To change canvas size in Procreate, tap Actions (the wrench icon), choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize. Drag the grid handles, or tap the width and height readouts and type exact values. Leave Resample off to add or trim canvas space without scaling your artwork, and turn it on to scale the artwork with the canvas. Your iPad model caps the maximum size, and a larger canvas leaves you fewer layers.

For motion designers and animators, the details matter more than the steps. Pixel dimensions, aspect ratio, and resampling decide whether a Procreate illustration holds up once it lands in After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Nuke.

Step-by-step: change canvas size in Procreate

1. Duplicate your artwork first

Crop and Resize changes your artwork once you confirm it, so make a backup. Before you touch anything, go to the Gallery, tap Select, tap your artwork, and choose Duplicate. If the new size cuts off content or softens linework, you still have the original.

2. Open Crop and Resize

Open the artwork and tap Actions (wrench) → Canvas → Crop and Resize. A grid overlay appears on the canvas. The edges of that grid are the new edges of your canvas.

3. Resize by dragging

• Drag a side to stretch or squash the canvas along one axis.
• Drag a corner to change width and height at once.
• Watch the readouts. The bottom toolbar updates width and height live, and a notification shows how many layers the new size will allow.

You can't drag past the maximum size your hardware supports, so the grid simply stops.

4. Resize with exact numbers

For production work, type values instead of dragging. Tap the width or height readout to bring up the keypad, then enter your number. The readout uses whatever unit you picked when you created the canvas (pixels, inches, centimeters, or millimeters). For video work, create or switch to pixels so you're not converting in your head.

The chainlink icon between the two fields is the aspect lock. When it's active, changing one dimension adjusts the other to keep the ratio. When it's off, you can turn a square into a 16:9 frame, or the reverse, freely.

5. Confirm with Done

Tap Done to apply the change. Large canvases and complex files can take a moment to process.

Resample: scale the artwork or just change the frame

This is the setting people most often get wrong. Crop and Resize does two different jobs depending on the Resample switch.

• Resample off: You're changing the frame only. Existing pixels stay at their original size and position. Making the canvas bigger adds empty space around your drawing, and making it smaller crops it. Use this when you're running out of room or switching from portrait to landscape.
• Resample on: The whole image scales up or down to match the new dimensions. Use this when you made the piece at the wrong size and want everything to scale proportionally.

Upscaling with Resample interpolates new pixels. It doesn't add detail. A 1080p drawing resampled to 4K will be bigger but softer, and thin linework is the first thing to suffer. If your piece will be animated or zoomed in a compositing package, it's much better to draw at the target resolution from the start, or at a clean multiple of it.

A note on Procreate Dreams

If you work in Procreate Dreams, the path is slightly different. Open your Drawing or Flipbook, tap Settings → Canvas, then Crop and resize. Dreams splits the two behaviors into separate modes: Crop changes the frame, and Resample scales the content uniformly.

Resample in Dreams shows a Quality percentage and lets you pick the interpolation method. Bilinear is the default and gives softer edges. Nearest gives crisper edges with very little softening, which is useful for pixel art or hard-edged graphics. When you're cropping a Flipbook, a time bar lets you scrub through the animation to check the new framing at different points.

DPI: what it changes and what it doesn't

DPI trips up many people coming from video. In Crop and Resize you can set or change the DPI, but changing it alters only the physical size of the canvas (inches, centimeters, millimeters). It does not change the pixel dimensions.

For print, 300 DPI is the usual standard. For screens, 72 to 144 is typical. If you deliver to video, DPI is effectively irrelevant: video tools such as After Effects and Premiere Pro generally care about pixel width and height. Set your pixel dimensions correctly and ignore the DPI field, unless you're also delivering print assets.

Know your limits before you resize

Two hardware limits apply to every canvas:

1. Maximum total pixels (width × height).
2. Maximum length of the longest edge.

On recent iPad Pro and iPad Air models, Procreate supports up to 134 megapixels in total, for example 11,585 × 11,585 px, with a 16,384 px cap on the longest edge. Older and smaller devices have lower ceilings, such as 67, 52, or 33 megapixels. Check Procreate's published table for your specific model.

For motion work these limits are generous. A 3840 × 2160 UHD frame is about 8.3 megapixels, and even a 8K frame fits on newer hardware. The real constraint is layers.

The layer trade-off

Canvas size and layer count are linked. The bigger the canvas, the fewer layers Procreate gives you. This matters if you build characters or scenes with many separated elements (the same separation you'd want for rigging or parallax in After Effects).

One workflow that works around this: sketch and block in on a smaller canvas where you have plenty of layers, then duplicate the file and scale up to the final size using a clean multiplier. For example, if your target is 3840 × 2160, start at 1920 × 1080 and scale by exactly 2×. Keep in mind that anything drawn on the small canvas will soften when scaled, so use that stage for sketching and composition, and redraw final linework and color at full size.

Matching canvas size to your video pipeline

Before resizing, decide where the artwork is going.

• Standard HD or UHD comps: Use 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 so the artwork drops into a matching After Effects composition at 100% scale.
• Vertical social: 1080 × 1920 is the standard, and Crop and Resize lets you convert a landscape canvas to portrait in one pass with the aspect lock off.
• Room to move: If you plan to push in, pan, or add camera moves in After Effects, make the canvas larger than the comp. A 2× oversized illustration at 3840 × 2160 can sit in a 1920 × 1080 comp with room to scale to 200% before it softens.
• Animated plates and parallax: Resize with Resample off and extend the canvas, then paint into the new space. That gives you extra background to move across the frame.

Where your export format preserves layers, layered files are the better choice for compositing, because you can separate elements in After Effects, Nuke, or Blender instead of repainting.

Fixing a canvas that's off-center

Procreate's Crop and Resize doesn't snap to the center. If you're enlarging a 2100 × 2100 canvas to 2400 × 2400 and want equal padding on every side, you need a workaround:

1. Open Actions → Canvas → Drawing Guide → Edit Drawing Guide, and choose Symmetry with the Quadrant option so two lines cross at the canvas center.
2. Make the lines thicker and a visible color, then tap Done.
3. Go back to Actions → Canvas → Crop and Resize and enter the new numeric dimensions.
4. Center the grid on the intersecting guide lines before confirming.

It's less precise than a true snap, so zoom in and check the edges. If you need pixel-perfect padding, an alternative is to do the final extension in your compositing app, where you can set an exact offset.

Where Styleframe fits after you've resized

Getting the canvas right in Procreate is mostly about producing clean source art. The next question for many animators is how to move that art into motion without losing control of the look. That's where Styleframe can sit in the pipeline.

Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool. Setting your Procreate canvas to your target aspect ratio, such as 16:9 or 9:16, up front means the frames you draw already match the format you plan to deliver.

Troubleshooting common problems

My artwork got blurry after resizing. You likely had Resample on and scaled up. Undo, or revert to your duplicate, and either draw at the larger size or resize with Resample off and rework the art.

I can't make the canvas any bigger. You've hit your device's maximum total pixels or longest-edge limit. Reduce one dimension, or move to a different canvas shape that keeps the total pixel count under the cap.

I lost layers. Increasing canvas size reduces the maximum number of layers, and Procreate's notification shows the new count as you drag. Merge or group layers you no longer need to edit before enlarging, and work on the duplicate.

The aspect ratio keeps snapping back. The aspect lock is on. Tap the chainlink to unlock it, then enter your width and height independently.

Print size changed but pixels didn't. That's how DPI works. It only affects physical dimensions, not pixel count.

Quick checklist

1. Duplicate the artwork.
2. Actions → Canvas → Crop and Resize.
3. Choose pixels as your unit for video work.
4. Decide on Resample: off to change the frame, on to scale the art.
5. Set the aspect lock to match your target ratio.
6. Type exact dimensions, check the layer count, and tap Done.
7. Export at your target dimensions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Blender, or Nuke.

Resize deliberately, draw at the resolution you need, and keep a duplicate. Those three habits prevent most canvas problems before they reach your timeline.

To change canvas size in Procreate, tap Actions (the wrench icon), choose Canvas, then Crop and Resize. Drag the grid handles, or tap the width and height readouts and type exact values. Leave Resample off to add or trim canvas space without scaling your artwork, and turn it on to scale the artwork with the canvas. Your iPad model caps the maximum size, and a larger canvas leaves you fewer layers.

For motion designers and animators, the details matter more than the steps. Pixel dimensions, aspect ratio, and resampling decide whether a Procreate illustration holds up once it lands in After Effects, Premiere Pro, or Nuke.

Step-by-step: change canvas size in Procreate

1. Duplicate your artwork first

Crop and Resize changes your artwork once you confirm it, so make a backup. Before you touch anything, go to the Gallery, tap Select, tap your artwork, and choose Duplicate. If the new size cuts off content or softens linework, you still have the original.

2. Open Crop and Resize

Open the artwork and tap Actions (wrench) → Canvas → Crop and Resize. A grid overlay appears on the canvas. The edges of that grid are the new edges of your canvas.

3. Resize by dragging

• Drag a side to stretch or squash the canvas along one axis.
• Drag a corner to change width and height at once.
• Watch the readouts. The bottom toolbar updates width and height live, and a notification shows how many layers the new size will allow.

You can't drag past the maximum size your hardware supports, so the grid simply stops.

4. Resize with exact numbers

For production work, type values instead of dragging. Tap the width or height readout to bring up the keypad, then enter your number. The readout uses whatever unit you picked when you created the canvas (pixels, inches, centimeters, or millimeters). For video work, create or switch to pixels so you're not converting in your head.

The chainlink icon between the two fields is the aspect lock. When it's active, changing one dimension adjusts the other to keep the ratio. When it's off, you can turn a square into a 16:9 frame, or the reverse, freely.

5. Confirm with Done

Tap Done to apply the change. Large canvases and complex files can take a moment to process.

Resample: scale the artwork or just change the frame

This is the setting people most often get wrong. Crop and Resize does two different jobs depending on the Resample switch.

• Resample off: You're changing the frame only. Existing pixels stay at their original size and position. Making the canvas bigger adds empty space around your drawing, and making it smaller crops it. Use this when you're running out of room or switching from portrait to landscape.
• Resample on: The whole image scales up or down to match the new dimensions. Use this when you made the piece at the wrong size and want everything to scale proportionally.

Upscaling with Resample interpolates new pixels. It doesn't add detail. A 1080p drawing resampled to 4K will be bigger but softer, and thin linework is the first thing to suffer. If your piece will be animated or zoomed in a compositing package, it's much better to draw at the target resolution from the start, or at a clean multiple of it.

A note on Procreate Dreams

If you work in Procreate Dreams, the path is slightly different. Open your Drawing or Flipbook, tap Settings → Canvas, then Crop and resize. Dreams splits the two behaviors into separate modes: Crop changes the frame, and Resample scales the content uniformly.

Resample in Dreams shows a Quality percentage and lets you pick the interpolation method. Bilinear is the default and gives softer edges. Nearest gives crisper edges with very little softening, which is useful for pixel art or hard-edged graphics. When you're cropping a Flipbook, a time bar lets you scrub through the animation to check the new framing at different points.

DPI: what it changes and what it doesn't

DPI trips up many people coming from video. In Crop and Resize you can set or change the DPI, but changing it alters only the physical size of the canvas (inches, centimeters, millimeters). It does not change the pixel dimensions.

For print, 300 DPI is the usual standard. For screens, 72 to 144 is typical. If you deliver to video, DPI is effectively irrelevant: video tools such as After Effects and Premiere Pro generally care about pixel width and height. Set your pixel dimensions correctly and ignore the DPI field, unless you're also delivering print assets.

Know your limits before you resize

Two hardware limits apply to every canvas:

1. Maximum total pixels (width × height).
2. Maximum length of the longest edge.

On recent iPad Pro and iPad Air models, Procreate supports up to 134 megapixels in total, for example 11,585 × 11,585 px, with a 16,384 px cap on the longest edge. Older and smaller devices have lower ceilings, such as 67, 52, or 33 megapixels. Check Procreate's published table for your specific model.

For motion work these limits are generous. A 3840 × 2160 UHD frame is about 8.3 megapixels, and even a 8K frame fits on newer hardware. The real constraint is layers.

The layer trade-off

Canvas size and layer count are linked. The bigger the canvas, the fewer layers Procreate gives you. This matters if you build characters or scenes with many separated elements (the same separation you'd want for rigging or parallax in After Effects).

One workflow that works around this: sketch and block in on a smaller canvas where you have plenty of layers, then duplicate the file and scale up to the final size using a clean multiplier. For example, if your target is 3840 × 2160, start at 1920 × 1080 and scale by exactly 2×. Keep in mind that anything drawn on the small canvas will soften when scaled, so use that stage for sketching and composition, and redraw final linework and color at full size.

Matching canvas size to your video pipeline

Before resizing, decide where the artwork is going.

• Standard HD or UHD comps: Use 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 so the artwork drops into a matching After Effects composition at 100% scale.
• Vertical social: 1080 × 1920 is the standard, and Crop and Resize lets you convert a landscape canvas to portrait in one pass with the aspect lock off.
• Room to move: If you plan to push in, pan, or add camera moves in After Effects, make the canvas larger than the comp. A 2× oversized illustration at 3840 × 2160 can sit in a 1920 × 1080 comp with room to scale to 200% before it softens.
• Animated plates and parallax: Resize with Resample off and extend the canvas, then paint into the new space. That gives you extra background to move across the frame.

Where your export format preserves layers, layered files are the better choice for compositing, because you can separate elements in After Effects, Nuke, or Blender instead of repainting.

Fixing a canvas that's off-center

Procreate's Crop and Resize doesn't snap to the center. If you're enlarging a 2100 × 2100 canvas to 2400 × 2400 and want equal padding on every side, you need a workaround:

1. Open Actions → Canvas → Drawing Guide → Edit Drawing Guide, and choose Symmetry with the Quadrant option so two lines cross at the canvas center.
2. Make the lines thicker and a visible color, then tap Done.
3. Go back to Actions → Canvas → Crop and Resize and enter the new numeric dimensions.
4. Center the grid on the intersecting guide lines before confirming.

It's less precise than a true snap, so zoom in and check the edges. If you need pixel-perfect padding, an alternative is to do the final extension in your compositing app, where you can set an exact offset.

Where Styleframe fits after you've resized

Getting the canvas right in Procreate is mostly about producing clean source art. The next question for many animators is how to move that art into motion without losing control of the look. That's where Styleframe can sit in the pipeline.

Styleframe is an AI video and motion tool. Setting your Procreate canvas to your target aspect ratio, such as 16:9 or 9:16, up front means the frames you draw already match the format you plan to deliver.

Troubleshooting common problems

My artwork got blurry after resizing. You likely had Resample on and scaled up. Undo, or revert to your duplicate, and either draw at the larger size or resize with Resample off and rework the art.

I can't make the canvas any bigger. You've hit your device's maximum total pixels or longest-edge limit. Reduce one dimension, or move to a different canvas shape that keeps the total pixel count under the cap.

I lost layers. Increasing canvas size reduces the maximum number of layers, and Procreate's notification shows the new count as you drag. Merge or group layers you no longer need to edit before enlarging, and work on the duplicate.

The aspect ratio keeps snapping back. The aspect lock is on. Tap the chainlink to unlock it, then enter your width and height independently.

Print size changed but pixels didn't. That's how DPI works. It only affects physical dimensions, not pixel count.

Quick checklist

1. Duplicate the artwork.
2. Actions → Canvas → Crop and Resize.
3. Choose pixels as your unit for video work.
4. Decide on Resample: off to change the frame, on to scale the art.
5. Set the aspect lock to match your target ratio.
6. Type exact dimensions, check the layer count, and tap Done.
7. Export at your target dimensions for After Effects, Premiere Pro, Blender, or Nuke.

Resize deliberately, draw at the resolution you need, and keep a duplicate. Those three habits prevent most canvas problems before they reach your timeline.