Procreate is a digital painting app that is great for artists that love to illustrate and draw. Many artists choose to use Procreate because of its simple interface and because they prefer to work on the iPad. However, Procreate can’t do all professional graphic designs.
Let’s put it this way, you can definitely use Procreate to create graphics for your graphic design projects. So yes, you can use procreate for graphic design.
For years, I have used Procreate for graphic design. Some graphic design projects I have worked on in the app would include logos, album covers, concert flyers, and shirt designs. However, when it comes to working in the industry, most art directors prefer vectorized designs.
This article will cover whether or not Procreate is good for graphic design. I will share the pros and cons of using Procreate for graphic design, some ways it could be used, and some alternative tools for graphic design.
Table of Contents
Is Procreate Good for Graphic Design & Who Uses it
In the field today, some designers use Procreate to create illustrations for some graphic design projects. If you are an artist with a background in drawing and painting then this app might be for you. In Procreate it is very easy to create organic illustrations, shapes, and lines.
Another reason why a graphic designer might choose Procreate is that it is used on the iPad! If the iPad is your preferred method for creating then Procreate might be your best bet. However, if you are using a desktop or anything Windows, Procreate cannot be accessed.
Many illustrators like to use Procreate because of its simplicity and ability to create graphics very organically and less mathematically structured like vectorized art.
Why Procreate isn’t Recommended for Graphic Design
As I mentioned before, Procreate is pixel-based, which means the image resolution changes as you scale. This is a no-no for professional graphic design projects like branding design.
In the art world today, the most popular graphic design programs are found in the Adobe Creative Cloud, more specifically Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. The reason for this is that these programs are vector-based.
In Adobe Illustrator, for example, all graphics created are vectorized. Therefore, if a graphic designer wants to create artwork with an infinite resolution they would not be using Procreate.
Another reason is that most graphic design jobs today require knowledge of programs like Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, as they are the industry standard programs.
Bonus Tip
If you are an artist that prefers Procreate there are still ways of getting around it. If you absolutely love creating organic illustrations on the iPad but still need to get them vectorized, then there are ways of exporting your file into Adobe Illustrator to vectorize it.
Moreover, if you do not need your designs to be vectorized then you could create your graphics in procreate. There are many brushes that create shapes in Procreate as well as tricks to transform your designs on the app.
Designing using type is also quite simple in Procreate. All settings on the interface are simple and easy to use for design/creative beginners.
Conclusion
Procreate is an easy-to-use app on iPad, and though it could be used for graphic design it is not the industry standard. If you’re looking to become a professional graphic designer, you should know Adobe, Corel, or other vector graphics software besides Procreate.
However, if you are an illustrator or painter that is just looking to do simple graphics on your iPad then Procreate is good for your graphic design needs.
When it comes to choosing which program to use for graphic design it comes down to the artists’ preference and whether or not your client needs vectorized artwork.
In short, Procreate is only good for graphic design in some cases.