To change the canvas in Procreate, tap the Actions (wrench) icon, choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize, and drag the grid overlay or type exact width and height values. Tap Done to apply the change. Turn on Resample if you want the artwork scaled with the canvas instead of only moving the canvas edges. Duplicate the project in the Gallery first, because Done makes the crop permanent.

Step-by-step: resize or reshape an existing canvas

1. In the Gallery, duplicate your artwork. Use Select, then Duplicate. This gives you a safe copy to fall back on.
2. Open the artwork and tap Actions (the wrench icon).
3. Choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize.
4. A grid overlay appears. Its edges represent the new edges of your canvas.
5. Adjust the grid by dragging, or tap the width and height readouts in the bottom toolbar and type values.
6. Tap Done to apply.

If you get lost mid-adjustment, Reset returns the grid to where you started without leaving the tool. Cancel discards everything.

Ways to adjust the canvas

Crop and Resize offers several methods, and you can mix them in one session.

Freeform crop

Drag a side of the overlay to stretch or squash the canvas along one axis. Drag a corner to change both axes at once. The width and height readouts update live as you drag, and a notification-bar readout shows how many layers the new canvas size will allow. You can't drag past the maximum canvas size your iPad hardware supports.

Uniform crop with Aspect Lock

The chainlink button between the width and height readouts locks the aspect ratio. With it active, a square canvas stays square at any size, and changing one dimension automatically updates the other. This is the safest option when you need to hold a delivery ratio such as 16:9 while changing overall size.

Numerical crop

Tap the width or height readout to bring up the iPadOS keypad and enter exact values. The readouts use the unit you chose when you created the canvas, so a canvas set up in inches shows inches. If you want to turn a rectangle into a square, or the reverse, make sure the chainlink is not active (it shows blue when locked), otherwise the other axis will keep following the first.

Rotation

The Rotation slider in the bottom toolbar changes the angle of your artwork relative to the crop area. It's useful when you want to re-frame a composition without redrawing it.

Crop versus Resample: the choice that matters

Crop and Resample do different things, and mixing them up is the most common reason a resize looks wrong.

• Crop (Resample off): you change the canvas boundary. Existing pixels stay at their original size. Expanding the grid adds empty canvas around your art, and shrinking it trims content away.
• Resample (Resample on): the whole image scales up or down to fit the new dimensions. Procreate interpolates pixels to do this.

Use Crop when you've run out of room and want to keep drawing. Use Resample when you need the same composition at a different pixel size.

A caveat on scaling up: Resample can't add real detail. One illustrator's workflow sketches on a small canvas, scales up for the final piece, and avoids keeping any sketch-stage content in the final because it will look pixelated after enlargement. Treat enlarged pixels as placeholders, not final artwork.

Changing DPI

DPI is set in the same Crop and Resize interface. Enter the value you want there. DPI changes the physical size of the canvas in inches, centimeters, and millimeters, but it does not change the pixel dimensions. A 3000 x 2000 px canvas is still 3000 x 2000 px at 72 DPI or 300 DPI. It only changes how large that image prints.

Procreate's guidance is 300 DPI as the standard for print and 72 to 144 DPI for screens. For motion and video work, DPI is mostly irrelevant. Pixel dimensions are what your timeline cares about.

Centering the canvas when you expand it

Procreate's own community staff have confirmed that Crop and Resize has no dedicated snap-to-center option. If you're growing a 2100 x 2100 canvas to 2400 x 2400 and want equal margins on all sides, you have two approaches:

• Turn on snapping. Some tutorials point to a snapping setting in the Crop and Resize settings that helps you find the middle and stick to the artwork's sides. Try it first.
• Use a Drawing Guide as a center marker. Go to Actions > Canvas > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide, choose Symmetry, and turn on Quadrant. Increase line thickness and change the color so the crosshair is visible, then tap Done. Reopen Crop and Resize, type your new dimensions, and align the grid to the intersection of the guide lines.

Be careful when tapping Done on the guide: touching the color slider by accident resets the lines to white, which can make them nearly invisible on a light canvas.

Layer limits and canvas size

Canvas size and layer count are linked. Larger canvases allow fewer layers, and smaller canvases allow more. Procreate's canvas range runs from 1 x 1 pixels up to as large as 16K in one direction, depending on the iPad model.

Practical consequences when you change a canvas:

• Expanding a canvas can reduce the maximum layer count. Check the layer readout before tapping Done.
• If your file is layer-heavy, check how many layers the new size allows before enlarging it.
• A common workaround is to work at a smaller size while layer flexibility matters (sketching, color exploration), then duplicate and scale up for the final pass.

When to start a new canvas instead

Some properties are set when you create the canvas, so it can be cleaner to start over than to fight a resize. In the Gallery, tap + and then the rectangle-with-plus icon for the Custom Canvas screen. There you can set the name, dimensions, color profile, time-lapse settings, and canvas properties.

• Units: width and height can be set in millimeters, centimeters, inches, or pixels. For video-bound work, pixels keep things simple.
• Presets: Procreate includes templates such as Screen Size, Square, a 4K option, A4, 4 x 6 Photo, and US Paper. Swipe left on a preset to edit or delete it. Saving your own preset, named something like "Comp 1920x1080," saves repeat setup.
• Color profile: RGB suits screen work and CMYK suits print. The default profiles, Display P3 and Generic CMYK, cover most needs. A Display P3 canvas allows more saturated greens, reds, and oranges.

If you realize halfway through that you picked the wrong color profile, a new canvas is the cleaner fix.

Changing the canvas in Procreate Dreams

If you're animating in Procreate Dreams, the path is different. Enter the Drawing or Flipbook you want to resize, then tap Settings → Canvas → Crop and resize.

• Crop shows pixel dimensions at the bottom, a white box marking the canvas area with draggable handles, and a chainlink for aspect lock. Press and hold the eye icon to preview the original state. For a Flipbook, a time bar lets you scrub to see the crop at different points in the animation.
• Resample scales content uniformly, always with aspect ratio locked. A Quality readout reports the effect of your new size, so dropping to a smaller pixel dimension lowers the percentage. You can pick Nearest (crisper edges) or Bilinear (the softer default).

Applying a Dreams crop can take time depending on canvas size, device, and project complexity.

Matching the canvas to a motion pipeline

If your Procreate art is headed into After Effects, Nuke, or a video edit, set the canvas deliberately before you go deep. Decide on the delivery aspect ratio first, then use Aspect Lock with numerical entry so the ratio can't drift. Where possible, work at the pixel size you'll comp at. Enlarging with Resample after the fact only interpolates existing pixels.

If you plan to extend a frame in motion later, it also helps to leave breathing room around the key subject. Expanding the canvas with Crop (Resample off) adds empty margin you can paint into.

Common problems and quick fixes

• My art looks blurry after resizing. You likely enlarged with Resample on. Revert, or rebuild at the target size.
• My canvas won't get any bigger. You've hit the hardware's maximum canvas size. Check the notification-bar readout.
• The other dimension keeps changing. Aspect Lock is on. Tap the chainlink to unlock it.
• My print size changed but the pixels didn't. That's how DPI works. Only pixel dimensions affect resolution.
• I can't center the expansion. Use snapping if available, or the Quadrant Drawing Guide method above.
• I applied a crop I didn't want. Undo immediately if possible. This is why duplicating first is worth the ten seconds.

Summary

Actions > Canvas > Crop and Resize is the single entry point for changing a canvas in Procreate. Choose between Crop and Resample before you drag anything, use Aspect Lock and numerical entry for precision, check layer counts before confirming, and duplicate your file first. For work that continues into motion, set your pixel dimensions and aspect ratio to match delivery from the start.

To change the canvas in Procreate, tap the Actions (wrench) icon, choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize, and drag the grid overlay or type exact width and height values. Tap Done to apply the change. Turn on Resample if you want the artwork scaled with the canvas instead of only moving the canvas edges. Duplicate the project in the Gallery first, because Done makes the crop permanent.

Step-by-step: resize or reshape an existing canvas

1. In the Gallery, duplicate your artwork. Use Select, then Duplicate. This gives you a safe copy to fall back on.
2. Open the artwork and tap Actions (the wrench icon).
3. Choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize.
4. A grid overlay appears. Its edges represent the new edges of your canvas.
5. Adjust the grid by dragging, or tap the width and height readouts in the bottom toolbar and type values.
6. Tap Done to apply.

If you get lost mid-adjustment, Reset returns the grid to where you started without leaving the tool. Cancel discards everything.

Ways to adjust the canvas

Crop and Resize offers several methods, and you can mix them in one session.

Freeform crop

Drag a side of the overlay to stretch or squash the canvas along one axis. Drag a corner to change both axes at once. The width and height readouts update live as you drag, and a notification-bar readout shows how many layers the new canvas size will allow. You can't drag past the maximum canvas size your iPad hardware supports.

Uniform crop with Aspect Lock

The chainlink button between the width and height readouts locks the aspect ratio. With it active, a square canvas stays square at any size, and changing one dimension automatically updates the other. This is the safest option when you need to hold a delivery ratio such as 16:9 while changing overall size.

Numerical crop

Tap the width or height readout to bring up the iPadOS keypad and enter exact values. The readouts use the unit you chose when you created the canvas, so a canvas set up in inches shows inches. If you want to turn a rectangle into a square, or the reverse, make sure the chainlink is not active (it shows blue when locked), otherwise the other axis will keep following the first.

Rotation

The Rotation slider in the bottom toolbar changes the angle of your artwork relative to the crop area. It's useful when you want to re-frame a composition without redrawing it.

Crop versus Resample: the choice that matters

Crop and Resample do different things, and mixing them up is the most common reason a resize looks wrong.

• Crop (Resample off): you change the canvas boundary. Existing pixels stay at their original size. Expanding the grid adds empty canvas around your art, and shrinking it trims content away.
• Resample (Resample on): the whole image scales up or down to fit the new dimensions. Procreate interpolates pixels to do this.

Use Crop when you've run out of room and want to keep drawing. Use Resample when you need the same composition at a different pixel size.

A caveat on scaling up: Resample can't add real detail. One illustrator's workflow sketches on a small canvas, scales up for the final piece, and avoids keeping any sketch-stage content in the final because it will look pixelated after enlargement. Treat enlarged pixels as placeholders, not final artwork.

Changing DPI

DPI is set in the same Crop and Resize interface. Enter the value you want there. DPI changes the physical size of the canvas in inches, centimeters, and millimeters, but it does not change the pixel dimensions. A 3000 x 2000 px canvas is still 3000 x 2000 px at 72 DPI or 300 DPI. It only changes how large that image prints.

Procreate's guidance is 300 DPI as the standard for print and 72 to 144 DPI for screens. For motion and video work, DPI is mostly irrelevant. Pixel dimensions are what your timeline cares about.

Centering the canvas when you expand it

Procreate's own community staff have confirmed that Crop and Resize has no dedicated snap-to-center option. If you're growing a 2100 x 2100 canvas to 2400 x 2400 and want equal margins on all sides, you have two approaches:

• Turn on snapping. Some tutorials point to a snapping setting in the Crop and Resize settings that helps you find the middle and stick to the artwork's sides. Try it first.
• Use a Drawing Guide as a center marker. Go to Actions > Canvas > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide, choose Symmetry, and turn on Quadrant. Increase line thickness and change the color so the crosshair is visible, then tap Done. Reopen Crop and Resize, type your new dimensions, and align the grid to the intersection of the guide lines.

Be careful when tapping Done on the guide: touching the color slider by accident resets the lines to white, which can make them nearly invisible on a light canvas.

Layer limits and canvas size

Canvas size and layer count are linked. Larger canvases allow fewer layers, and smaller canvases allow more. Procreate's canvas range runs from 1 x 1 pixels up to as large as 16K in one direction, depending on the iPad model.

Practical consequences when you change a canvas:

• Expanding a canvas can reduce the maximum layer count. Check the layer readout before tapping Done.
• If your file is layer-heavy, check how many layers the new size allows before enlarging it.
• A common workaround is to work at a smaller size while layer flexibility matters (sketching, color exploration), then duplicate and scale up for the final pass.

When to start a new canvas instead

Some properties are set when you create the canvas, so it can be cleaner to start over than to fight a resize. In the Gallery, tap + and then the rectangle-with-plus icon for the Custom Canvas screen. There you can set the name, dimensions, color profile, time-lapse settings, and canvas properties.

• Units: width and height can be set in millimeters, centimeters, inches, or pixels. For video-bound work, pixels keep things simple.
• Presets: Procreate includes templates such as Screen Size, Square, a 4K option, A4, 4 x 6 Photo, and US Paper. Swipe left on a preset to edit or delete it. Saving your own preset, named something like "Comp 1920x1080," saves repeat setup.
• Color profile: RGB suits screen work and CMYK suits print. The default profiles, Display P3 and Generic CMYK, cover most needs. A Display P3 canvas allows more saturated greens, reds, and oranges.

If you realize halfway through that you picked the wrong color profile, a new canvas is the cleaner fix.

Changing the canvas in Procreate Dreams

If you're animating in Procreate Dreams, the path is different. Enter the Drawing or Flipbook you want to resize, then tap Settings → Canvas → Crop and resize.

• Crop shows pixel dimensions at the bottom, a white box marking the canvas area with draggable handles, and a chainlink for aspect lock. Press and hold the eye icon to preview the original state. For a Flipbook, a time bar lets you scrub to see the crop at different points in the animation.
• Resample scales content uniformly, always with aspect ratio locked. A Quality readout reports the effect of your new size, so dropping to a smaller pixel dimension lowers the percentage. You can pick Nearest (crisper edges) or Bilinear (the softer default).

Applying a Dreams crop can take time depending on canvas size, device, and project complexity.

Matching the canvas to a motion pipeline

If your Procreate art is headed into After Effects, Nuke, or a video edit, set the canvas deliberately before you go deep. Decide on the delivery aspect ratio first, then use Aspect Lock with numerical entry so the ratio can't drift. Where possible, work at the pixel size you'll comp at. Enlarging with Resample after the fact only interpolates existing pixels.

If you plan to extend a frame in motion later, it also helps to leave breathing room around the key subject. Expanding the canvas with Crop (Resample off) adds empty margin you can paint into.

Common problems and quick fixes

• My art looks blurry after resizing. You likely enlarged with Resample on. Revert, or rebuild at the target size.
• My canvas won't get any bigger. You've hit the hardware's maximum canvas size. Check the notification-bar readout.
• The other dimension keeps changing. Aspect Lock is on. Tap the chainlink to unlock it.
• My print size changed but the pixels didn't. That's how DPI works. Only pixel dimensions affect resolution.
• I can't center the expansion. Use snapping if available, or the Quadrant Drawing Guide method above.
• I applied a crop I didn't want. Undo immediately if possible. This is why duplicating first is worth the ten seconds.

Summary

Actions > Canvas > Crop and Resize is the single entry point for changing a canvas in Procreate. Choose between Crop and Resample before you drag anything, use Aspect Lock and numerical entry for precision, check layer counts before confirming, and duplicate your file first. For work that continues into motion, set your pixel dimensions and aspect ratio to match delivery from the start.