How to Add Guidelines in Procreate
StyleFrame Team7 min read
To add guidelines in Procreate, tap the wrench icon to open Actions, tap Canvas, and switch on Drawing Guide. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide to choose a 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, or Symmetry guide and adjust its color, opacity, thickness, and size. Tap Done to return to the canvas, and turn on Drawing Assist if you want your strokes to snap to the guide instead of just using it as a visual reference.
Step-by-step: turn on a drawing guide
- Open your canvas and tap the wrench icon in the top left to open the Actions menu.
- Tap Canvas.
- Flip the Drawing Guide switch. A faint grid appears over your artwork. On a canvas where you haven't used guides before, Procreate defaults to the 2D Grid; on a canvas where you have, it remembers your previous settings.
- Tap Edit Drawing Guide directly below the switch to open the Drawing Guides screen.
- Adjust the guide, then tap Done to commit it or Cancel to discard your edits.
On Procreate Pocket the path is the same, except you first expand the top toolbar with the ellipsis, then go to Actions → Canvas → Drawing Guide.
You can also reach Drawing Assist from the Layers panel. Tap a layer once to open Layer Options, then tap Drawing Assist.
Choose the right guide type
The Drawing Guides screen zooms out to show your whole canvas. Four buttons beneath it switch between guide types.
2D Grid
A square grid for flat layouts, alignment, and proportion. Two nodes control its placement: the blue node moves the whole grid, and the green node rotates it. Tap either node and choose Reset to return to the default position.
Isometric
A triangular grid for building three-dimensional shapes without foreshortening. It suits technical illustration, engineering, and architecture.
Perspective
A star-shaped guide built around vanishing points, supporting one-, two-, or three-point perspective. It won't appear immediately. Tap on the artwork view to place a vanishing point first, and tap again to add more. Tap an existing point to delete it, or drag it to move it. Points can sit outside the canvas, which helps when you need a distant horizon.
Symmetry
A mirroring guide that works horizontally, vertically, across a quadrant, or radially. Drawing Assist is on by default here. Move the center reticle to reposition the mirror axis. In Options, Rotational Symmetry changes how strokes flip as they're mirrored into adjacent segments.
Customize how the guide looks
The controls at the bottom and top of the Drawing Guides screen change how the lines read on your canvas:
- Color: the hue slider at the top sets the line color.
- Opacity: from invisible to fully opaque.
- Thickness: from invisible to noticeable.
- Grid Size: for 2D and Isometric grids. Drag the slider, or tap the numeric readout to type an exact value.
For working guides, make them light and thin. A pale blue or pink at low opacity gives you a reference you can see without it overpowering the sketch. If the grid fights with your linework, drop the opacity before you change the size.
Drawing Assist: guide versus snap
A guide on its own is only a visual overlay, so you can draw freehand over it. Drawing Assist makes strokes follow the guide: straight along the grid on a 2D Grid, along the converging lines on a Perspective guide, or mirrored on a Symmetry guide.
Layers that have Drawing Assist enabled show an "Assisted" label in the Layers panel. If your strokes aren't snapping, check that label first. You can mix approaches on one canvas by keeping assisted and unassisted layers separate.
You can turn Drawing Assist on and off without reopening the guide editor:
- Tap the layer in the Layers panel and toggle Drawing Assist.
- Assign Drawing Assist to a QuickMenu slot.
- Set a gesture for it in Actions → Prefs → Gesture controls.
This also solves a common annoyance: switching the main Drawing Guide switch off doesn't automatically switch Drawing Assist off on layers that already have it enabled.
Set up a grid that matches your video frame
Most Procreate tutorials target handwriting or illustration, but the grid is just as useful for motion work. Because you can type an exact grid size, you can build a grid that maps to your comp resolution.
- 1920 × 1080 canvas: set the grid to 120 px, and you get 16 × 9 squares, matching the frame's aspect ratio.
- 3840 × 2160 canvas: set it to 240 px for the same 16 × 9 division at UHD.
- Square or social formats: pick a size that divides evenly into both dimensions.
The grid then works like the rule-of-thirds or title-grid overlay you'd use in a compositor. You can drag the grid size up until each square covers a large chunk of the frame to check composition, then shrink it for detailed alignment.
Procreate doesn't have a ruler tool, but a numeric grid can stand in as a measuring reference. One example from Procreate's own guidance is a 4000 × 4000 px canvas with a 250 px grid, which gives 16 × 16 squares you can read as real-world units. The same logic lets you check that a character, logo, or prop sits at the right scale across several boards.
Safe-area marks are not a built-in guide type. If you need action-safe or title-safe lines, draw them on a separate layer, lock it, and hide it before export.
Use guides for the kinds of boards motion artists make
Storyboards and animatics
Keep a consistent 2D Grid across every board so camera framing, horizons, and subject placement stay comparable from shot to shot.
Camera and environment layouts
A Perspective guide lets you plan a scene's vanishing points before building it in Cinema 4D or Blender. Sketch the layout with two- or three-point perspective, then use it as a reference for camera angle and set placement. For product or architectural boards, Isometric covers the flat, orthographic look.
Pattern and mograph elements
Radial and quadrant Symmetry give you quick mandalas, kaleidoscopic bursts, and tiled shapes. These can be exported and animated as elements inside After Effects or used as texture and pattern sources.
Troubleshooting common guide problems
The grid isn't showing. Open Actions → Canvas and confirm Drawing Guide is switched on.
No Perspective guide appears. Tap the artwork view in the Perspective editor to create a vanishing point; the lines only draw once at least one exists. If you can't find the Perspective option at all, you may be on an old version of Procreate, since the multi-guide tool arrived with later releases.
Every stroke comes out straight. Drawing Assist is active on the layer. Open Layer Options and toggle it off, or check any QuickMenu or gesture you've assigned. If strokes still behave oddly after that, fully close the app and restart the iPad.
Strokes don't line up with the grid. Check whether the grid has been moved or rotated with the blue and green nodes. Reset it by tapping a node and choosing Reset.
The guide is too distracting. Lower the opacity and thickness rather than switching it off. A faint guide stays useful without competing with the drawing.
Will the guide show up in my export? The guide is a canvas overlay, not a painted layer, so it shouldn't be baked into your artwork. Do a quick test export of any board before you deliver it, especially if you've also drawn your own safe-area or alignment lines on layers.
Quick reference
Once you've set up the guide on one canvas, Procreate remembers it for that canvas.