Procreate has no one-tap "center" or align command, so you center an image with a guide or a workaround. The most reliable options are to turn on a Symmetry Drawing Guide with Quadrant enabled and line up the Transform handles with its center axes, or to use the Transform tool's Fit to Screen button twice with a temporary edge-to-edge marker layer. If the artwork is headed into a motion project, the most exact fix is to build the canvas at your final frame size and do the precise centering in After Effects.

Why Procreate doesn't have a center button

Procreate is built for freehand illustration, not layout. Unlike Photoshop, it has no dedicated align or "center" command. Users have asked for centering and alignment tools on Procreate's own feedback forum, and the usual answers there are workarounds rather than a feature.

For motion designers this feels strange, because we expect to type a position value or hit an align button. In Procreate you'll be using visual guides and a few tricks. They're accurate enough for most work, but none of them is as exact as a numeric value.

Method 1: Start from a canvas that already fits the image

The simplest way to have a centered image is to never move it.

• Create the canvas to match the image where you can. If the canvas is built around the image, there's nothing to center.
• Check placement when you add an image to an existing canvas. Don't assume it landed in the middle. Check the placement before you commit to it.
• Expect to re-center after resizing the canvas. If you change the canvas size around an image, you'll usually need to re-center the image afterward with one of the methods below.

This approach fails when the image is already on a canvas and the canvas has since changed size. Then you need one of the next methods.

Method 2: Use a Symmetry Drawing Guide as a center crosshair

This is the closest thing to a built-in centering aid, and it's the method I'd teach first.

1. Open the Actions menu (wrench icon) and go to Canvas.
2. Turn on Drawing Guide, then tap Edit Drawing Guide.
3. Choose Symmetry, and under the options at the bottom, enable Quadrant.
4. Tap Done.

Quadrant symmetry gives you a center point plus a horizontal and a vertical axis. Now select the layer, switch on Transform, and move the image until its own center handles sit on the guide lines. The image's bounding box has a handle at the middle of each edge, so you're matching the midpoint of the top and bottom handles to the vertical axis, and the midpoint of the left and right handles to the horizontal axis.

Tips to make this more accurate:

• Zoom in when you line up the handles. At full-canvas zoom, a few pixels of error are invisible, and they'll show up later.
• Work on one axis at a time. Drag along the horizontal, check, then adjust the vertical.

This is a manual alignment, not automatic snapping. It's a good guide, but you're still doing the final placement by eye.

Method 3: The two-pass Fit to Screen trick

This workaround uses Transform's Fit to Screen button to do the centering for you. It works best when the image lives alone on a layer or in a group.

1. Put the artwork you want to center in a layer group (or a single layer).
2. Add a new layer inside that group and draw a thin line that touches both the left and right edges of the canvas. Keep it roughly through the vertical middle of your artwork.
3. Select the group, open Transform, and tap Fit to Screen. Because the content already spans the full width, the fit only changes the vertical position, which centers the content vertically.
4. Clear that marker layer, then draw a line that touches both the top and bottom edges.
5. Select the group again, tap Transform > Fit to Screen again. This time the content is already full height, so only the horizontal position changes.
6. Delete the marker layer.

The marker lines are what make this work: they force the bounding box to the full extent of one dimension, so Fit to Screen only has to solve the other.

Where it breaks: masks, clipping masks, or any content that already reaches a canvas edge inside the selection. These change the bounding box, so the result won't be centered on your actual artwork. Also, because Fit to Screen scales content to fit, check afterward that the scale didn't change. If the image shrank or grew, undo and use another method.

Quick comparison

If the artwork is going into a motion project, center it later

Most motion designers use Procreate for illustration, character art, textures, or storyboards, then move the result into a compositing or editing app. In that case, exact centering inside Procreate often isn't worth the effort. Set it up so the other app can do it numerically.

• Match your canvas to your delivery frame. Create the Procreate canvas at your composition resolution (for example 3840 × 2160) so a full-frame export drops in at 100% scale.
• Keep elements on separate layers. That way each one can be positioned on its own in your compositing app.
• Center in After Effects. For a layer in a comp, use the Align panel with "Align To: Composition", or set Position to half the comp width and height.

The principle is that Procreate is good for making the image, and your compositing app is better for positioning it precisely. A small offset in Procreate is easy to fix once the layer is in a comp, while a numeric position in After Effects is repeatable and animatable.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Centering the canvas content, not the artwork. Stray marks, faint strokes, or a soft shadow can extend your layer's bounding box. Hide or crop extras before you rely on bounding-box handles.
• Letting Fit to Screen rescale. It's a fit command, so verify the size didn't change.
• Forgetting about masks and clipping masks. They can extend to the canvas edge and throw off the bounding box, so Method 3 gives a wrong answer.
• Leaving the guide on while checking the result. Turn guides off while you check the composition so you see what the viewer will see.
• Eyeballing at low zoom. Zoom in on each axis before you call it centered.

FAQ

Does Procreate have an align or center tool? Not as a dedicated command. Centering is done with drawing guides or workarounds like Fit to Screen.

What's the most accurate way to center an image? For visual accuracy inside Procreate, the Quadrant Symmetry guide combined with a zoomed-in Transform. For numeric accuracy, export and center it in After Effects with the Align panel or exact Position values.

Can I center multiple layers together? Yes. Group them and transform the group, so they move as one unit and keep their relative positions.

Will centering change my image quality? Avoid unnecessary scaling. If you only need to move the layer, move it without resizing and check the result afterward.

Procreate has no one-tap "center" or align command, so you center an image with a guide or a workaround. The most reliable options are to turn on a Symmetry Drawing Guide with Quadrant enabled and line up the Transform handles with its center axes, or to use the Transform tool's Fit to Screen button twice with a temporary edge-to-edge marker layer. If the artwork is headed into a motion project, the most exact fix is to build the canvas at your final frame size and do the precise centering in After Effects.

Why Procreate doesn't have a center button

Procreate is built for freehand illustration, not layout. Unlike Photoshop, it has no dedicated align or "center" command. Users have asked for centering and alignment tools on Procreate's own feedback forum, and the usual answers there are workarounds rather than a feature.

For motion designers this feels strange, because we expect to type a position value or hit an align button. In Procreate you'll be using visual guides and a few tricks. They're accurate enough for most work, but none of them is as exact as a numeric value.

Method 1: Start from a canvas that already fits the image

The simplest way to have a centered image is to never move it.

• Create the canvas to match the image where you can. If the canvas is built around the image, there's nothing to center.
• Check placement when you add an image to an existing canvas. Don't assume it landed in the middle. Check the placement before you commit to it.
• Expect to re-center after resizing the canvas. If you change the canvas size around an image, you'll usually need to re-center the image afterward with one of the methods below.

This approach fails when the image is already on a canvas and the canvas has since changed size. Then you need one of the next methods.

Method 2: Use a Symmetry Drawing Guide as a center crosshair

This is the closest thing to a built-in centering aid, and it's the method I'd teach first.

1. Open the Actions menu (wrench icon) and go to Canvas.
2. Turn on Drawing Guide, then tap Edit Drawing Guide.
3. Choose Symmetry, and under the options at the bottom, enable Quadrant.
4. Tap Done.

Quadrant symmetry gives you a center point plus a horizontal and a vertical axis. Now select the layer, switch on Transform, and move the image until its own center handles sit on the guide lines. The image's bounding box has a handle at the middle of each edge, so you're matching the midpoint of the top and bottom handles to the vertical axis, and the midpoint of the left and right handles to the horizontal axis.

Tips to make this more accurate:

• Zoom in when you line up the handles. At full-canvas zoom, a few pixels of error are invisible, and they'll show up later.
• Work on one axis at a time. Drag along the horizontal, check, then adjust the vertical.

This is a manual alignment, not automatic snapping. It's a good guide, but you're still doing the final placement by eye.

Method 3: The two-pass Fit to Screen trick

This workaround uses Transform's Fit to Screen button to do the centering for you. It works best when the image lives alone on a layer or in a group.

1. Put the artwork you want to center in a layer group (or a single layer).
2. Add a new layer inside that group and draw a thin line that touches both the left and right edges of the canvas. Keep it roughly through the vertical middle of your artwork.
3. Select the group, open Transform, and tap Fit to Screen. Because the content already spans the full width, the fit only changes the vertical position, which centers the content vertically.
4. Clear that marker layer, then draw a line that touches both the top and bottom edges.
5. Select the group again, tap Transform > Fit to Screen again. This time the content is already full height, so only the horizontal position changes.
6. Delete the marker layer.

The marker lines are what make this work: they force the bounding box to the full extent of one dimension, so Fit to Screen only has to solve the other.

Where it breaks: masks, clipping masks, or any content that already reaches a canvas edge inside the selection. These change the bounding box, so the result won't be centered on your actual artwork. Also, because Fit to Screen scales content to fit, check afterward that the scale didn't change. If the image shrank or grew, undo and use another method.

Quick comparison

If the artwork is going into a motion project, center it later

Most motion designers use Procreate for illustration, character art, textures, or storyboards, then move the result into a compositing or editing app. In that case, exact centering inside Procreate often isn't worth the effort. Set it up so the other app can do it numerically.

• Match your canvas to your delivery frame. Create the Procreate canvas at your composition resolution (for example 3840 × 2160) so a full-frame export drops in at 100% scale.
• Keep elements on separate layers. That way each one can be positioned on its own in your compositing app.
• Center in After Effects. For a layer in a comp, use the Align panel with "Align To: Composition", or set Position to half the comp width and height.

The principle is that Procreate is good for making the image, and your compositing app is better for positioning it precisely. A small offset in Procreate is easy to fix once the layer is in a comp, while a numeric position in After Effects is repeatable and animatable.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Centering the canvas content, not the artwork. Stray marks, faint strokes, or a soft shadow can extend your layer's bounding box. Hide or crop extras before you rely on bounding-box handles.
• Letting Fit to Screen rescale. It's a fit command, so verify the size didn't change.
• Forgetting about masks and clipping masks. They can extend to the canvas edge and throw off the bounding box, so Method 3 gives a wrong answer.
• Leaving the guide on while checking the result. Turn guides off while you check the composition so you see what the viewer will see.
• Eyeballing at low zoom. Zoom in on each axis before you call it centered.

FAQ

Does Procreate have an align or center tool? Not as a dedicated command. Centering is done with drawing guides or workarounds like Fit to Screen.

What's the most accurate way to center an image? For visual accuracy inside Procreate, the Quadrant Symmetry guide combined with a zoomed-in Transform. For numeric accuracy, export and center it in After Effects with the Align panel or exact Position values.

Can I center multiple layers together? Yes. Group them and transform the group, so they move as one unit and keep their relative positions.

Will centering change my image quality? Avoid unnecessary scaling. If you only need to move the layer, move it without resizing and check the result afterward.