What is Procreate?

Procreate is a program that contains all the tools required to produce expressive sketches, detailed paintings, brilliant illustrations, and lovely animations. 

It is like a well-equipped art studio with simple-to-use tools and unique features.

If you are into digital art, you will find this program useful because it was designed to exploit the iPad's and Apple Pencil's potential. Even though the Apple Pencil is not required, it would be beneficial to have some stylus to get the most out of this software.

Its interface is simple to use, in a dark theme, that's easy on the eyes. You can choose among canvas templates or set up a custom one.

After that, you can see all the tools on the screen's left side.

Except for the Brush size and Brush opacity sliders, all of Procreate's tools are in two orderly rows at the top left and right of the screen. 

Every menu has subcategories that open in another tab, which can take up a lot of space and feel cluttered.

However, it provides grids, guidelines, and snaps to ensure you're in charge when painting on your canvas.

Procreate Features

Procreate has powerful features that are especially suitable for creating on the go:

• The Procreate Brush Studio allows users to customize their brushes in various ways, like combining two brushes into a custom one. Or they can download and use pre-made brushes. Also, you can upload your favorite brushes from Adobe Photoshop.

• Color companion – Color manipulation and selection tools like Color Dynamics, Color Harmony, and Color History make it easy to choose and control colors.

• Multi-touch gestures – Several options of gestures, like Three-finger redo, are useful shortcuts for productive work.

• Stroke stabilization for smooth, bold lines.

• 3D model painting allows painting with Apple Pencil, with the ability to add adjustments, effects, etc.

• Accessibility suite – Motion filtering, Single touch gestures, Larger text, Color names, etc.,  allow art to be accessible to anyone.

Page assist is a feature that transforms your ideas into a single, simple-to-navigate notebook, ideal for comic books, etc.

These are some  prominent features, but certainly not limited to what Procreate offers.

There is also an option to import files from other devices or locations, making it easy to organize your artwork in gallery mode.

In addition, Procreate supports the following exporting formats:

• Procreate.

• PSD.

• PDF.

• JPEG.

• PNG.

• TIFF.

• Animated GIF.

• Animated PNG.

• Animated MP4.

• Animated HEVC.

It is available for iPad and as an iPhone app, which is less comfortable to use but still manageable.

Pricing

The one-time purchase fee is $9.99. Still, it would be best if you also thought about additional costs – a compatible iPad, Apple stylos, and mat screen protector.

6 Best Procreate Alternatives for 2023

1. Glorify

The first tool on our list is Glorify. Although it is not a direct Procreate alternative, you can use it as an additional tool.

It is an all-in-one design tool, a love child of Canva and Photoshop. It is easy enough to use but still powerful enough for demanding users.

It is created primarily with eCommerce users in mind. Still, anyone needing to create product images, mockups, or social media content will benefit from it.

Here are some of the features Glorify offers:

1. Infinite canvas – It is one place for preparing marketing materials and organizing your brand’s assets. Save time and money by organizing your workflow and collaborating with your team on any project.

2. Mockups – Present your products using realistic 3D mockups and mockup scenes.

Create a scene from scratch or choose one from the collection of well-produced, pre-made scenes.

3. Brand kit –  Bring your brand's assets together in one spot. It makes it simple to find your logo, different versions of your logo, brand fonts, text styles, and color schemes. 

Having everything in one place also makes it easy to share your brand kit with others.

4. Smart resize – With just a few clicks, resize one image into different sizes for various platforms. Reuse one design for a Facebook post, Instagram story, or LinkedIn cover image.

5. Background remover – Remove any object, person, or background in a few clicks. 

6. Extensive library with hundreds of templates for social media, eCommerce, ebooks, ads, etc.

And millions of icons, illustrations, 3D models, fonts, and color palettes, that you can easily incorporate into your designs.

Pricing

Glorify has a free forever plan and two pricing plans – Pro and Business.

2. Sketchbook

Sketchbook enhances creativity with its tools for creating quick drawings and detailed artwork.

It offers all the features for both aesthetic freedom and precision when you need it, thanks to a large selection of highly customizable brushes backed by guides, rulers, and stroke tools. 

In addition, the ability to build up and experiment with drawings and color is made possible by layers with a broad range of blend modes.

Sketchbook is an ideal on-the-go tool for all those spontaneous ideas and when you want to experiment with different drawing styles and color palettes.

With its simple interface, Sketchbook gives the impression that you are drawing on paper.

Another great option is removing the tools and palettes from the app's UI while not in use. 

Let's see some of the most important features:

• Beginner-friendly interface that is simple to use.

• Comprehensive range of customizable brush types, including pencils, markers, airbrushes, paint, smear, and more.‍

• Color fill tools – You can color your work using various tools, like dynamic linear and radial gradients.‍

• Predictive Stroke tool for drawing perfectly smooth lines.‍

• Dynamic symmetry for mirroring pen strokes.‍

• Highly responsive with a stylus for an accurate representation of strokes.

Pricing

A free Sketchbook mobile app is available for iOS and Android devices.

Also, Sketchbook Pro is available for Mac and Windows desktops for $19.99.

3. ArtRage

ArtRage focuses on developing tools with organic, user-friendly interfaces. It enables painters from both traditional and digital backgrounds to create realistic paintings without needing to master digital skills. 

It serves as an artist's digital workspace and includes all required drawing tools.

Here are some things you can do with ArtRage:

• You can create realistic effects by using thick oils that smear and blend naturally and pencil and chalk that react to the texture of your canvas. While you paint, it all happens automatically.

• Artists who like pencil sketches can draw with pencils and use the tip of the pencil to add shading.

• Additionally, you can use it to create watercolor paintings with fine strokes.

ArtRage has an intuitive UI that suits beginners, teachers, and traditional or digital artists.

Pricing

ArtRage is available for the iPhone, iPad, and desktop and laptop computers running Windows or Mac OS X.

ArtRage Vitae for desktop is available for $80, ArtRage lite is $29,90, while ArtRage Vitae mobile can be downloaded for $4.99.

4. Inkscape

If you are looking for a free Procreate alternative for Windows, Inkscape is a fantastic option.

This tool is suitable for web designers, illustrators, and artists of all skill levels.

With Inkscape, you have access to the following:

• Object creation – Drawing options like calligraphy, pencil, and pen tools so you can draw freehand with straight lines and curves. Another helpful feature of this program is adding any form to your work with the shape tools.

• Object manipulation –  Scaling, rotating, Z-order operations, object grouping, alignment, and layering are additional features.

• Fill and stroke – You can use the color picker tool for coloring to select colors, fill patterns, create gradients, designate paths, and more.

• Text support  – You can use multi-line text in your artwork using Inkscape since it works with all the outline fonts you have installed on your computer.

• File formats – Additionally, this tool supports PNG, OpenDocument Drawing, DXF, sk1, PDF, and EPS for exporting artwork.

Pricing 

Inkscape is free to download, use, and share, and the source code is available for inspection.

You can download it for Linux, Windows, and macOS platforms. 

4. Krita

Krita is an open-source and free professional painting tool. It is created by artists who want to offer accessible art supplies for anyone.

Try out Krita if you're a budding artist or are trying to establish yourself in the field of visual art without much financial support.

You get the following main benefits with Krita:

• Clean and easy-to-use interface with movable and customizable panels and dockers.

• Preloaded with more than 100 professional brushes.

• Brush stabilizer tool for people with trembling hands.

• Fast comic panel production using vector tools and words.

• Nine brush engines for creating unique brushes.

• Wrap-around mode for creating limitless and seamless patterns or textures.

• Resource manager allows you to import the creative tools of other artists to your own set.

Krita also has simple but powerful 2D animation features and numerous productivity tools.

Pricing 

Krita is free software available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

5. Corel Painter

Corel Painter is a stable and high-quality tool for digital art.

With hundreds of realistic artist-created brushes, exceptional blending, and various adaptable painting tools, you can sketch, paint, illustrate, and create unrivaled photo art.

Corel Painter has various features:

• World-class photo-art tools for painting on a blank canvas. You may bring your ideas to life with Color tools, Photo art tools, Effects, etc.

• Customization – You can personalize the brushes, textures, patterns, and palettes.

• You can add style to any image or photo with artificial intelligence. You can also use effective auto-painting and cloning capabilities to convert photos into paintings.

Also, you can choose a 15-day free trial even though it is a subscription-based product.

Additionally, new subscribers receive a Creative Photo Bundle and 285 free brushes. 

Pricing

Corel Painter is the most expensive tool on this Procreate alternatives list. 

It is available for Windows and Mac, and the price is  €424.95.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, various options are available as Procreate alternatives.

If you want to use something on the go and don't need advanced options, go for the Sketchbook free mobile app. To create realistically, naturally looking digital art, ArtRage is the best option. 

On the other hand, Inkscape and Krita are perfect choices for students who enjoy working on their PC. Corel Painter is not the most budget-friendly tool, but it is undoubtedly powerful.

And lastly, give Glorify a try if you need an additional tool to turn your artwork into designs for social media.

Sign up to Glorify today and enjoy all the benefits this robust tool has to offer!