To change the background texture in Procreate, import a paper or canvas texture image (Actions > Add > Insert a file or Insert a photo), scale it to cover the canvas, and set its blend mode to Multiply. If you only want a different base color, tap the Background color layer in the Layers panel and pick a new color. Desaturate the texture and lower its opacity so it adds grain without shifting the hues of your artwork.

What "Background Texture" Means in Procreate

Procreate has no built-in library of canvas textures, so the phrase covers three separate jobs:

• Changing the base color: the Background color layer is a flat fill, not a texture.
• Adding a textured layer: you import an image of paper, canvas, cardboard, or grain and blend it with your artwork.
• Knocking texture through the art: you use a transparent texture as a mask so the background shows through the ink, which is common for apparel and print work.

Pick the method that matches your goal, then refine it with blend modes and adjustments.

Method 1: Change the Background Color

1. Open the Layers panel.
2. Tap Background color at the bottom of the stack.
3. Choose a new color in the picker.

You can also untick the layer to hide it and work on transparency. This matters later: a Multiply texture over a transparent canvas behaves differently from one over a colored background, because Multiply needs something underneath to darken. If a texture looks wrong, check whether the Background color layer is visible.

Method 2: Import a Texture and Set It to Multiply

This is the standard approach, and it works for most illustration and type.

Step 1: Get a Texture

Use a high-resolution scan or photo of real paper, a canvas, or cardboard. Free libraries exist, and Procreate community members share PNG packs sized for the iPad's canvas. One free community pack, for example, uses 4098 × 3072 px textures at 300 dpi to match the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's screen aspect ratio. Commercial packs are often seamless, which helps if you need to tile them.

Step 2: Insert It

Open Actions (the wrench icon) > Add and choose one of these:

• Insert a file: for textures saved in Files.
• Insert a photo: for textures in your camera roll.
• Take a photo: for snapping real paper directly into the canvas.

If the file picker returns nothing, you are probably in the wrong folder or the file isn't stored in Files. A simpler fallback is to open Procreate in Split View and drag the image straight in from a browser, Photos, or Files.

Step 3: Scale It to Cover the Canvas

Use the Transform tool to rotate and expand the texture until it fills the whole canvas. Turn on Uniform so you don't stretch the grain. Stretched texture reads as a digital filter rather than real paper.

Step 4: Pick Your Layer Position

You have two options:

• Texture on top: place it as the topmost layer and set it to Multiply. It darkens everything beneath it, including layers you add later.
• Texture as background: place it just above the Background color layer, below your artwork. Then set your art layers to Multiply so the grain comes through the ink.

Top placement is faster and affects the whole composition. Background placement gives you finer control, especially when only some layers should pick up the texture.

Step 5: Set the Blend Mode

Tap the N next to the texture layer, then choose Multiply. White pixels in the texture have no effect, black ones go fully black, and everything between darkens in proportion. That is why light paper textures work so well.

Method 3: Photograph Real Paper

Shooting your own texture gives you something nobody else has. Cardboard, chipboard, the backs of legal pads, and rough watercolor paper all work. Look for samples with plenty of fiber detail; random grain reads better than an even tooth.

Light the paper as evenly as you can, since uneven light bakes a gradient into the texture. Use Actions > Add > Take a photo, then move the inserted layer to the background position. For tighter control over exposure, scan the paper or shoot it on a copy stand and import the result instead.

Tune the Texture So It Doesn't Wreck Your Colors

A raw paper photo can push your palette toward yellow or brown. Fix it before you judge the effect.

Desaturate

Select the texture layer, then Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Pull saturation down, either entirely or leaving a touch of warmth if you want an aged look. This keeps the Multiply layer from tinting your illustration.

Add Contrast

If the grain is too flat, use Adjustments > Curves or the brightness slider on the texture layer. Increase contrast until the fibers are visible, but not so far that you crush detail. Aim for a balance between a clear tooth and an intact texture.

Lower the Opacity

Tap the layer and drag the opacity slider down for a more subtle result. If you want more intensity without a heavy single layer, duplicate it.

Stack Multiply and Overlay

Any texture on a layer will dull the colors underneath to some degree, since otherwise it would be invisible. A common workaround is to apply the same texture twice: once on Multiply to make the grain visible, and once on Overlay above it to recover brightness and contrast. Both layers can sit at low opacity. Soft Light is another mode worth testing if Overlay feels too strong.

Method 4: Knock a Texture Through Your Artwork

Sometimes you want the background, such as fabric color, to show through worn areas of the art instead of darkening it. This needs a transparent PNG texture, usually black grain on alpha.

1. Insert the transparent texture and scale it over the artwork.
2. Tap the texture layer and choose Select so the grain becomes a selection.
3. Open the selection menu and choose Invert.
4. Hide the texture layer.
5. Tap each art layer and choose Mask.
6. Deselect.

The grain now erases parts of every masked layer, so whatever is behind them shows through. This is a better fit for print and apparel than Multiply, because Multiply bakes the texture into the colors rather than removing ink.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Texture is too strong: reduce opacity, desaturate it, or lighten it with Curves.
• Colors look muddy: desaturate the texture, then try the Multiply-plus-Overlay stack.
• Texture looks pixelated: the source is too small. Use a larger image or a seamless pack, and avoid scaling it up much.
• Multiply does nothing: the Background color layer may be hidden, so there is nothing to darken. Turn it on.
• Only some layers show grain: the texture is probably sitting below those layers. Move it to the top or set those layers to Multiply.
• Seams in tiled textures: duplicate the layer, use snapping to align edges, and merge. This only works cleanly with seamless textures.

Carrying Procreate Textures Into a Motion Pipeline

If your Procreate art is headed for After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Nuke, treat the texture as a production decision, not a finishing touch.

Keep the texture on its own layer. Export a layered PSD instead of flattening, then check how blend modes translate in your compositing app. Layer modes like Multiply generally carry over, but confirm in After Effects before relying on them. A separate texture layer lets you retime, scale, or swap it in the comp.

Plan for animation. If you're animating in Procreate's Animation Assist, set the texture layer as a background so it holds across frames. A static texture under moving art can look pasted on. For a hand-made feel, many motion designers instead replace it in After Effects with a few paper plates cycled at a low frame rate. Set that up in the comp rather than in Procreate.

Match resolution. Procreate's maximum canvas size depends on the device and the canvas settings. If you build at a small canvas for speed, the texture's grain will scale up with everything else when you conform to a 4K timeline. Decide your delivery size before you pick the texture.

Where Styleframe Fits

Once the texture lives in a still frame, the next problem is often extending it into motion without redrawing everything. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool built for artistic control rather than one-click output, and a few of its tools map directly onto this workflow:

• Restyle and Ink-and-Paint: reference-driven style transfer. You can use your textured Procreate frame as the reference so footage or renders pick up the same paper-and-ink look, instead of recreating the grain by hand.
• Frames-to-Video: you set keyframes, such as two or more textured Procreate frames, and generate the motion between them.
• Remove Background: isolates a subject so you can place it over a different texture in your comp.
• 4K Upscale: useful when a Procreate canvas was built smaller than your delivery resolution.

Every generation is driven by reference images, video clips, and keyframes, and iteration is non-destructive, so you can try several approaches and keep your textured source untouched. Output is production-ready 4K and exports as image sequences, so it drops into an existing After Effects or Nuke composite. An After Effects plugin is on the way. Your compositing workflow stays intact.

Quick Reference

Changing a background texture in Procreate comes down to layer order, blend mode, and how much you tame the source image. Get those three right and the same technique scales from a single illustration to a full motion pipeline.

To change the background texture in Procreate, import a paper or canvas texture image (Actions > Add > Insert a file or Insert a photo), scale it to cover the canvas, and set its blend mode to Multiply. If you only want a different base color, tap the Background color layer in the Layers panel and pick a new color. Desaturate the texture and lower its opacity so it adds grain without shifting the hues of your artwork.

What "Background Texture" Means in Procreate

Procreate has no built-in library of canvas textures, so the phrase covers three separate jobs:

• Changing the base color: the Background color layer is a flat fill, not a texture.
• Adding a textured layer: you import an image of paper, canvas, cardboard, or grain and blend it with your artwork.
• Knocking texture through the art: you use a transparent texture as a mask so the background shows through the ink, which is common for apparel and print work.

Pick the method that matches your goal, then refine it with blend modes and adjustments.

Method 1: Change the Background Color

1. Open the Layers panel.
2. Tap Background color at the bottom of the stack.
3. Choose a new color in the picker.

You can also untick the layer to hide it and work on transparency. This matters later: a Multiply texture over a transparent canvas behaves differently from one over a colored background, because Multiply needs something underneath to darken. If a texture looks wrong, check whether the Background color layer is visible.

Method 2: Import a Texture and Set It to Multiply

This is the standard approach, and it works for most illustration and type.

Step 1: Get a Texture

Use a high-resolution scan or photo of real paper, a canvas, or cardboard. Free libraries exist, and Procreate community members share PNG packs sized for the iPad's canvas. One free community pack, for example, uses 4098 × 3072 px textures at 300 dpi to match the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's screen aspect ratio. Commercial packs are often seamless, which helps if you need to tile them.

Step 2: Insert It

Open Actions (the wrench icon) > Add and choose one of these:

• Insert a file: for textures saved in Files.
• Insert a photo: for textures in your camera roll.
• Take a photo: for snapping real paper directly into the canvas.

If the file picker returns nothing, you are probably in the wrong folder or the file isn't stored in Files. A simpler fallback is to open Procreate in Split View and drag the image straight in from a browser, Photos, or Files.

Step 3: Scale It to Cover the Canvas

Use the Transform tool to rotate and expand the texture until it fills the whole canvas. Turn on Uniform so you don't stretch the grain. Stretched texture reads as a digital filter rather than real paper.

Step 4: Pick Your Layer Position

You have two options:

• Texture on top: place it as the topmost layer and set it to Multiply. It darkens everything beneath it, including layers you add later.
• Texture as background: place it just above the Background color layer, below your artwork. Then set your art layers to Multiply so the grain comes through the ink.

Top placement is faster and affects the whole composition. Background placement gives you finer control, especially when only some layers should pick up the texture.

Step 5: Set the Blend Mode

Tap the N next to the texture layer, then choose Multiply. White pixels in the texture have no effect, black ones go fully black, and everything between darkens in proportion. That is why light paper textures work so well.

Method 3: Photograph Real Paper

Shooting your own texture gives you something nobody else has. Cardboard, chipboard, the backs of legal pads, and rough watercolor paper all work. Look for samples with plenty of fiber detail; random grain reads better than an even tooth.

Light the paper as evenly as you can, since uneven light bakes a gradient into the texture. Use Actions > Add > Take a photo, then move the inserted layer to the background position. For tighter control over exposure, scan the paper or shoot it on a copy stand and import the result instead.

Tune the Texture So It Doesn't Wreck Your Colors

A raw paper photo can push your palette toward yellow or brown. Fix it before you judge the effect.

Desaturate

Select the texture layer, then Adjustments > Hue, Saturation, Brightness. Pull saturation down, either entirely or leaving a touch of warmth if you want an aged look. This keeps the Multiply layer from tinting your illustration.

Add Contrast

If the grain is too flat, use Adjustments > Curves or the brightness slider on the texture layer. Increase contrast until the fibers are visible, but not so far that you crush detail. Aim for a balance between a clear tooth and an intact texture.

Lower the Opacity

Tap the layer and drag the opacity slider down for a more subtle result. If you want more intensity without a heavy single layer, duplicate it.

Stack Multiply and Overlay

Any texture on a layer will dull the colors underneath to some degree, since otherwise it would be invisible. A common workaround is to apply the same texture twice: once on Multiply to make the grain visible, and once on Overlay above it to recover brightness and contrast. Both layers can sit at low opacity. Soft Light is another mode worth testing if Overlay feels too strong.

Method 4: Knock a Texture Through Your Artwork

Sometimes you want the background, such as fabric color, to show through worn areas of the art instead of darkening it. This needs a transparent PNG texture, usually black grain on alpha.

1. Insert the transparent texture and scale it over the artwork.
2. Tap the texture layer and choose Select so the grain becomes a selection.
3. Open the selection menu and choose Invert.
4. Hide the texture layer.
5. Tap each art layer and choose Mask.
6. Deselect.

The grain now erases parts of every masked layer, so whatever is behind them shows through. This is a better fit for print and apparel than Multiply, because Multiply bakes the texture into the colors rather than removing ink.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Texture is too strong: reduce opacity, desaturate it, or lighten it with Curves.
• Colors look muddy: desaturate the texture, then try the Multiply-plus-Overlay stack.
• Texture looks pixelated: the source is too small. Use a larger image or a seamless pack, and avoid scaling it up much.
• Multiply does nothing: the Background color layer may be hidden, so there is nothing to darken. Turn it on.
• Only some layers show grain: the texture is probably sitting below those layers. Move it to the top or set those layers to Multiply.
• Seams in tiled textures: duplicate the layer, use snapping to align edges, and merge. This only works cleanly with seamless textures.

Carrying Procreate Textures Into a Motion Pipeline

If your Procreate art is headed for After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Nuke, treat the texture as a production decision, not a finishing touch.

Keep the texture on its own layer. Export a layered PSD instead of flattening, then check how blend modes translate in your compositing app. Layer modes like Multiply generally carry over, but confirm in After Effects before relying on them. A separate texture layer lets you retime, scale, or swap it in the comp.

Plan for animation. If you're animating in Procreate's Animation Assist, set the texture layer as a background so it holds across frames. A static texture under moving art can look pasted on. For a hand-made feel, many motion designers instead replace it in After Effects with a few paper plates cycled at a low frame rate. Set that up in the comp rather than in Procreate.

Match resolution. Procreate's maximum canvas size depends on the device and the canvas settings. If you build at a small canvas for speed, the texture's grain will scale up with everything else when you conform to a 4K timeline. Decide your delivery size before you pick the texture.

Where Styleframe Fits

Once the texture lives in a still frame, the next problem is often extending it into motion without redrawing everything. Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool built for artistic control rather than one-click output, and a few of its tools map directly onto this workflow:

• Restyle and Ink-and-Paint: reference-driven style transfer. You can use your textured Procreate frame as the reference so footage or renders pick up the same paper-and-ink look, instead of recreating the grain by hand.
• Frames-to-Video: you set keyframes, such as two or more textured Procreate frames, and generate the motion between them.
• Remove Background: isolates a subject so you can place it over a different texture in your comp.
• 4K Upscale: useful when a Procreate canvas was built smaller than your delivery resolution.

Every generation is driven by reference images, video clips, and keyframes, and iteration is non-destructive, so you can try several approaches and keep your textured source untouched. Output is production-ready 4K and exports as image sequences, so it drops into an existing After Effects or Nuke composite. An After Effects plugin is on the way. Your compositing workflow stays intact.

Quick Reference

Changing a background texture in Procreate comes down to layer order, blend mode, and how much you tame the source image. Get those three right and the same technique scales from a single illustration to a full motion pipeline.