Procreate and Photoshop are both great digital art and editing apps that can be invaluable tools for artists, graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, and more.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to creating artwork and editing, but which is the best suited for you?
In this article, we are going to be taking an in-depth look at both Procreate and Photoshop and listing some of the pros and cons of both programs.
So that you can make a decision as to which you would rather use.
What Is Procreate?
Procreate is a powerful, yet easy-to-use app that allows users to create digital images on iOS devices such as iPhones or iPads.
It was created by Apple in 2011, and since then has become one of the most popular digital art apps available for iPhone and iPad owners.
Procreate offers many features that allow users to create beautiful works of art from scratch, including drawing, painting, coloring, photo manipulation, and more.
In addition, there are over 100 filters included with the app that gives users the ability to add special effects to their creations.
The app also includes a variety of brushes, textures, and other items that help users achieve unique results.
How Does Procreate Work?
The interface of Procreate is very simple and easy to understand, making it ideal for beginners who want to get started with digital art.
The app offers two different ways of working: either using layers or drawing directly onto the canvas.
Layers allow users to add multiple elements to a single image, while direct drawing allows them to draw straight onto the canvas.
The Main Features Of Procreate
- A variety of brushes including oil paint, watercolor, chalk pastel, pencils, pens, and others
- Over 100 filters to help enhance your work
- Ability to apply special effects to your artwork
- Support for over 200 file formats, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, PDF, and TIFF
- Export your artwork into other common formats like JPG, PNG, PSD, etc.
The Pros & Cons of Using Procreate
Pros:
- Easy to learn and use: Procreate makes it incredibly easy to start creating artwork, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced artist.
- Fast workflow: With its intuitive interface and fast performance, Procreate is perfect for those looking to produce high-quality artwork quickly.
- Great for beginners: If you’ve never used any type of graphics software before, Procreate will provide you with everything you need to begin creating beautiful works of art.
- Versatile: You can use Procreate to create anything from abstract pieces to realistic portraits, and even combine different media types together.
- Cheap: All you need to pay to have full access to Procreate is a one-off fee of $9.99. There are no monthly subscription fees or additional costs (though you can choose to import paid-for brushes).
Cons
- Limited functionality: While Procreate does offer a lot of power and flexibility, there are certain things that it simply cannot do. For example, it doesn’t support vector graphics, so if you’d like to create something like a logo or icon, you’ll need another program to achieve this.
- Limited in terms of tools for photo editing: Although Procreate includes many useful tools for editing photos, it doesn’t include anything specifically designed for this purpose. This means that you may find yourself having to download additional programs to edit your photos.
- Not as suitable for professional-level design: As mentioned above, Procreate lacks the ability to create vector graphics, which is a common necessity when it comes to professional-level design.
Let’s now take a look at Photoshop to see how it compares.
What Is Photoshop?
Photoshop is a powerful image editor and graphic designer developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated.
It is currently the world’s leading desktop imaging application and is widely regarded as being one of the best pieces of software ever created.
How Does Photoshop Work?
Photoshop is an extremely complex piece of software, but once mastered, it can be used to create almost anything imaginable.
There are many different types of tools included within the program, from basic ones like color pickers and rulers to more advanced ones such as 3D objects, text, and shapes.
There are also various options available to customize the way Photoshop looks, including changing fonts, colors, and backgrounds.
In addition, Photoshop has a built-in library of pre-designed templates which can be applied to images to instantly transform them into new designs.
The Main Features Of Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is packed full of features and functions, and here we’ll highlight some of the most important ones.
- Image Editing Tools: One of the main reasons why people use Photoshop is because it allows them to edit their images in ways they couldn’t previously. The program offers a wide range of image editing tools, allowing users to crop, resize, and adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, and other properties. These tools are all very easy to use, and allow you to quickly make adjustments to any part of an image without needing to go through lengthy menus.
- Effects: One of the biggest strengths of Photoshop is its effects tool set. Not only can you apply filters, textures, and overlays to your images, but you can also combine these with each other to produce stunning results.
- 3D Effects: Another great feature of Photoshop is its 3D capabilities. With just a few clicks, you can turn 2D images into fully functioning 3D models, complete with lighting and shadows. You can then manipulate these models however you want, making them move around, rotate, zoom, and much more.
- Photo Manipulation: Photoshop also boasts a huge library of photo manipulation tools, allowing you to easily change the appearance of your images in numerous ways. For example, you can remove unwanted elements or replace them with something else entirely, brighten up dark areas, and so on.
- Vector Graphics: Finally, Photoshop includes a number of tools that let you create vector graphics. This means that you don’t need to worry about losing quality when resizing your artwork, since vectors will always retain their original size no matter how small or large you make them.
The Pros & Cons Of Using Photoshop
Pros
- Powerful Features: The most important feature of Photoshop is undoubtedly its ability to manipulate images in all sorts of ways. Whether you want to remove unwanted elements from an image, add special effects to make it stand out or change the whole appearance of an object, Photoshop has got you covered
- Extensive Range of Tools: One of the main reasons why people choose Photoshop over other similar applications is because it offers a huge number of tools for manipulating images. These include filters, layers, adjustment layers, brushes, gradients, textures, patterns, frames, frames, masks, selections, paths, raster effects, vectors, and much more.
- Support for all Major File Formats: Photoshop supports virtually every popular file format, meaning that no matter what kind of image you have, you can open it up in Photoshop and start working on it straight away.
- Versatile: Photoshop is capable of doing just about everything that you could possibly think of when it comes to manipulating images. It can be used as a standalone application, or integrated with other programs like Illustrator, InDesign, Lightroom, and others, offering an extra layer of versatility.
Cons
- Expensive: Photoshop isn’t cheap, especially if you want to buy the full version. This makes it a little less accessible than Procreate, which has a one-off payment.
- Difficult to Master: To become fully proficient with Photoshop, you are going to need to put in a lot of time, effort, and practice. You will need to learn how to use each of the different tools properly before you can begin to produce high-quality results.
- It Might Not Be Suitable for Beginners: Although Photoshop is great for experienced users, it may not be the right choice for beginners who aren’t familiar with any sort of digital editing.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a simple piece of editing/art software that won’t break the bank, then Procreate might well be your ideal option.
However, if you’re after something a bit more sophisticated, then Photoshop is definitely worth checking out.
It all depends on your personal preferences and needs, but hopefully our guide has helped you decide which program is best suited to your requirements!
