Procreate® Pocket Handbook

Interface

Procreate Pocket offers multiple color interfaces tailored to suit the way you work. This gives you a variety of ways to choose, save, and adjust colors.

Color Panel

The Color Panel is where you choose, modify, and save colors.

Active Color

Shows currently selected color.

Primary Color

In the top right corner of the Color Panel, a pair of side by side rectangles display your primary color (left) and secondary color (right).

Secondary Color

Learn more about using a secondary color in Color Dynamics.

Default Palette

The current default palette displays at the bottom of the Color Panel in portrait mode.

You can find the Default Palette at the bottom of the Color Panel on the Disc, Classic, Harmony, and Value tabs. It is also available on the Palettes tab.

You can change the Default Palette on the Palettes tab.

Learn more about Palettes.

Color Disc / Classic / Harmony / Value / Palettes

Procreate Pocket offers many ways to explore and select new colors.

When you first open the Color Panel, you see the Color Disc by default. Explore the below options more in the Handbook sections to follow.

Color Disc offers an outer Hue ring around an inner zoomable Saturation disc. This allows for fine touch control over your color selection.

Classic presents a traditional take on color selection. This offers Hue / Saturation / Brightness sliders combined with a standard square color picker.

Harmony gives you pleasing color suggestions based on your currently selected shade.

Value offers precision sliders along with numerical and hexadecimal values. These are ideal for precise color matching.

Palettes gives you access to sets of color swatches. Procreate Pocket includes several standard palettes. You can also import palettes, and create your own. The current Default palette displays at the bottom of each of the above Color Panel modes.

You can switch to any of the above modes using the tabs at the bottom of the Color Panel.

Active Color

In the top right of the Procreate Pocket interface, the Active Color displays your currently selected color. Press and hold it to switch between your current and previous color. You can also drag it onto the canvas to invoke ColorDrop. This is a speedy way to flood-fill areas of your artwork.

The Active Color displays your currently selected color. Tap the Active Color to open the Color Panel.

Switch to Previous Color

Press and hold the Active Color to switch between your current and previous color.

ColorDrop

Drag the Active Color into any area of your artwork. Release it to flood-fill that area with your selected color.

The color will spread outwards until it hits a boundary - for example, an outline, or an area of different color.

ColorDrop Threshold

Use ColorDrop Threshold to control how much your ColorDrop fill bleeds into and over the edges of your artwork.

At lower thresholds, the color will confine itself to smaller areas. At higher thresholds, the color will bleed into outlines and break through them to fill neighboring areas.

To activate Threshold, drag the Active Color over the area you want to fill, but don’t release it. After a moment, ColorDrop Threshold will activate. A thin bar above the artwork represents the threshold amount. Drag your finger to the left to fill less area, and to the right to fill more area. Lift your finger to commit the fill.

ColorDrop will remember your chosen Threshold setting until they change. If you have it set to 100%, it will save at 97.6% to avoid color overflow.

Pro Tip

Use ColorDrop in conjunction with Reference Layers. This helps easily keep your inks and colors separated.

Recolor

Change the color on a layer with Recolor and see the results with a live preview.

After performing a ColorDrop or SwatchDrop an option will drop down from the top menu bar saying Continue Filling with Recolor. Tap this to enter Recolor mode.

A small crosshair will appear in the middle of the screen. Drag the crosshairs to an area of color you want to replace on your active layer.

Tap on the Active Color to select your replacement color.

Now slide the Flood slider at the bottom of the screen. Your chosen color will gradually fill with the replacement color. The further to the right you drag the Flood slider, the more the new color fills into other similar shades.

If you want to replace a different area with your new color, drag the crosshairs around to see the effects of the flood fill elsewhere on your layer.

Tap anywhere on the canvas to commit and begin another instance of Recolor.

Tap the Active Color at any time to swap to a different replacement color.

SwatchDrop

Touch and Hold a Swatch color from a Color Palette in the Color panel until the Swatch lifts up from the Palette.

While still holding your Swatch, tap Done to close the Color panel and return to your canvas. Drag the Swatch onto any area of your canvas and release to flood-fill that area with the swatch color.

Like ColorDrop, any color you SwatchDrop will spread outwards until it hits a boundary such as an outline, or an area of different color.

SwatchDrop Threshold

Control how much the SwatchDrop fill bleeds into and over the edges of your artwork using SwatchDrop Threshold.

To activate Threshold, Touch Hold and Drag a Swatch color over the area you want to fill. When dragging your color onto the canvas, keep holding down until a blue line appears on top of your screen. Swipe your finger left or right to adjust the fill Threshold. Swipe your finger to the left for less fill Threshold in an area. Swipe to the right for more fill Threshold area. When you are ready to commit to a fill amount, lift your finger from the canvas.

SwatchDrop remembers the last Threshold setting used until you change it again. If Threshold is set to 100%, it will save at 97.6% to avoid color overflow.

Eyedropper

Instantly sample a new color from anywhere on your canvas.

Sample Color with Touch-and-Hold

Tap and hold anywhere on your canvas to invoke the Eyedropper.

Once the Eyedropper appears, drag it to any location on the canvas, and release to select your color.

Your new color displays on the top half of the loupe and the current color on the bottom half. Lift your finger to select your new color.

Eyedropper can also be accessed in the top left of the Color panel for Disc, Classic, Harmony and Value, tap Active Color > Eyedropper.

This method is a one-handed variant of the above.

Tap the Modify button to invoke a floating Eyedropper. It will remain floating until you touch and drag it to your desired color.