After a lot of build up, Procreate's Text update has arrived.
The wait is finally over. After teasing its followers over the last week on social media, bestselling iPad illustration app Procreate announced today that its much-anticipated Text tool has arrived. Hurrah!
Shipped as part of the first major update for 2019, Text is the headline addition to Procreate 4.3. According to a blog post on the Procreate site, Text was created "in response to unprecedented customer demand". And judging by the ecstatic reaction on social media, it looks like Procreate has hit a home run with this toolset.
That's because with Text, digital artists no long have to use secondary tools such as Photoshop to create typographic elements in Procreate. Instead, you now just click on the wrench icon, tap add text, then start writing your message. For an iPad app that's already popular, has plenty of fun Procreate brushes and is also budget-friendly, this is the final piece of the puzzle that creators have been holding out for.
To make Text suitable for everyone, the tool was built with illustrators in mind and designed to work as smoothly as the rest of Procreate's features. This means that amateurs and professionals can create precision lettering for a range of assets.
Oui by Maggie Enterrios and Welcome to the Jungle by Jill Gori are an excellent showcase of Text's capabilities
Text includes all of the standard iOS fonts, plus three additional bonus typefaces. As if this wan't enough, users can still import different text styles easily from their machine. And to get their text looking exactly right, Procreate users can move and warp their letting to their heart's content.
Messages written in text stay in a vector format while being transformed, and are only rasterised once users have committed their changes. This produces lettering, and sidesteps the pixelation that can occur with other tools.
Not only that, but with pressure smoothing, calligraphers are in for a treat with Text. This is down to the fact that its brushes now feel more steady and realistic, replicating a true-to-life feel and delivering better lines.
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Text isn't the only update to Procreate 4.3, as it now boasts minor animation capabilities. If you've ever wanted to create animated GIFs in Procreate, now you can with the Export to GIF function. Offering frame rates ranging from 0.1 to 60 frames per second, we expect to see this tool used for tests such as walk cycles.
Excited to test out these new features? If you're an existing Procreate user the good news is that the update is free, just head over to its site. Meanwhile, new customers only have to pay a one-off fee of $9.99 – another feather in Procreate's cap as it goes head to head with other services demanding a monthly fee.
Images via Procreate. Lead image Wonder by Samy Halim
Dom Carter is a freelance writer who specialises in art and design. Formerly a staff writer for Creative Bloq, his work has also appeared on Creative Boom and in the pages of ImagineFX, Computer Arts, 3D World, and .net. He has been a D&AD New Blood judge, and has a particular interest in picture books.
