Have you been looking for ways to hone your design skills? If so, Procreate is a dynamic application that can help you achieve this goal. Adding text is one of its main functions. The feature is useful when you want to add titles, tags, and essential information to your artwork. It helps personalize your designs and improves audience engagement.
This article explains how to add text in Procreate.
How to add text in Procreate
Adding text in Procreate is relatively easy. Although the feature was not initially included in the app, it is a welcome addition.
Here’s how to add text:
- Launch Procreate and tap the “Wrench” icon in the toolbar.

- An “Action” panel will be displayed. Click the blue “Add” icon with a plus symbol.

- Choose “Add Text.”

- Enter your information within the displayed text bounding box using the keyboard that appears. If you can’t see the keyboard, double-tap the “Add Text” option to access “Text Settings” and select the “Keyboard” icon.

Edit text in Procreate
This raster graphics editing application also offers a variety of text styling options. Here’s how you can modify your text once you’ve added it to Procreate:
- Double tap your text to highlight it.

- A toolbox will be displayed above the bounding box containing the text. You can change the color, alignment, and layout of the text box. With this panel, you can also delete, copy, cut and paste the text.

- Navigate to the top right corner of your keyboard and select “Aa.” This will help you access the font options.

- Choose your preferred font type from the options shown. You can also import fonts if you can’t get the desired style in the default options.

- After selecting the font, you’ll need to choose a style for your text. Most fonts feature bold, standard, and italic styles. But it may vary in some cases.

- Adjust the text layout and select your preferred text attributes.

- Explore the text settings and confirm that all layout options are correct.
- Use your finger or stylus to correctly place the text on your artwork and select “Done.”

Your text is ready to use.
How to Fix Procreate Edit Text Not Working
This is a common problem that many users encounter after updating the app. Fortunately, it can be easily resolved.
- On your iPad, open “Settings.”

- Choose “General.”

- Scroll down the drop-down menu and find “Shortcuts.”

- Flip the switch and make sure it turns green.

This switch tends to activate most of the time for no reason. Once this happens, the text editing tab disappears.
Add shadow to text in Procreate
This is a great way to make added text stand out and add depth to your design. Before starting the process, you need to make sure that the Alpha Lock setting has been applied. This is what you should do:
- Open your “Layers” panel.

- Go to your text layer and swipe left.

- Choose “Duplicate” to produce a copy of the text layer.

- Select the shadow color you want to apply to the text. Choose a different tone from the original text and create a shadow effect.

- Your text will be completed with the color you chose.

- Adjust the position of your text until you get the desired shadow illusion.

Delete text in Procreate
Design changes may require you to delete text from your artwork. This is how you do it:
- Open the “Layers” menu.

- Find the layer that contains your text.

- Slide the layer to the left.

- An option to block, duplicate and delete will be displayed. Select “Delete.”

Rasterize your text in Procreate
Unlike other design creation and editing apps like Illustrator, which are vector-based, Procreate works with raster text. This means you’ll see noticeable changes when you change the text size in the app.
This is how you can rasterize your text:
- Open the “Layers” panel.

- Select your text layer.

- Choose “Rasterize.”

Rasterizing the text helps transform it into a textless layer. This allows you to access more options in the layer panel.
Mask raster text
This method is ideal if you’re looking for a way to overlay a design over text added in Procreate. It can help you change colors and add textures quickly. This increases your productivity as you don’t have to keep creating new files every time you want to make changes. You can mask raster text by selecting the layer and choosing a clipping mask.
These are the settings you can make:
- Transform: Useful for scaling and distorting images.
- Adjust: Allows you to explore color and texture effects.
- Off: This allows you to see the illusions before and after the text layout.
Text Style Options in Procreate
The layout panel is useful for modifying the formatting of your text. You can use some essential properties to change text styles. Below are some essential options and their functions:
- Kerning: This helps adjust the spacing between two letters. Be sure to place the cursor between the layers you want to zoom out or distance before making changes.
- Line Spacing: Unlike kerning, this property indicates the distance between two lines. If you have multiple lines within your artwork, this setup is ideal for reducing or expanding space.
- Tracking: This method is convenient to decrease or increase the spacing between all letters within the text box.
- Baseline: Shows the horizontal axis that your text occupies.
- Opacity – If you want to adjust the transparency of your text, this setting will help you. To reduce the opacity level, move the slide to the left. Moving it to the right will increase the opacity.
You can find all of these options in the Edit Style menu.
Spice up your art with text
Procreate is not just about drawing. Allows you to create unique works of art by adding text. Learning how to add text can help you quickly transform simple images into functional designs. The feature offers numerous benefits. Whether you want to create a foundation for hand lettering or need to improve your art, you can’t overlook the value of adding text.