Procreate has two places to change brush pressure. For every brush at once, go to Actions (wrench) → Prefs → Pressure and Smoothing and reshape the pressure curve. For a single brush, open the brush in Brush Studio, go to the Apple Pencil settings, and adjust how pressure affects Size, Opacity, and the Taper controls. Change the single brush first, because the global curve affects every brush you own.

The Two Levels of Pressure Control in Procreate

Pressure in Procreate is a chain with two links:

1. The global pressure curve maps how hard you press to how much input Procreate registers. It applies to all brushes.
2. The per-brush pressure settings decide what that input does: change size, change opacity, or nothing at all.

Most "my pressure feels wrong" problems come from mixing these up. If one brush ignores pressure while the rest respond normally, the fix is in that brush's settings. If every brush feels too stiff or too touchy, the global curve is the place to look.

How to Change the Global Pressure Curve

Use this when your whole stylus feels off, such as pencil sketches that need too much force to leave a mark.

1. Tap Actions (the wrench icon).
2. Go to Prefs.
3. Tap Pressure and Smoothing (some versions label this "Edit Pressure Curve").
4. Drag the graph's line, or tap it to add a node and drag that.

How to read the graph

• The horizontal axis is the pressure you apply, from none on the left to maximum on the right.
• The vertical axis is the effect Procreate applies to your brushes, from none at the bottom to full at the top.

The default is a straight diagonal. Raise the curve above that diagonal and the same finger or pencil force produces a stronger result. A light touch then leaves a visible mark, which suits pencil-style sketching where you want mid-gray tones without leaning on the screen. Pull the curve below the diagonal and you need more force for the same result. That setup suits heavy-handed artists who find strokes too dark too soon.

The steepness at the start of the curve usually makes the most noticeable difference. Add a node near the center, nudge it up slightly, and test with a few light strokes before moving on.

Smoothing sliders

The same screen has stabilization sliders. Higher values increase the stabilization applied to all brushes. That helps with clean linework for rotoscope tracing or logo shapes.

Procreate's own caution

Procreate advises against changing global pressure unless you need to. Its brushes are tuned for typical use, and a heavily bent curve can make some brushes behave strangely. Make small adjustments and test across a few different brushes, not just the one that annoyed you.

How to Reset the Global Pressure Settings

If you've over-corrected:

1. Go to Actions → Prefs → Pressure and Smoothing.
2. Scroll down to find Reset all (you may need to swipe up).
3. Tap Reset all, then confirm with Reset.

This restores the default curve and smoothing values, so it's a safe experiment: you can always return to a known baseline.

How to Change Pressure for One Brush

Per-brush settings give you the most control and carry the least risk.

1. Open the brush library and tap the brush you want to edit. This opens Brush Studio.
2. Select the Apple Pencil settings (called the Pencil tab in some versions).
3. In the pressure section, adjust the sliders.

Size

The Size slider under Apple Pencil pressure controls whether harder pressure makes the stroke thicker.

• Moving it to the right makes the brush respond to pressure: light pressure gives a thinner line, heavy pressure a thicker one.
• Moving it to negative values inverts the behavior, so light pressure gives thick lines and heavy pressure gives thin ones.
• At zero, size ignores pressure.

This answers a common beginner question: why does the Round Brush draw at one fixed width? Any brush can be made size-responsive by raising this slider, a value around 70% is a reasonable starting point. If nothing seems to change, reset the brush to its defaults, then adjust only the Size slider and test again. Stacked changes from earlier tinkering can cause confusing results.

Opacity

The pressure Opacity slider ties transparency to force, so light strokes are faint and hard strokes are solid. It works well for shading and dry-media looks. For inking and clean line art, many artists leave it off and let size do the work.

Taper

Taper is a separate section from the pressure sliders, and it's where many people get confused. Taper shapes how a stroke starts and ends, giving the thick-to-thin transition of a real brush tip. It is not a measurement of how hard you're pressing.

• If your line gets thinner only at the ends of a finished stroke, you're probably editing Taper, not Pressure.
• You can link the head and tail of the taper so both ends behave the same, or unlink them for independent control.
• A longer distance before the first taper node produces a smoother, more gradual transition.

For lettering, brush-pen strokes, or character linework, getting Pressure size and Taper working together is what produces natural-looking lines.

Tilt

If you use an Apple Pencil, the tilt settings are also in Brush Studio. Tilt can change size independently of pressure. Combining the two adds variation, but it can make your starting size harder to predict, so adjust one at a time.

Troubleshooting Pressure That Doesn't Respond

Work through these in order:

• Check the connection. An Apple Pencil should work as soon as it's paired. For a second-generation Pencil or Pencil Pro, enable Bluetooth in Control Center and attach the Pencil to the iPad until the connected dialogue appears.
• Check the brush. Some brushes are built without pressure-driven size. Test with another brush to see whether the issue is the brush or the device.
• Reset the brush to its default before editing it again.
• Reset the global curve with Reset all in Pressure and Smoothing.
• Consider your stylus. Third-party styluses may offer different or limited pressure support compared with an Apple Pencil, so an unresponsive pen isn't always a software setting.

Suggested Starting Points by Task

These are starting values to refine by feel, not fixed rules:

• Pencil sketching: Keep the brush's opacity response, and if light marks are too faint, raise the start of the global curve slightly.
• Inking and linework: Raise size sensitivity, link the taper, and leave opacity pressure off for consistent solid lines.
• Painterly shading: Add moderate opacity and size response so layering feels like building up paint.
• Flat shapes and mattes: Set pressure effects low or to zero for predictable edges.

Save your edits as a duplicate brush so you keep the original intact. Duplicate first, then tweak.

Where Procreate Pressure Settings Fit in a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, animators, and VFX artists, Procreate is usually a sketching and asset-creation step rather than the final tool. Pressure settings matter because stroke character carries into everything built from the artwork: storyboard frames, style frames, hand-drawn textures, and cel-style elements that end up in After Effects or Nuke. Consistent pressure behavior also means a series of frames looks like it came from one hand, which matters when you're drawing multiple keyframes for a sequence.

Quick Reference

Final Advice

Start narrow and widen only if needed. Adjust one brush's Size slider before touching the global curve, change a single setting at a time, and test with real strokes at light, medium, and heavy pressure. If anything goes wrong, a brush reset or the global Reset all returns you to a clean baseline. Once your pressure feels natural, your drawn assets will be more consistent, and that consistency carries through to everything you build from them downstream.

Procreate has two places to change brush pressure. For every brush at once, go to Actions (wrench) → Prefs → Pressure and Smoothing and reshape the pressure curve. For a single brush, open the brush in Brush Studio, go to the Apple Pencil settings, and adjust how pressure affects Size, Opacity, and the Taper controls. Change the single brush first, because the global curve affects every brush you own.

The Two Levels of Pressure Control in Procreate

Pressure in Procreate is a chain with two links:

1. The global pressure curve maps how hard you press to how much input Procreate registers. It applies to all brushes.
2. The per-brush pressure settings decide what that input does: change size, change opacity, or nothing at all.

Most "my pressure feels wrong" problems come from mixing these up. If one brush ignores pressure while the rest respond normally, the fix is in that brush's settings. If every brush feels too stiff or too touchy, the global curve is the place to look.

How to Change the Global Pressure Curve

Use this when your whole stylus feels off, such as pencil sketches that need too much force to leave a mark.

1. Tap Actions (the wrench icon).
2. Go to Prefs.
3. Tap Pressure and Smoothing (some versions label this "Edit Pressure Curve").
4. Drag the graph's line, or tap it to add a node and drag that.

How to read the graph

• The horizontal axis is the pressure you apply, from none on the left to maximum on the right.
• The vertical axis is the effect Procreate applies to your brushes, from none at the bottom to full at the top.

The default is a straight diagonal. Raise the curve above that diagonal and the same finger or pencil force produces a stronger result. A light touch then leaves a visible mark, which suits pencil-style sketching where you want mid-gray tones without leaning on the screen. Pull the curve below the diagonal and you need more force for the same result. That setup suits heavy-handed artists who find strokes too dark too soon.

The steepness at the start of the curve usually makes the most noticeable difference. Add a node near the center, nudge it up slightly, and test with a few light strokes before moving on.

Smoothing sliders

The same screen has stabilization sliders. Higher values increase the stabilization applied to all brushes. That helps with clean linework for rotoscope tracing or logo shapes.

Procreate's own caution

Procreate advises against changing global pressure unless you need to. Its brushes are tuned for typical use, and a heavily bent curve can make some brushes behave strangely. Make small adjustments and test across a few different brushes, not just the one that annoyed you.

How to Reset the Global Pressure Settings

If you've over-corrected:

1. Go to Actions → Prefs → Pressure and Smoothing.
2. Scroll down to find Reset all (you may need to swipe up).
3. Tap Reset all, then confirm with Reset.

This restores the default curve and smoothing values, so it's a safe experiment: you can always return to a known baseline.

How to Change Pressure for One Brush

Per-brush settings give you the most control and carry the least risk.

1. Open the brush library and tap the brush you want to edit. This opens Brush Studio.
2. Select the Apple Pencil settings (called the Pencil tab in some versions).
3. In the pressure section, adjust the sliders.

Size

The Size slider under Apple Pencil pressure controls whether harder pressure makes the stroke thicker.

• Moving it to the right makes the brush respond to pressure: light pressure gives a thinner line, heavy pressure a thicker one.
• Moving it to negative values inverts the behavior, so light pressure gives thick lines and heavy pressure gives thin ones.
• At zero, size ignores pressure.

This answers a common beginner question: why does the Round Brush draw at one fixed width? Any brush can be made size-responsive by raising this slider, a value around 70% is a reasonable starting point. If nothing seems to change, reset the brush to its defaults, then adjust only the Size slider and test again. Stacked changes from earlier tinkering can cause confusing results.

Opacity

The pressure Opacity slider ties transparency to force, so light strokes are faint and hard strokes are solid. It works well for shading and dry-media looks. For inking and clean line art, many artists leave it off and let size do the work.

Taper

Taper is a separate section from the pressure sliders, and it's where many people get confused. Taper shapes how a stroke starts and ends, giving the thick-to-thin transition of a real brush tip. It is not a measurement of how hard you're pressing.

• If your line gets thinner only at the ends of a finished stroke, you're probably editing Taper, not Pressure.
• You can link the head and tail of the taper so both ends behave the same, or unlink them for independent control.
• A longer distance before the first taper node produces a smoother, more gradual transition.

For lettering, brush-pen strokes, or character linework, getting Pressure size and Taper working together is what produces natural-looking lines.

Tilt

If you use an Apple Pencil, the tilt settings are also in Brush Studio. Tilt can change size independently of pressure. Combining the two adds variation, but it can make your starting size harder to predict, so adjust one at a time.

Troubleshooting Pressure That Doesn't Respond

Work through these in order:

• Check the connection. An Apple Pencil should work as soon as it's paired. For a second-generation Pencil or Pencil Pro, enable Bluetooth in Control Center and attach the Pencil to the iPad until the connected dialogue appears.
• Check the brush. Some brushes are built without pressure-driven size. Test with another brush to see whether the issue is the brush or the device.
• Reset the brush to its default before editing it again.
• Reset the global curve with Reset all in Pressure and Smoothing.
• Consider your stylus. Third-party styluses may offer different or limited pressure support compared with an Apple Pencil, so an unresponsive pen isn't always a software setting.

Suggested Starting Points by Task

These are starting values to refine by feel, not fixed rules:

• Pencil sketching: Keep the brush's opacity response, and if light marks are too faint, raise the start of the global curve slightly.
• Inking and linework: Raise size sensitivity, link the taper, and leave opacity pressure off for consistent solid lines.
• Painterly shading: Add moderate opacity and size response so layering feels like building up paint.
• Flat shapes and mattes: Set pressure effects low or to zero for predictable edges.

Save your edits as a duplicate brush so you keep the original intact. Duplicate first, then tweak.

Where Procreate Pressure Settings Fit in a Motion Pipeline

For motion designers, animators, and VFX artists, Procreate is usually a sketching and asset-creation step rather than the final tool. Pressure settings matter because stroke character carries into everything built from the artwork: storyboard frames, style frames, hand-drawn textures, and cel-style elements that end up in After Effects or Nuke. Consistent pressure behavior also means a series of frames looks like it came from one hand, which matters when you're drawing multiple keyframes for a sequence.

Quick Reference

Final Advice

Start narrow and widen only if needed. Adjust one brush's Size slider before touching the global curve, change a single setting at a time, and test with real strokes at light, medium, and heavy pressure. If anything goes wrong, a brush reset or the global Reset all returns you to a clean baseline. Once your pressure feels natural, your drawn assets will be more consistent, and that consistency carries through to everything you build from them downstream.