I am hearing such rave reviews about ProCreate that I have been playing around with the idea of investing in an iPad Pro in order to get ProCreate and the apple pen. I am wondering if it would be worth my investment. I have Photoshop for free through my work along with a Wacom Intuos. I have been super happy with them both (once I learned a thing or two.) My artwork has improved exponentially as I have overcome some major hurdles in the PS learning curve. I am wondering would I be wasting my money if I wanted to one day pursue illustration and digital art in the future if I invested in the iPad set up? Should I just stick with becoming fast friends with PS and save my money for a nicer drawing tablet like a cintiq? What are your thoughts?
I'd find a friend who has an iPad Pro, ask if I could borrow it for a night or two, download ProCreate (inexpensive) and play with it. If after that you feel it's gonna change your life, buy an iPad Pro 
I have the same problem. Since I can only afford one, I am planning on buying a Cinteq and PS for my Mac once the zombie apocalypse is over. At a later time, I'll ad an iPad and Procreate. Because...
Procreate currently only supports RGB. The standard is that you use RGB for the web, and CMYK for print. You can use RGB for print, but the colors will change far more drastically than with CMYK.
I LOVE procreate but I don’t think it will replace adobe as an industry standards, not at this point anyways. Maybe one day?
Hi @chrisaakins, I hope Procreate becomes a notable and acceptable substitute for artists. Since I’m still a beginner, I will continue with procreate until I’m absolutely forced into getting PS in order to land book deals.
@Kim-Hunter I was also considering this point about RGB a downfall until the new Procreate update came out which supports both RGB and CMYK. Now I'm planning to format book pages start to finish in Procreate... I haven't done it yet, so others with more experience can chime in! But it seems Procreate is getting better and better...
I think Procreate has a LOT of things going for it, but it is limited in some ways to specific types of workflows. For example, there is a limit to the number of layers you can have depending on the dimensions and pixels of the canvas. Some say the CMYK color profile isn't really up to snuff. And the file/stacking system in the app has two levels--that's it. In addition, some of the tools lack the specificity and accuracy that Photoshop has--for example, it crops anything outside of the canvas, has no adjustment layers, has no AI for enabling intelligent fills, etc.
All of these things added together make for a very specific appeal for very specific artists who can flourish within those boundaries and not need those other tools. It has gorgeous brushes, a simple and intuitive user interface, and a "feel" that some say is more natural than Photoshop. And a lot of artists use it for a part of their work flow, but it hasn't replaced Photoshop for most artists completely.
Personally, I'm not sure they can ever completely go down that path, as Photoshop can do too much for too many different types of artists.
I love the drawing experience in Procreate so I do hope that one day it can be as good as Photoshop.
I know I saw a huge improvement with a graphic display monitor. I chose the lesser expensive X-Pen 15.6 " newer model with the nicer screen. I couldn't be happier. I feel the only thing in my way now is me and after watching Will's 3 day event last week, I feel I've improved my process too.
I just want to confirm what @Coreyartus said. I totally agree with him.
I think using procreate is a WAY better experience for drawing and painting, sketching, concepting, and getting an illustration 90% there. But to do what I need to do for publishing I have to finish everything on my desktop using Photoshop. Especially when it comes to prepping files for print.
Adobe seems to forget that a lot of people use Photoshop for that, but I think their bread and butter is photographers, so I doubt it will ever stray too far away from being a tool that is primarily designed for manipulating photos.
@KathrynAdebayo I'm still weary of the CMYK in Procreate. Could have been user error, but when I tried going back and forth with PSDs from Procreate to PS, the colors shifted horribly. I've illustrated books in Procreate, but I wouldn't trust it for layout and final color.
@Ryan-Ehr Thank you so much, Ryan... this is very valuable info. Please forgive me naïveté, but does that mean that CMYK files straight from Procreate would have trouble printing accurately? As in, the color matching from screen to print would be harder than if the file came from photoshop? Thanks so much... I can't imagine what a headache it would be to figure this all out without everyone on this forum.
@Ryan-Ehr Yeah I can attest to the colors changing on an export. I really can't quantify what is happening exactly - one of these days I'll have to really research it because it can get pretty annoying.
@KathrynAdebayo In my case, I received back CMYK PSD's from my publisher. I loaded them into Procreate (this was after they started supporting CMYK). The image looked broken essentially, as if it had been processed to get it to show in Procreate. The PSD was fine in Photoshop, but Procreate didn't handle them for whatever reason. This was last fall, so maybe they have fixed it since then, but it was beyond a simple color shift in my case.
You may be fine working directly in CMYK in Procreate, I haven't tested that specifically. But at the time last year, bringing a CMYK psd into Procreate was not working.
I invested in an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil in May last year. I have to say... I still create all of my ‘proper’ illustrations using photoshop. Maybe I just haven’t found a way of working with the iPad and Procreate that suits me, but I don’t like the work I create In it for some reason. I do use it for random doodles and it’s great for thumbnailing and colour studies. I do know people who work entirely in Procreate though and love it. That aside I still love having the iPad anyway as I’ve never had a tablet before.
I don’t think it will over take photoshop, as there is so much more photoshop is able to do. It is a great alternative for some people though. For the price of Procreate (obviously not considering the cost of the actual ipad) it’s a brilliant piece of software. I think adobes price points and subscription payment style are what is driving a lot of people towards Procreate these days.
@Kim-Hunter I was also considering this point about RGB a downfall until the new Procreate update came out which supports both RGB and CMYK. Now I'm planning to format book pages start to finish in Procreate... I haven't done it yet, so others with more experience can chime in! But it seems Procreate is getting better and better...
