How to remove a background in Procreate

To remove a background in Procreate, select it with the Automatic selection tool, drag three fingers down the canvas and tap Cut. Or hide it with a layer mask, which keeps the original pixels. Then untick the Background Color layer, so the empty areas stay see-through, and export a PNG. Every step below follows the Procreate Handbook for iPad.

Bring the picture into Procreate

Open or create an artwork, then:

• From Photos: tap Actions, then Add, then Insert a photo. Procreate's handbook lists JPEG, PNG and PSD images from the Photos app.
• From Files: tap Actions, then Add, then Insert a file, and browse to the image.

The picture sits above the Background Color layer that every Procreate artwork has.

Select the background and cut it

Automatic selection picks similar colors around the spot you tap, which works well on a plain or even background:

1. Tap the Selection button in the toolbar, then choose Automatic.
2. Tap the background. Your selection shows in inverted colors, so a blue sky looks yellow.
3. To take in more or less, tap and hold, then drag right to grow the selection into surrounding areas or left to shrink it. This is the Selection Threshold.
4. Tap other parts of the background to add them. For fine adjustments, switch to Freehand and add or trace areas by hand.
5. Drag three fingers down the canvas to open the Copy & Paste menu, then tap Cut. The selected background is removed from the layer.

If you took too much, undo the cut. Working on a copy of the layer keeps the original safe as well.

Or hide the background with a layer mask

A mask hides the background without erasing it, which makes mistakes easy to fix:

1. In the Layers panel, tap the picture's layer to open Layer Options, then tap Mask. The mask appears attached above the layer.
2. With the mask selected, paint black over the background, or use the Eraser, to hide it.
3. Paint white to bring back anything you hid by mistake. Shades of gray give partial transparency, which helps with soft edges such as hair.

You can also combine the two: make an Automatic selection first, then paint black on the mask inside it.

Hide the Background Color layer

Every Procreate artwork comes with a Background Color layer at the bottom of the Layers panel. As long as it is visible, a PNG export fills every empty area with that color, usually white. Tap its Visibility Checkbox to hide it. Procreate's handbook recommends exactly this for artwork with a transparent background.

Export a transparent PNG

Tap Actions, then Share, then PNG, and choose where to send the file. Procreate describes PNG as lossless and as preserving transparency. JPEG doesn't store transparency, so choose PNG whenever the background should stay empty. The handbook also offers PNG Files under Share Layers, which saves each layer as a separate PNG.

A faster route for photos

Procreate's selections work by color, so busy backgrounds, hair and fur take many taps and careful brushing. For a photo, it is often quicker to cut the subject out first:

• On an iPad, Apple's Photos app can lift a subject (except on iPad 8th generation): open the photo, touch and hold the subject until an outline appears, tap Copy Subject, then in Procreate drag three fingers down the canvas and tap Paste. The iPhone guide covers the same feature on iPhone.
• In a browser, the background remover on this site finds the subject automatically and keeps soft, partly transparent edges around hair and fur. A preview PNG up to 0.25 megapixels is free without signup or a watermark; larger Max downloads use one credit. Save the PNG to Files, then use Actions, Add, Insert a file to bring it into your artwork.

Either way the cutout arrives on its own layer, ready to paint over, recolor or place on a new background you draw yourself. What a transparent background is explains why PNG keeps the empty areas empty.