To add a PNG to Procreate, open your canvas, tap Actions (the wrench) → Add, then choose Insert a file to pull from the Files app or Insert a photo to pull from your Photos library. The PNG lands on its own layer, where you can move, scale, and rotate it with the Transform tool. If transparent areas turn white, the cause is usually the source file or the Photos app, not Procreate. The fixes are below.

Add a PNG with Insert a File

This is the most reliable route, especially for files that need to keep their alpha channel.

1. Open the artwork you want to add the PNG to.
2. Tap Actions → Add → Insert a file.
3. The Files app opens with your recent images. Use the navigation bar at the bottom to browse iCloud Drive, On My iPad, or any connected storage.
4. Tap the PNG. It appears on the canvas as a new layer, already selected for transforming.
5. Drag to reposition, pinch or use the corner nodes to scale, and tap the Transform tool again (or any other tool) to commit.

Procreate accepts PNG, JPEG, and PSD through this route. A PSD inserted this way arrives flattened. To keep a layered PSD intact, use Gallery Import instead, which brings it in as its own artwork.

Add a PNG with Insert a Photo

If the PNG is already in your camera roll, use Actions → Add → Insert a photo. Photos opens over the canvas, and you tap the image to place it.

This path is convenient but is where most transparency complaints come from. The Photos app can show a transparent PNG against a white backdrop, and some iOS and iPadOS versions have been reported to flatten transparent PNGs on import from the library. If your cutout arrives with a white box around it, go back and use Insert a file instead.

Insert as a Private Layer

Procreate also lets you bring in a PNG as a Private Layer. In the Add menu, slide the Insert a file or Insert a photo tab to the left to reveal the "private" button. The layer behaves like any other layer, but it won't show up in the Gallery preview or in an exported Time-lapse video.

This suits reference material you want on the canvas but not in the record of your process: a client's moodboard frame, a storyboard panel, a color-script still, or a pose reference. A Private Layer is labeled as such in the Layers panel. Layered PSDs can't be inserted privately.

Take a photo directly into the canvas

Actions → Add → Take a photo opens the iPad camera and drops the result into your artwork once you tap Use Photo. This produces a flat camera image rather than a PNG with alpha, so it helps with texture or reference capture but not with cutouts.

Keep transparency when you import

A PNG with a transparent background should import with the transparency intact. Here is how to check each point where it can go wrong.

Know what transparency looks like in Procreate

Procreate shows transparent pixels as a grey checkerboard, but only when the bottom Background color layer is turned off. Open the Layers panel and uncheck Background. With it on, you see a solid color (white by default) behind everything, which can look like the PNG lost its alpha when it didn't.

Test the file in Photos

Photos is a known source of false alarms. To check whether an image really has transparency:

• Open the image, then tap once so the interface fades. The backdrop turns black. If transparent areas turn black too, the alpha is real. If they stay white, the background is baked into the pixels.
• Thumbnails and standard previews can make transparent and white-backed images look identical, so don't trust them.

Make sure the full file is downloaded

With iCloud Photos enabled, your device may only hold a low-resolution preview of an image. Open the image and tap Edit to force a full download, then cancel the edit and try the import again.

Prefer Files over Photos

If Photos keeps flattening your cutouts, save the PNG to Files and use Insert a file. If the file only exists in Photos, share or export it to Files first. Either route avoids the library's handling of alpha.

Check the export, not just the import

If you made the PNG in another app, confirm that app exported with alpha. Some apps add a white background when they flatten a composition for sharing, and it isn't always obvious. When you export a PNG from Procreate itself, turn off the Background color layer first, or the exported file will include it.

Prepare PNGs from a motion pipeline

If you're a motion designer or compositor, the PNG probably comes from a compositing, 3D, or image-editing app rather than from a stock site. A few habits save time.

Export a single frame with alpha. In your render or compositing app, export the frame as a PNG with the alpha channel enabled, and check the result before importing.

Watch premultiplication. A PNG with a straight alpha and one with a premultiplied alpha can show dark or light fringes on edges. If you see halos on a soft edge, try re-exporting with the opposite alpha setting.

Plan canvas size. Choose your canvas size and DPI before you start, and for motion-sized work, create the canvas at the size you need from the start.

Keep layered elements separate. If you've rendered a character, a prop, and a shadow as separate passes, insert each as its own PNG so you can paint on each layer independently.

Use sequences deliberately. When you need a sequence of PNGs from a compositing or 3D app, insert only the frames you intend to paint over, then export the painted frames back out as PNGs and re-import them into your compositing app by frame number.

Troubleshooting common PNG import problems

The PNG has a white background after import. Turn off the Background color layer to see whether it's actually transparent. If it still looks white, check the original in Photos using the black-backdrop test. If the alpha is missing there too, the source file needs re-exporting.

The image imports as a JPEG-like flat picture. Use Insert a file rather than Insert a photo, and make sure the file is stored locally rather than only in iCloud.

Nothing happens when I pick a file from cloud storage. Some users report that files from cloud providers such as Google Drive don't import. Download the file to your iPad or iCloud Drive first, then insert it from there.

Soft edges look dirty. Check for a matte or fringe from the source app. Re-export with a different alpha interpretation, or clean the edge in Procreate with a small eraser on the imported layer.

The imported layer is too small or too large. Use Transform with Uniform selected so the proportions stay locked while you resize.

The app is behaving oddly after an OS update. Several users have reported inconsistent PNG imports after iPadOS updates. Update Procreate, restart the iPad, and try Files import. If it persists, contact Procreate support with a sample file.

Quick reference

Once you know that Files is the safer path and that the checkerboard only appears with the Background layer off, adding a PNG to Procreate is quick. Most failures trace back to the source file or to Photos rather than to Procreate.

To add a PNG to Procreate, open your canvas, tap Actions (the wrench) → Add, then choose Insert a file to pull from the Files app or Insert a photo to pull from your Photos library. The PNG lands on its own layer, where you can move, scale, and rotate it with the Transform tool. If transparent areas turn white, the cause is usually the source file or the Photos app, not Procreate. The fixes are below.

Add a PNG with Insert a File

This is the most reliable route, especially for files that need to keep their alpha channel.

1. Open the artwork you want to add the PNG to.
2. Tap Actions → Add → Insert a file.
3. The Files app opens with your recent images. Use the navigation bar at the bottom to browse iCloud Drive, On My iPad, or any connected storage.
4. Tap the PNG. It appears on the canvas as a new layer, already selected for transforming.
5. Drag to reposition, pinch or use the corner nodes to scale, and tap the Transform tool again (or any other tool) to commit.

Procreate accepts PNG, JPEG, and PSD through this route. A PSD inserted this way arrives flattened. To keep a layered PSD intact, use Gallery Import instead, which brings it in as its own artwork.

Add a PNG with Insert a Photo

If the PNG is already in your camera roll, use Actions → Add → Insert a photo. Photos opens over the canvas, and you tap the image to place it.

This path is convenient but is where most transparency complaints come from. The Photos app can show a transparent PNG against a white backdrop, and some iOS and iPadOS versions have been reported to flatten transparent PNGs on import from the library. If your cutout arrives with a white box around it, go back and use Insert a file instead.

Insert as a Private Layer

Procreate also lets you bring in a PNG as a Private Layer. In the Add menu, slide the Insert a file or Insert a photo tab to the left to reveal the "private" button. The layer behaves like any other layer, but it won't show up in the Gallery preview or in an exported Time-lapse video.

This suits reference material you want on the canvas but not in the record of your process: a client's moodboard frame, a storyboard panel, a color-script still, or a pose reference. A Private Layer is labeled as such in the Layers panel. Layered PSDs can't be inserted privately.

Take a photo directly into the canvas

Actions → Add → Take a photo opens the iPad camera and drops the result into your artwork once you tap Use Photo. This produces a flat camera image rather than a PNG with alpha, so it helps with texture or reference capture but not with cutouts.

Keep transparency when you import

A PNG with a transparent background should import with the transparency intact. Here is how to check each point where it can go wrong.

Know what transparency looks like in Procreate

Procreate shows transparent pixels as a grey checkerboard, but only when the bottom Background color layer is turned off. Open the Layers panel and uncheck Background. With it on, you see a solid color (white by default) behind everything, which can look like the PNG lost its alpha when it didn't.

Test the file in Photos

Photos is a known source of false alarms. To check whether an image really has transparency:

• Open the image, then tap once so the interface fades. The backdrop turns black. If transparent areas turn black too, the alpha is real. If they stay white, the background is baked into the pixels.
• Thumbnails and standard previews can make transparent and white-backed images look identical, so don't trust them.

Make sure the full file is downloaded

With iCloud Photos enabled, your device may only hold a low-resolution preview of an image. Open the image and tap Edit to force a full download, then cancel the edit and try the import again.

Prefer Files over Photos

If Photos keeps flattening your cutouts, save the PNG to Files and use Insert a file. If the file only exists in Photos, share or export it to Files first. Either route avoids the library's handling of alpha.

Check the export, not just the import

If you made the PNG in another app, confirm that app exported with alpha. Some apps add a white background when they flatten a composition for sharing, and it isn't always obvious. When you export a PNG from Procreate itself, turn off the Background color layer first, or the exported file will include it.

Prepare PNGs from a motion pipeline

If you're a motion designer or compositor, the PNG probably comes from a compositing, 3D, or image-editing app rather than from a stock site. A few habits save time.

Export a single frame with alpha. In your render or compositing app, export the frame as a PNG with the alpha channel enabled, and check the result before importing.

Watch premultiplication. A PNG with a straight alpha and one with a premultiplied alpha can show dark or light fringes on edges. If you see halos on a soft edge, try re-exporting with the opposite alpha setting.

Plan canvas size. Choose your canvas size and DPI before you start, and for motion-sized work, create the canvas at the size you need from the start.

Keep layered elements separate. If you've rendered a character, a prop, and a shadow as separate passes, insert each as its own PNG so you can paint on each layer independently.

Use sequences deliberately. When you need a sequence of PNGs from a compositing or 3D app, insert only the frames you intend to paint over, then export the painted frames back out as PNGs and re-import them into your compositing app by frame number.

Troubleshooting common PNG import problems

The PNG has a white background after import. Turn off the Background color layer to see whether it's actually transparent. If it still looks white, check the original in Photos using the black-backdrop test. If the alpha is missing there too, the source file needs re-exporting.

The image imports as a JPEG-like flat picture. Use Insert a file rather than Insert a photo, and make sure the file is stored locally rather than only in iCloud.

Nothing happens when I pick a file from cloud storage. Some users report that files from cloud providers such as Google Drive don't import. Download the file to your iPad or iCloud Drive first, then insert it from there.

Soft edges look dirty. Check for a matte or fringe from the source app. Re-export with a different alpha interpretation, or clean the edge in Procreate with a small eraser on the imported layer.

The imported layer is too small or too large. Use Transform with Uniform selected so the proportions stay locked while you resize.

The app is behaving oddly after an OS update. Several users have reported inconsistent PNG imports after iPadOS updates. Update Procreate, restart the iPad, and try Files import. If it persists, contact Procreate support with a sample file.

Quick reference

Once you know that Files is the safer path and that the checkerboard only appears with the Background layer off, adding a PNG to Procreate is quick. Most failures trace back to the source file or to Photos rather than to Procreate.