To make type in Procreate, tap the Actions (wrench) icon, choose Add, then Add Text. A text box appears on the canvas with the word "Text" highlighted, ready to type over. Use the keyboard or Apple Pencil Scribble to enter your copy, then tap Edit Style (or the "Aa" button) to change font, size, tracking, kerning, and alignment. The text stays editable vector until you rasterize it to paint on it or apply effects.

Add a Text Box

1. Open a canvas.
2. Tap Actions (wrench) > Add > Add Text.
3. A bounding box appears with the placeholder word "Text" selected. Type over it with the iOS keyboard, or write with Apple Pencil and let Scribble convert your handwriting into typed characters.

The text uses your currently selected color and Procreate's default font. In current versions that is Helvetica Neue, while older versions shipped with Eina. Because the placeholder is pre-selected, you don't need to delete anything before typing.

The box expands as you add content. To move the text, drag the bounding box. While the text is still vector, it can hang off the edge of the canvas without being clipped, which is useful when you're building oversized type or cropped compositions.

Resize the Text Box

Drag the blue nodes on either side of the bounding box to widen or narrow it. This changes the container, not the type size. If you make the box narrower than the line, the text wraps onto multiple lines. For paragraph-style layouts, set your box width first, then adjust the font size.

Edit Type with the Edit Style Panel

Double-tap the text to open the Text Entry Companion. It handles select, cut, copy, paste, alignment, and quick font selection. Tap the font name, tap Edit Style, or tap Aa at the top right of the keyboard to open the full Edit Style panel.

One quirk trips up many new users: if the cursor is still blinking inside the text, some style controls won't respond. Tap outside the box, then tap the text again and reopen the panel. When you want to edit a single word or a pair of letters, place your cursor there deliberately.

Font, Style, and Size

Pick a font from the list. Each family exposes its own styles, such as regular, italic, bold, and bold italic for a family like Georgia. Size is set in the same panel. If the type outgrows the canvas, either reduce the size or widen the box.

A fast trick: Scribble the name of the font you want into the Font Style field, and Procreate switches to it.

Kerning and Tracking

These two controls are the most important ones for anyone who cares about typography:

• Tracking adjusts the spacing between all characters uniformly.
• Kerning adjusts the space between two specific characters. Tap between the letters to place the cursor, then adjust.

Kern the key pairs (the awkward ones like "AV," "Te," or "LT") after you've set overall tracking, not before.

Leading, Baseline, and Alignment

• Leading sets the spacing between lines of text.
• Baseline shifts the line the letters sit on. Changing it moves the baseline for the whole selection.
• Alignment options are left, center, right, and justified.

Underline, Outline, and Vertical Text

The panel also includes underline, outline, and capitalization options, plus a vertical text toggle. Test these before relying on them. Underline can behave inconsistently in some versions, and switching vertical text off will shift your text away from where you'd placed it, so reposition afterward.

Color and Opacity

To change the color of text with a blinking cursor, go back to the keyboard from the Edit Style panel, then return to Edit Style and use the color circle as you would elsewhere. For opacity, skip the text panel and use the layer's own opacity setting. It's faster to reach, and it behaves the same way as for any other layer.

Vector Text vs. Raster Text

This distinction determines what you can do next.

While the text is vector, you can:

• Retype the content
• Change font, style, spacing, and alignment
• Add underline, outline, and capitalization effects
• Scale up or down without losing quality

Whether vector or raster, you can:

• Move it and apply uniform transformations
• Change opacity
• Add clipping masks and layer masks
• Group it with other layers

Once rasterized, it becomes a normal pixel layer. You can then use selections, adjustments, merging, distortion, and painting.

You can recognize a vector text layer in the Layers panel by the "A" in its thumbnail. Its name automatically follows its content, and you can override that by tapping the layer and choosing Rename. To rasterize, tap the text layer and choose Rasterize from the Layer Options menu.

The practical rule: finish all typographic decisions first, duplicate the layer if you might need to revise copy later, then rasterize the duplicate for effects. Rasterizing is a one-way step for editing text content.

Style Type with Textures and Masks

Procreate's text layers work with clipping and masking, which covers most decorative lettering effects.

Fill type with a texture

1. Tap Actions > Add > Add File (or paint a texture on a layer) and place the texture above the text layer.
2. Tap the texture layer and choose Clipping Mask. The texture now fills only the letterforms.
3. Use the Transform tool to scale or rotate the texture within the letters.

Weave lettering behind type

1. Create hand lettering on its own layer and apply a Mask to it.
2. Select the text layer using the Selection tool in Automatic mode.
3. Return to the lettering layer's mask and paint black where you want the lettering to pass behind the type. Painting white brings it back.

Because masks are non-destructive, you can adjust the overlap later without redrawing anything.

Make Hand-Lettered Type

"Make type" in Procreate often means drawing letters rather than typing them. The text tool still helps here.

Type and Trace

1. Type your word or quote with the Text tool and pick a font close to the style you want.
2. Lower the text layer's opacity and lock or leave it in place.
3. Create a new layer above and trace the letterforms by hand.

This gives you well-proportioned bubble, block, or script bases without having to guess spacing. It's especially useful for long quotes, since you can adjust the layout of the typed version before you commit to any inking.

Use Drawing Guides

Turn on guides under Actions > Canvas > Drawing Guide, then set the grid size to match the scale of your lettering. A grid keeps baselines and x-heights consistent across a line. For curved or angled layouts, try the Symmetry tool or a custom grid.

Before you start tracing, proofread the typed text. It's easy to ink an entire phrase before noticing a typo.

Take Procreate Type into a Motion Pipeline

Procreate is a still-image tool, so type made there usually becomes an asset for another application. A few habits make that handoff cleaner:

• Keep live type in your motion app when it needs to be editable. If the title copy might change, set it in After Effects, Cinema 4D, or Blender, and use Procreate for the hand-drawn elements: flourishes, textures, ink edges, and illustrated letters.
• Work on a large canvas. Raster lettering can't be scaled up the way vector text can, so build it at or above the resolution of your final comp.
• Separate layers by purpose. Keep base lettering, texture, highlights, and shadow on their own layers so you can animate or composite them independently.
• Export with transparency. Hide the background layer before exporting so the lettering drops cleanly over footage or other elements.

One caution: generative tools can alter letterforms. If legibility matters, such as a client's name or a title that must read exactly, keep the final readable type as a live or locked layer in your compositor, and use generated passes for texture, motion, and atmosphere around it.

Quick Troubleshooting

• Can't change the font or style: Make sure the cursor isn't blinking in the text, then reopen the panel.
• Text won't take a brush, smudge, or filter: It's still vector. Rasterize it.
• Underline looks wrong: Some versions are inconsistent with it. Try outline, or draw the underline on its own layer.
• Text jumped after toggling vertical: Drag the box back into position.
• Lettering looks soft in a comp: The canvas was too small. Rebuild it larger rather than scaling up.

Summary

Add text through Actions > Add > Add Text, enter your copy, and use Edit Style for font, tracking, kerning, leading, and alignment. Keep the layer vector while you refine the typography, then rasterize a copy for painting, masking, and texture work. For hand-lettered type, trace over a typed base with drawing guides on. If the result is headed to motion, build it large, keep layers separated, and decide early which type stays live in your compositor.

To make type in Procreate, tap the Actions (wrench) icon, choose Add, then Add Text. A text box appears on the canvas with the word "Text" highlighted, ready to type over. Use the keyboard or Apple Pencil Scribble to enter your copy, then tap Edit Style (or the "Aa" button) to change font, size, tracking, kerning, and alignment. The text stays editable vector until you rasterize it to paint on it or apply effects.

Add a Text Box

1. Open a canvas.
2. Tap Actions (wrench) > Add > Add Text.
3. A bounding box appears with the placeholder word "Text" selected. Type over it with the iOS keyboard, or write with Apple Pencil and let Scribble convert your handwriting into typed characters.

The text uses your currently selected color and Procreate's default font. In current versions that is Helvetica Neue, while older versions shipped with Eina. Because the placeholder is pre-selected, you don't need to delete anything before typing.

The box expands as you add content. To move the text, drag the bounding box. While the text is still vector, it can hang off the edge of the canvas without being clipped, which is useful when you're building oversized type or cropped compositions.

Resize the Text Box

Drag the blue nodes on either side of the bounding box to widen or narrow it. This changes the container, not the type size. If you make the box narrower than the line, the text wraps onto multiple lines. For paragraph-style layouts, set your box width first, then adjust the font size.

Edit Type with the Edit Style Panel

Double-tap the text to open the Text Entry Companion. It handles select, cut, copy, paste, alignment, and quick font selection. Tap the font name, tap Edit Style, or tap Aa at the top right of the keyboard to open the full Edit Style panel.

One quirk trips up many new users: if the cursor is still blinking inside the text, some style controls won't respond. Tap outside the box, then tap the text again and reopen the panel. When you want to edit a single word or a pair of letters, place your cursor there deliberately.

Font, Style, and Size

Pick a font from the list. Each family exposes its own styles, such as regular, italic, bold, and bold italic for a family like Georgia. Size is set in the same panel. If the type outgrows the canvas, either reduce the size or widen the box.

A fast trick: Scribble the name of the font you want into the Font Style field, and Procreate switches to it.

Kerning and Tracking

These two controls are the most important ones for anyone who cares about typography:

• Tracking adjusts the spacing between all characters uniformly.
• Kerning adjusts the space between two specific characters. Tap between the letters to place the cursor, then adjust.

Kern the key pairs (the awkward ones like "AV," "Te," or "LT") after you've set overall tracking, not before.

Leading, Baseline, and Alignment

• Leading sets the spacing between lines of text.
• Baseline shifts the line the letters sit on. Changing it moves the baseline for the whole selection.
• Alignment options are left, center, right, and justified.

Underline, Outline, and Vertical Text

The panel also includes underline, outline, and capitalization options, plus a vertical text toggle. Test these before relying on them. Underline can behave inconsistently in some versions, and switching vertical text off will shift your text away from where you'd placed it, so reposition afterward.

Color and Opacity

To change the color of text with a blinking cursor, go back to the keyboard from the Edit Style panel, then return to Edit Style and use the color circle as you would elsewhere. For opacity, skip the text panel and use the layer's own opacity setting. It's faster to reach, and it behaves the same way as for any other layer.

Vector Text vs. Raster Text

This distinction determines what you can do next.

While the text is vector, you can:

• Retype the content
• Change font, style, spacing, and alignment
• Add underline, outline, and capitalization effects
• Scale up or down without losing quality

Whether vector or raster, you can:

• Move it and apply uniform transformations
• Change opacity
• Add clipping masks and layer masks
• Group it with other layers

Once rasterized, it becomes a normal pixel layer. You can then use selections, adjustments, merging, distortion, and painting.

You can recognize a vector text layer in the Layers panel by the "A" in its thumbnail. Its name automatically follows its content, and you can override that by tapping the layer and choosing Rename. To rasterize, tap the text layer and choose Rasterize from the Layer Options menu.

The practical rule: finish all typographic decisions first, duplicate the layer if you might need to revise copy later, then rasterize the duplicate for effects. Rasterizing is a one-way step for editing text content.

Style Type with Textures and Masks

Procreate's text layers work with clipping and masking, which covers most decorative lettering effects.

Fill type with a texture

1. Tap Actions > Add > Add File (or paint a texture on a layer) and place the texture above the text layer.
2. Tap the texture layer and choose Clipping Mask. The texture now fills only the letterforms.
3. Use the Transform tool to scale or rotate the texture within the letters.

Weave lettering behind type

1. Create hand lettering on its own layer and apply a Mask to it.
2. Select the text layer using the Selection tool in Automatic mode.
3. Return to the lettering layer's mask and paint black where you want the lettering to pass behind the type. Painting white brings it back.

Because masks are non-destructive, you can adjust the overlap later without redrawing anything.

Make Hand-Lettered Type

"Make type" in Procreate often means drawing letters rather than typing them. The text tool still helps here.

Type and Trace

1. Type your word or quote with the Text tool and pick a font close to the style you want.
2. Lower the text layer's opacity and lock or leave it in place.
3. Create a new layer above and trace the letterforms by hand.

This gives you well-proportioned bubble, block, or script bases without having to guess spacing. It's especially useful for long quotes, since you can adjust the layout of the typed version before you commit to any inking.

Use Drawing Guides

Turn on guides under Actions > Canvas > Drawing Guide, then set the grid size to match the scale of your lettering. A grid keeps baselines and x-heights consistent across a line. For curved or angled layouts, try the Symmetry tool or a custom grid.

Before you start tracing, proofread the typed text. It's easy to ink an entire phrase before noticing a typo.

Take Procreate Type into a Motion Pipeline

Procreate is a still-image tool, so type made there usually becomes an asset for another application. A few habits make that handoff cleaner:

• Keep live type in your motion app when it needs to be editable. If the title copy might change, set it in After Effects, Cinema 4D, or Blender, and use Procreate for the hand-drawn elements: flourishes, textures, ink edges, and illustrated letters.
• Work on a large canvas. Raster lettering can't be scaled up the way vector text can, so build it at or above the resolution of your final comp.
• Separate layers by purpose. Keep base lettering, texture, highlights, and shadow on their own layers so you can animate or composite them independently.
• Export with transparency. Hide the background layer before exporting so the lettering drops cleanly over footage or other elements.

One caution: generative tools can alter letterforms. If legibility matters, such as a client's name or a title that must read exactly, keep the final readable type as a live or locked layer in your compositor, and use generated passes for texture, motion, and atmosphere around it.

Quick Troubleshooting

• Can't change the font or style: Make sure the cursor isn't blinking in the text, then reopen the panel.
• Text won't take a brush, smudge, or filter: It's still vector. Rasterize it.
• Underline looks wrong: Some versions are inconsistent with it. Try outline, or draw the underline on its own layer.
• Text jumped after toggling vertical: Drag the box back into position.
• Lettering looks soft in a comp: The canvas was too small. Rebuild it larger rather than scaling up.

Summary

Add text through Actions > Add > Add Text, enter your copy, and use Edit Style for font, tracking, kerning, leading, and alignment. Keep the layer vector while you refine the typography, then rasterize a copy for painting, masking, and texture work. For hand-lettered type, trace over a typed base with drawing guides on. If the result is headed to motion, build it large, keep layers separated, and decide early which type stays live in your compositor.