To add a guide in Procreate, tap the wrench icon to open Actions, choose Canvas, and switch on Drawing Guide. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide to pick a 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, or Symmetry guide, adjust its color, opacity, thickness, and grid size, and tap Done. Turn on Drawing Assist if you want your strokes to snap to the guide as well as follow it visually.

How to add a drawing guide in Procreate (step by step)

These steps apply to Procreate on iPad. Drawing guides require Procreate 4.1 or later.

1. Open your canvas. Guides are set per canvas, so open the artwork you want to work on.
2. Tap the wrench icon in the top left to open the Actions menu.
3. Choose Canvas and flip the Drawing Guide switch. The guide is now active. The first time you use a guide on a canvas, Procreate defaults to the 2D Grid. After that, it remembers the settings you used last on that canvas.
4. Tap Edit Drawing Guide. This opens the Drawing Guides screen, which zooms out to show your whole artwork so you can see the full effect of each guide.
5. Pick a mode from the four buttons beneath the artwork: 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, or Symmetry.
6. Adjust the appearance using the color bar and the sliders (covered below).
7. Tap Done to commit your changes and return to the canvas. Tap Cancel if you want to discard them.

There is a second route if you are already working with layers. Tap your primary layer once to bring up Layer Options, then tap Drawing Assist. This switches on the guide's assisted behavior without opening the Actions menu.

Which guide should you choose?

Each guide solves a different structural problem. Pick based on what you are building, not on which looks most useful.

2D Grid

A square grid for keeping flat shapes in proportion. With Drawing Assist on, strokes are constrained to vertical and horizontal lines. It suits layouts, UI-style boards, floor plans, simple maps, and anything built on 90-degree angles.

Isometric

A triangular grid for building 3D-looking shapes without foreshortening. With Drawing Assist on, strokes follow horizontal and diagonal directions. It suits technical illustration, product-style diagrams, and the isometric motion-graphics look.

Perspective

A star-shaped guide with adjustable vanishing points, supporting one-, two-, or three-point perspective. One quirk catches many people out: the guide does not appear until you tap the artwork view to create a vanishing point. If you enable Perspective and see nothing, tap the canvas. It works well for environments, cityscapes, and background layouts.

Symmetry

Symmetry mirrors your strokes vertically, horizontally, across a quadrant, or radially. It differs from the other three because it is built around Drawing Assist, which is switched on by default when you activate it. Drag the blue reticle across the canvas to move the center point of the mirror. Enable Rotational Symmetry in the Options button if you want strokes to flip as they are mirrored into adjacent segments. This is useful for mandalas, kaleidoscopic patterns, tiled designs, and symmetrical logo marks.

Customize how the guide looks

Guide lines sit as a thin overlay on top of your artwork, and you can tune them so they help rather than distract:

• Color: the hue slider at the top of the interface changes the guide line color. Pick something that contrasts with your underpainting.
• Opacity: lower it when the guide competes with fine detail.
• Thickness: thinner lines are less intrusive, but thicker ones read better on a busy canvas.
• Grid Size: for 2D and Isometric, drag the slider or tap the numerical readout and type an exact value.
• Assisted Drawing toggle: switches Drawing Assist on or off from within the same screen.

Because Procreate remembers your last settings on each canvas, you only need to dial this in once per project.

Use Drawing Assist to snap strokes to the guide

A visible guide is only a visual cue. Drawing Assist is what makes strokes follow it. With it on, your brushstrokes follow the angles, perspective lines, or mirroring of the chosen guide. With it off, you see the lines but draw freely.

You can toggle it three ways:

• In Edit Drawing Guide, using the Assisted Drawing toggle.
• From the Layers panel: tap a layer once for Layer Options, then tap Drawing Assist.
• From the QuickMenu, once a guide is active, if you have it assigned.

A practical habit: keep Drawing Assist off while roughing in shapes, then switch it on when you want clean construction lines.

Adding guides in Procreate Pocket

On iPhone, the path is slightly different because the toolbar is collapsed. Tap the ellipsis to expand the top toolbar, go to Actions → Canvas, and toggle Drawing Guide. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide to choose among the four guides and open their settings. Drawing Assist can be toggled from the same screen, or from the Layers menu by tapping a layer twice and choosing Drawing Assist.

Using the 2D Grid as a ruler for motion layouts

Procreate has no dedicated ruler tool, but the 2D Grid works as a measuring aid because you can type an exact grid size. A common example: on a 4000 × 4000 px canvas, setting the grid to 250 px gives you a 16 × 16 grid you can use to judge scale and placement.

For video work, you can apply the same logic to a frame-sized canvas. Create a custom canvas at 1920 × 1080 and set the grid to 120 px, and you get a 16 × 9 grid that matches the aspect ratio. That is handy for:

• Storyboards and animatic panels, where consistent framing matters from shot to shot.
• Style frames, where you want to place a title, logo, or focal element on a predictable grid.
• Safe-area planning, where you rough in margins before moving to After Effects or Premiere Pro.
• Layout for typographic animation, where baseline and alignment decisions made early save cleanup later.

The same approach works at other resolutions. Pick a grid size that divides evenly into both dimensions so squares land cleanly on the frame edges.

Perspective and isometric guides for animation and 3D references

If you work in Cinema 4D or Blender, you probably have a camera and a real perspective system available. Procreate's guides still earn a place earlier in the process:

• Concept sketches: a two-point or three-point perspective guide helps you quickly establish camera angle and horizon before you commit to modeling.
• Matte-painting and background plates: vanishing points keep painted architecture consistent with a planned camera move.
• Isometric explainers: the Isometric grid helps you design the key poses of an isometric scene before you build or animate it.
• Radial and mirrored designs: Symmetry lets you design loopable patterns, which you can then rebuild as shape layers or textures.

Treat Procreate guides as a sketching and planning aid. They are overlays on the canvas, so if you are handing a frame to someone else, run a quick test export to confirm what ends up in the file.

Troubleshooting common guide problems

• I can't see the guide. Check that the Drawing Guide switch is on under Actions → Canvas. For Perspective, tap the canvas to place a vanishing point.
• My strokes ignore the guide. Drawing Assist is probably off. Toggle it in Edit Drawing Guide or in Layer Options.
• The guide is hard to see. Change the color, raise the opacity, or increase the thickness.
• Strokes are locked to odd angles. That is Drawing Assist working. 2D Grid restricts to vertical and horizontal, Isometric to horizontal and diagonal. Turn it off or change the guide.
• Symmetry is mirrored around the wrong spot. Move the blue reticle to reposition the center point.
• I can't find the option. Make sure you are on a version that supports drawing guides (4.1 or later), and on iPhone remember to expand the toolbar with the ellipsis first.

Where Styleframe fits after you've built your guides

Guides get you a structured, well-composed frame. The next question for many motion artists is how to turn that frame into moving footage without giving up control. This is where Styleframe (styleframe.ai), an AI video and motion tool, can sit downstream of your Procreate work. Your pipeline stays intact: you sketch and plan in Procreate, generate and refine in Styleframe, and finish in the compositor you already trust.

Quick recap

• Add a guide through Actions (wrench) → Canvas → Drawing Guide, then Edit Drawing Guide.
• Choose among 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, and Symmetry, and tap Done to apply.
• Use Drawing Assist when you want strokes to snap to the guide.
• Customize color, opacity, thickness, and grid size to keep the guide useful but unobtrusive.
• For Perspective, tap the canvas to create a vanishing point.
• On a frame-sized canvas, a well-chosen 2D Grid works as a simple layout ruler for storyboards and style frames.

To add a guide in Procreate, tap the wrench icon to open Actions, choose Canvas, and switch on Drawing Guide. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide to pick a 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, or Symmetry guide, adjust its color, opacity, thickness, and grid size, and tap Done. Turn on Drawing Assist if you want your strokes to snap to the guide as well as follow it visually.

How to add a drawing guide in Procreate (step by step)

These steps apply to Procreate on iPad. Drawing guides require Procreate 4.1 or later.

1. Open your canvas. Guides are set per canvas, so open the artwork you want to work on.
2. Tap the wrench icon in the top left to open the Actions menu.
3. Choose Canvas and flip the Drawing Guide switch. The guide is now active. The first time you use a guide on a canvas, Procreate defaults to the 2D Grid. After that, it remembers the settings you used last on that canvas.
4. Tap Edit Drawing Guide. This opens the Drawing Guides screen, which zooms out to show your whole artwork so you can see the full effect of each guide.
5. Pick a mode from the four buttons beneath the artwork: 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, or Symmetry.
6. Adjust the appearance using the color bar and the sliders (covered below).
7. Tap Done to commit your changes and return to the canvas. Tap Cancel if you want to discard them.

There is a second route if you are already working with layers. Tap your primary layer once to bring up Layer Options, then tap Drawing Assist. This switches on the guide's assisted behavior without opening the Actions menu.

Which guide should you choose?

Each guide solves a different structural problem. Pick based on what you are building, not on which looks most useful.

2D Grid

A square grid for keeping flat shapes in proportion. With Drawing Assist on, strokes are constrained to vertical and horizontal lines. It suits layouts, UI-style boards, floor plans, simple maps, and anything built on 90-degree angles.

Isometric

A triangular grid for building 3D-looking shapes without foreshortening. With Drawing Assist on, strokes follow horizontal and diagonal directions. It suits technical illustration, product-style diagrams, and the isometric motion-graphics look.

Perspective

A star-shaped guide with adjustable vanishing points, supporting one-, two-, or three-point perspective. One quirk catches many people out: the guide does not appear until you tap the artwork view to create a vanishing point. If you enable Perspective and see nothing, tap the canvas. It works well for environments, cityscapes, and background layouts.

Symmetry

Symmetry mirrors your strokes vertically, horizontally, across a quadrant, or radially. It differs from the other three because it is built around Drawing Assist, which is switched on by default when you activate it. Drag the blue reticle across the canvas to move the center point of the mirror. Enable Rotational Symmetry in the Options button if you want strokes to flip as they are mirrored into adjacent segments. This is useful for mandalas, kaleidoscopic patterns, tiled designs, and symmetrical logo marks.

Customize how the guide looks

Guide lines sit as a thin overlay on top of your artwork, and you can tune them so they help rather than distract:

• Color: the hue slider at the top of the interface changes the guide line color. Pick something that contrasts with your underpainting.
• Opacity: lower it when the guide competes with fine detail.
• Thickness: thinner lines are less intrusive, but thicker ones read better on a busy canvas.
• Grid Size: for 2D and Isometric, drag the slider or tap the numerical readout and type an exact value.
• Assisted Drawing toggle: switches Drawing Assist on or off from within the same screen.

Because Procreate remembers your last settings on each canvas, you only need to dial this in once per project.

Use Drawing Assist to snap strokes to the guide

A visible guide is only a visual cue. Drawing Assist is what makes strokes follow it. With it on, your brushstrokes follow the angles, perspective lines, or mirroring of the chosen guide. With it off, you see the lines but draw freely.

You can toggle it three ways:

• In Edit Drawing Guide, using the Assisted Drawing toggle.
• From the Layers panel: tap a layer once for Layer Options, then tap Drawing Assist.
• From the QuickMenu, once a guide is active, if you have it assigned.

A practical habit: keep Drawing Assist off while roughing in shapes, then switch it on when you want clean construction lines.

Adding guides in Procreate Pocket

On iPhone, the path is slightly different because the toolbar is collapsed. Tap the ellipsis to expand the top toolbar, go to Actions → Canvas, and toggle Drawing Guide. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide to choose among the four guides and open their settings. Drawing Assist can be toggled from the same screen, or from the Layers menu by tapping a layer twice and choosing Drawing Assist.

Using the 2D Grid as a ruler for motion layouts

Procreate has no dedicated ruler tool, but the 2D Grid works as a measuring aid because you can type an exact grid size. A common example: on a 4000 × 4000 px canvas, setting the grid to 250 px gives you a 16 × 16 grid you can use to judge scale and placement.

For video work, you can apply the same logic to a frame-sized canvas. Create a custom canvas at 1920 × 1080 and set the grid to 120 px, and you get a 16 × 9 grid that matches the aspect ratio. That is handy for:

• Storyboards and animatic panels, where consistent framing matters from shot to shot.
• Style frames, where you want to place a title, logo, or focal element on a predictable grid.
• Safe-area planning, where you rough in margins before moving to After Effects or Premiere Pro.
• Layout for typographic animation, where baseline and alignment decisions made early save cleanup later.

The same approach works at other resolutions. Pick a grid size that divides evenly into both dimensions so squares land cleanly on the frame edges.

Perspective and isometric guides for animation and 3D references

If you work in Cinema 4D or Blender, you probably have a camera and a real perspective system available. Procreate's guides still earn a place earlier in the process:

• Concept sketches: a two-point or three-point perspective guide helps you quickly establish camera angle and horizon before you commit to modeling.
• Matte-painting and background plates: vanishing points keep painted architecture consistent with a planned camera move.
• Isometric explainers: the Isometric grid helps you design the key poses of an isometric scene before you build or animate it.
• Radial and mirrored designs: Symmetry lets you design loopable patterns, which you can then rebuild as shape layers or textures.

Treat Procreate guides as a sketching and planning aid. They are overlays on the canvas, so if you are handing a frame to someone else, run a quick test export to confirm what ends up in the file.

Troubleshooting common guide problems

• I can't see the guide. Check that the Drawing Guide switch is on under Actions → Canvas. For Perspective, tap the canvas to place a vanishing point.
• My strokes ignore the guide. Drawing Assist is probably off. Toggle it in Edit Drawing Guide or in Layer Options.
• The guide is hard to see. Change the color, raise the opacity, or increase the thickness.
• Strokes are locked to odd angles. That is Drawing Assist working. 2D Grid restricts to vertical and horizontal, Isometric to horizontal and diagonal. Turn it off or change the guide.
• Symmetry is mirrored around the wrong spot. Move the blue reticle to reposition the center point.
• I can't find the option. Make sure you are on a version that supports drawing guides (4.1 or later), and on iPhone remember to expand the toolbar with the ellipsis first.

Where Styleframe fits after you've built your guides

Guides get you a structured, well-composed frame. The next question for many motion artists is how to turn that frame into moving footage without giving up control. This is where Styleframe (styleframe.ai), an AI video and motion tool, can sit downstream of your Procreate work. Your pipeline stays intact: you sketch and plan in Procreate, generate and refine in Styleframe, and finish in the compositor you already trust.

Quick recap

• Add a guide through Actions (wrench) → Canvas → Drawing Guide, then Edit Drawing Guide.
• Choose among 2D Grid, Isometric, Perspective, and Symmetry, and tap Done to apply.
• Use Drawing Assist when you want strokes to snap to the guide.
• Customize color, opacity, thickness, and grid size to keep the guide useful but unobtrusive.
• For Perspective, tap the canvas to create a vanishing point.
• On a frame-sized canvas, a well-chosen 2D Grid works as a simple layout ruler for storyboards and style frames.