To center something in Procreate, select the layer, tap the Transform tool (the arrow icon), turn on Snapping, and drag the layer until the yellow vertical and horizontal guides both appear. Those guides mark the canvas center, and when they cross at the middle of the layer's bounding box, the content is centered. Procreate has no dedicated align panel, so for anything that needs more precision, such as a 2D Grid pushed to maximum size or a Fit to Screen trick, you build the center yourself.

Below are the methods that work, when each one fails, and how to hand centered Procreate artwork into a motion pipeline without re-aligning it later.

Method 1: Use Transform Snapping

Snapping is the fastest way to center a layer and the one most people need.

1. Select the layer you want to center in the Layers panel.
2. Tap the Transform tool (the cursor icon in the top toolbar).
3. In the bottom bar, tap Snapping to turn it on.
4. Drag the layer slowly. A yellow vertical line appears when the layer's center hits the canvas's horizontal midpoint. A yellow horizontal line appears at the vertical midpoint.
5. When both lines show at once, the layer is centered. Tap the Transform icon again to commit.

Blue guides mean something different. They appear when the layer lines up with another object on a different layer, which is useful for centering a title inside a shape, for example.

One catch: Procreate centers the layer's bounding box, not necessarily the visible artwork. If a layer contains stray pixels, a faint soft-brush edge, or a mask that reaches the canvas border, the bounding box is larger than what you see, and your visually centered object will look off. Clean up stray marks first, or put the artwork alone on its own layer or group.

Tune Distance and Velocity

If snapping feels sticky or never catches, open the Snapping submenu for the controls:

• Distance sets how many pixels away a guide will pull your object in. A higher value snaps from farther away. A lower value forces you to get close.
• Velocity sets how fast you can drag before guides are ignored. At a high setting you must move slowly for guides to catch. Dragging quickly lets you reposition freely.
• Magnetics lets your object slide along a guide once it has caught.

A good setup for precise work is a moderate Distance and a high Velocity, so guides catch when you slow down near the center and stay out of the way otherwise.

Method 2: Make a Visual Center with the Drawing Guide

Snapping is quick, but sometimes you want to see the center before you place anything. The Drawing Guide gives you that.

Isolate the center lines with a 2D Grid

1. Tap the Actions icon (wrench), then Canvas.
2. Turn on Drawing Guide, then tap Edit Drawing Guide.
3. Choose 2D Grid.
4. Drag the grid size slider all the way to the right. The grid becomes so large that only the center horizontal and vertical lines remain visible.
5. Tap Done.

You now have a crosshair at the exact center of the canvas. Use it when sketching a logo, laying out a title card, or drawing anything that needs to be built outward from the middle.

Use a Symmetry guide in Quadrant mode

A second option is to choose Symmetry in the guide editor and enable Quadrant at the bottom. This also gives you a center point plus horizontal and vertical axes. When you enter Transform, you can align the layer's center handle to the axes. It is not automatic, but it is a clear reference, and it doubles as a drawing aid if you want mirrored strokes.

Both guide methods are manual. They rely on your eye and your hand, so expect them to be close rather than guaranteed exact. Combine them with Snapping for the best result: use the guide to see the center, and let Snapping pull the layer onto it.

Method 3: Use Fit to Screen as a Centering Trick

Procreate's Transform bar includes Fit to Screen, which scales the selection to the canvas while keeping it centered. You can exploit that behavior when you need a true mathematical center rather than a guide-based one.

The workaround goes like this:

1. Put the artwork you want to center in a layer group, or work on a single layer.
2. Add a new layer inside the group and draw a line that touches both the left and right edges of the canvas, passing roughly through your artwork vertically.
3. Select the group, open Transform, and tap Fit to Screen. Because the content already spans the full width, the fit only changes vertical position, which centers the artwork vertically.
4. Clear that layer. Draw a line touching both the top and bottom edges, running through your artwork.
5. Select the group again and tap Fit to Screen. This time the horizontal position is adjusted, centering the artwork horizontally.
6. Delete the helper line layer.

This is tedious, but it is more exact than eyeballing. It also has a real limitation. Anything inside the selected group that already reaches an edge of the canvas, including masks and clipping masks, changes the bounds Procreate uses, and the result will not be centered on your artwork. Use it on clean, isolated groups.

If you just want to center and fill the canvas in one step, tapping Fit to Screen on its own scales the content to the largest size that fits and centers it. That is handy for background images, less so for logos you do not want enlarged.

Resize Without Losing the Center

A common problem is that you center a layer, then resize it by dragging a corner handle, and it shifts off-center because the opposite corner stays anchored.

To scale from the center instead:

• Set Transform to Uniform or Freeform.
• Place two fingers inside the bounding box and pinch.

This "quick scale" gesture scales around the midpoint of the selection, so the object grows or shrinks symmetrically. The trade-off is that two-finger gestures can introduce a slight rotation. If your result tilts, undo and try again. Check the guides after you scale, since the visible center can shift if the layer has uneven transparent padding.

Centering After a Canvas Size Change

Changing canvas dimensions does not re-center your artwork. If you crop or expand the canvas, content can end up offset. Run the Snapping method again after resizing. If you are preparing artwork for a specific video format, set the final canvas size first, then center. It saves you from re-aligning every layer.

Centering Text and Shapes

For text, you can snap a text layer to the canvas center with the yellow guides, just like any other layer.

For shapes, the same bounding-box rule applies. Blue guides help you center text inside a shape: snap the text's center to the shape's center on separate layers.

What to Do When Procreate Is Part of a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, VFX artists, and editors, a centered illustration in Procreate is usually the start of the job, not the end. A few habits keep that handoff clean.

• Match the canvas to the comp. Create the Procreate canvas at your composition's pixel dimensions, or an exact multiple. Centering is then true in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D, without scaling surprises.
• Export layers that are centered on purpose. If a character or logo needs to rotate or scale in your compositor, make sure its visible artwork sits in the middle of its layer. Centered art means the default anchor point lands in a useful spot.
• Export as PNG with transparency. Export individual layers or groups so you retain transparent padding where you need it, and trim padding where you do not.
• Keep a clean source. Preserve the Procreate file with layers intact. Re-centering later is easier when elements are separated.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Once your artwork is centered and exported, the next question is often how to animate or extend it without redrawing everything. Styleframe is one option for taking Procreate work into motion; check its site for current features and export options. Treat it as a way to extend your Procreate work into motion, not a replacement for your compositor or your drawing app.

Quick Reference

Final Tips

• Always check for stray pixels and oversized masks before trusting a center.
• Combine a visual guide with Snapping rather than relying on either alone.
• Set the final canvas size before you center.
• Zoom in and check the guides at high magnification when precision matters.

Procreate's lack of a true align tool is a long-standing gap, but with Snapping, a maximized 2D Grid, and the Fit to Screen workaround, you can center almost anything quickly. Do it before export, and your assets arrive in After Effects, Nuke, or any other tool already aligned.

To center something in Procreate, select the layer, tap the Transform tool (the arrow icon), turn on Snapping, and drag the layer until the yellow vertical and horizontal guides both appear. Those guides mark the canvas center, and when they cross at the middle of the layer's bounding box, the content is centered. Procreate has no dedicated align panel, so for anything that needs more precision, such as a 2D Grid pushed to maximum size or a Fit to Screen trick, you build the center yourself.

Below are the methods that work, when each one fails, and how to hand centered Procreate artwork into a motion pipeline without re-aligning it later.

Method 1: Use Transform Snapping

Snapping is the fastest way to center a layer and the one most people need.

1. Select the layer you want to center in the Layers panel.
2. Tap the Transform tool (the cursor icon in the top toolbar).
3. In the bottom bar, tap Snapping to turn it on.
4. Drag the layer slowly. A yellow vertical line appears when the layer's center hits the canvas's horizontal midpoint. A yellow horizontal line appears at the vertical midpoint.
5. When both lines show at once, the layer is centered. Tap the Transform icon again to commit.

Blue guides mean something different. They appear when the layer lines up with another object on a different layer, which is useful for centering a title inside a shape, for example.

One catch: Procreate centers the layer's bounding box, not necessarily the visible artwork. If a layer contains stray pixels, a faint soft-brush edge, or a mask that reaches the canvas border, the bounding box is larger than what you see, and your visually centered object will look off. Clean up stray marks first, or put the artwork alone on its own layer or group.

Tune Distance and Velocity

If snapping feels sticky or never catches, open the Snapping submenu for the controls:

• Distance sets how many pixels away a guide will pull your object in. A higher value snaps from farther away. A lower value forces you to get close.
• Velocity sets how fast you can drag before guides are ignored. At a high setting you must move slowly for guides to catch. Dragging quickly lets you reposition freely.
• Magnetics lets your object slide along a guide once it has caught.

A good setup for precise work is a moderate Distance and a high Velocity, so guides catch when you slow down near the center and stay out of the way otherwise.

Method 2: Make a Visual Center with the Drawing Guide

Snapping is quick, but sometimes you want to see the center before you place anything. The Drawing Guide gives you that.

Isolate the center lines with a 2D Grid

1. Tap the Actions icon (wrench), then Canvas.
2. Turn on Drawing Guide, then tap Edit Drawing Guide.
3. Choose 2D Grid.
4. Drag the grid size slider all the way to the right. The grid becomes so large that only the center horizontal and vertical lines remain visible.
5. Tap Done.

You now have a crosshair at the exact center of the canvas. Use it when sketching a logo, laying out a title card, or drawing anything that needs to be built outward from the middle.

Use a Symmetry guide in Quadrant mode

A second option is to choose Symmetry in the guide editor and enable Quadrant at the bottom. This also gives you a center point plus horizontal and vertical axes. When you enter Transform, you can align the layer's center handle to the axes. It is not automatic, but it is a clear reference, and it doubles as a drawing aid if you want mirrored strokes.

Both guide methods are manual. They rely on your eye and your hand, so expect them to be close rather than guaranteed exact. Combine them with Snapping for the best result: use the guide to see the center, and let Snapping pull the layer onto it.

Method 3: Use Fit to Screen as a Centering Trick

Procreate's Transform bar includes Fit to Screen, which scales the selection to the canvas while keeping it centered. You can exploit that behavior when you need a true mathematical center rather than a guide-based one.

The workaround goes like this:

1. Put the artwork you want to center in a layer group, or work on a single layer.
2. Add a new layer inside the group and draw a line that touches both the left and right edges of the canvas, passing roughly through your artwork vertically.
3. Select the group, open Transform, and tap Fit to Screen. Because the content already spans the full width, the fit only changes vertical position, which centers the artwork vertically.
4. Clear that layer. Draw a line touching both the top and bottom edges, running through your artwork.
5. Select the group again and tap Fit to Screen. This time the horizontal position is adjusted, centering the artwork horizontally.
6. Delete the helper line layer.

This is tedious, but it is more exact than eyeballing. It also has a real limitation. Anything inside the selected group that already reaches an edge of the canvas, including masks and clipping masks, changes the bounds Procreate uses, and the result will not be centered on your artwork. Use it on clean, isolated groups.

If you just want to center and fill the canvas in one step, tapping Fit to Screen on its own scales the content to the largest size that fits and centers it. That is handy for background images, less so for logos you do not want enlarged.

Resize Without Losing the Center

A common problem is that you center a layer, then resize it by dragging a corner handle, and it shifts off-center because the opposite corner stays anchored.

To scale from the center instead:

• Set Transform to Uniform or Freeform.
• Place two fingers inside the bounding box and pinch.

This "quick scale" gesture scales around the midpoint of the selection, so the object grows or shrinks symmetrically. The trade-off is that two-finger gestures can introduce a slight rotation. If your result tilts, undo and try again. Check the guides after you scale, since the visible center can shift if the layer has uneven transparent padding.

Centering After a Canvas Size Change

Changing canvas dimensions does not re-center your artwork. If you crop or expand the canvas, content can end up offset. Run the Snapping method again after resizing. If you are preparing artwork for a specific video format, set the final canvas size first, then center. It saves you from re-aligning every layer.

Centering Text and Shapes

For text, you can snap a text layer to the canvas center with the yellow guides, just like any other layer.

For shapes, the same bounding-box rule applies. Blue guides help you center text inside a shape: snap the text's center to the shape's center on separate layers.

What to Do When Procreate Is Part of a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, VFX artists, and editors, a centered illustration in Procreate is usually the start of the job, not the end. A few habits keep that handoff clean.

• Match the canvas to the comp. Create the Procreate canvas at your composition's pixel dimensions, or an exact multiple. Centering is then true in After Effects, Premiere Pro, Nuke, Blender, or Cinema 4D, without scaling surprises.
• Export layers that are centered on purpose. If a character or logo needs to rotate or scale in your compositor, make sure its visible artwork sits in the middle of its layer. Centered art means the default anchor point lands in a useful spot.
• Export as PNG with transparency. Export individual layers or groups so you retain transparent padding where you need it, and trim padding where you do not.
• Keep a clean source. Preserve the Procreate file with layers intact. Re-centering later is easier when elements are separated.

Where Styleframe Fits After Procreate

Once your artwork is centered and exported, the next question is often how to animate or extend it without redrawing everything. Styleframe is one option for taking Procreate work into motion; check its site for current features and export options. Treat it as a way to extend your Procreate work into motion, not a replacement for your compositor or your drawing app.

Quick Reference

Final Tips

• Always check for stray pixels and oversized masks before trusting a center.
• Combine a visual guide with Snapping rather than relying on either alone.
• Set the final canvas size before you center.
• Zoom in and check the guides at high magnification when precision matters.

Procreate's lack of a true align tool is a long-standing gap, but with Snapping, a maximized 2D Grid, and the Fit to Screen workaround, you can center almost anything quickly. Do it before export, and your assets arrive in After Effects, Nuke, or any other tool already aligned.