new layer beneath your artwork. For a rectangular border around a whole picture, enlarge the canvas with the Canvas options under Actions and fill a new layer below the image with white.

Decide Which Kind of White Border You Need

"White border" means two different things in Procreate, and the techniques don't overlap.

• A contour outline follows the silhouette of a subject, like a die-cut sticker edge. Procreate has no offset or stroke-around-alpha command, so you build it by blurring and selecting.
• A frame border is a uniform white margin around the whole image, like a print with a white mat. This is a canvas-size job, not a selection job.

Both are covered below, along with the cleanup problems that tend to show up.

Method 1: The Blur-and-Select Outline

This is the standard approach for stickers, lettering, logos, and cutout characters. Your subject should sit on its own layer with a transparent background.

Step 1: Duplicate the subject layer

Swipe left on the layer in the Layers panel and tap Duplicate. Hide any background layer, or switch it to a dark color. A white outline on a white canvas is invisible, and you'll want to judge the edge as you work.

Step 2: Alpha Lock and fill with white

Set your active color to white. Tap the duplicate layer and choose Alpha Lock, then tap it again and choose Fill Layer. Alpha Lock restricts the fill to the pixels that already exist, so you get a pure white silhouette of the subject instead of a white rectangle.

Turn Alpha Lock off afterward. You need to be able to blur beyond the original edge in the next step.

Step 3: Blur the white silhouette

Open Adjustments (the magic wand icon) and choose Gaussian Blur. Select Layer as the target, then slide your finger or pencil across the canvas. A low blur gives a thin border and a high blur gives a thick one. Values around 10 to 20 percent are common starting points, but the right number depends on canvas resolution and how far you want the outline to extend.

The blur works because it spreads white pixels outward into the transparent area. That spread is what becomes your border.

Step 4: Turn the blur into a hard selection

Pick the Selection tool (the S icon) and set it to Automatic. Tap the blurred white layer. Keep your pencil or finger held down and drag left or right to adjust the threshold. This sets where the soft falloff gets cut, which in practice controls how thick the final border is. Dragging left tightens the selection to the subject, and dragging right expands it.

You can tune thickness in two places, blur amount and selection threshold. Blur sets how far the white spreads, and threshold sets where you cut it.

Step 5: Fill the selection on a new layer below

With the selection active, add a new layer beneath your artwork. Tap its thumbnail and choose Fill Layer using white. Then delete or hide the blurred duplicate. You now have a white shape sitting behind the original artwork with a clean, hard edge.

If you want a different color border, change the fill color in this step. The process is otherwise the same.

Method 2: A Faster Variation Using Brightness

If your artwork has color, there's a shortcut for step 2. Instead of Alpha Lock plus Fill, duplicate the layer and open Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Set Saturation to zero and Brightness to 100 percent. The duplicate becomes a white silhouette in one move.

Drag that layer beneath the colored original, then continue with Gaussian Blur and Automatic selection as above. Once the selection is active, you can fill a new layer with white. If you do this with Color Fill enabled in the selection toolbar, you can sometimes skip the manual fill step, but behavior depends on your Procreate version, so test it on a throwaway layer first.

This method can behave differently depending on brush softness and semi-transparent edges. Soft-edged brushes or low-opacity strokes can leave wavy or inconsistent borders because the blur and threshold are reading partial alpha. If a border looks lumpy, tidy it with a hard-edged brush on the border layer.

Method 3: A Rectangular White Border Around the Whole Image

For a framed-photo look:

1. Open Actions > Canvas.
2. Enlarge the canvas by dragging the edges outward or entering larger dimensions. Add equal margins on each side for an even frame.
3. Confirm the change. Your artwork stays the same size and sits inside a bigger canvas.
4. Create a new layer below the image and fill it with white.

If you need a border inside the existing canvas dimensions, scale the image layer down with the Transform tool and keep a white layer behind it.

Fixing Common Problems

The border is invisible. You're probably looking at it against a white background. Hide the background or set it to a dark color while you work.

There are holes or white islands inside the shape. Automatic selection can pick up interior gaps. Either increase the blur so the silhouette fills in, or paint the gaps white on the border layer with a hard brush.

The edge is bumpy. A hard, round brush on the border layer lets you smooth contours manually. Use it as a final pass, not for the whole outline.

The border is too soft or too sharp. Revisit both blur and threshold. A high blur with a low threshold can still produce a tight border, so adjust them together rather than in isolation.

Fine details like hair or thin text drop out. Increase the blur so thin parts merge into a single shape, or accept that you'll need a manual cleanup pass.

You need a shadow too. Duplicate the white border layer, place it at the bottom, invert it to black, blur it, and lower opacity.

Export Without Losing the Border

If the outlined artwork is headed to print, a cutter, or a compositing app, hide the background layer before exporting. Export as PNG to keep transparency. For print-and-cut workflows, a flat white border layer gives you a clear shape to trace.

Keep the border on a separate layer rather than merging it, so you can recolor or remove it later. If you're delivering to a motion pipeline, export the artwork and the border as separate PNGs so the compositor can treat them independently.

Taking an Outlined Procreate Asset into a Motion Pipeline

A Procreate outline is baked into raster pixels. It's right for a static sticker or a still, but it gets awkward if the character or element will move, scale, or change shape in a compositing app.

For animated work, consider building the border in your compositing app instead, so the outline can update with the layer. Use the Procreate method when you need a one-off, hand-tuned shape that won't be animated, or when the border itself is part of the art.

Quick Reference

Final Notes

The Procreate outline technique is a workaround, but once you've done it a few times, it goes quickly. Remember the two controls, blur for spread and threshold for the cut, and keep the border on its own layer. For stills and stickers, that's enough. For anything headed into motion, decide early whether the border belongs in the artwork or in the composite, and you'll avoid redoing it later.