Procreate Canvas Size and DPI for Printables You Sell
August 3, 2026
Procreate asks for a canvas size before you’ve drawn anything, and that one decision quietly caps what you can sell. Get it wrong and there’s no fix later — you can’t add detail that was never painted.
The rule is short: decide the finished print size first, convert it to pixels, then build that canvas. Everything below is why.
Work backwards from the print, not forwards from the canvas
A canvas has no inherent print size. A 3000 × 2400 pixel painting is a crisp 10 × 8 inch print, an acceptable 20 × 16, and a poor 40 × 32. The pixels never changed; the size you promised did.
So start at the end:
- Pick the finished size you’ll list — 8 × 10 inches, A4, 18 × 24.
- Multiply each side by 300 to get pixels.
- Make the canvas that size, in pixels.
An 8 × 10 inch print means a 2400 × 3000 canvas. If you’d rather not do the arithmetic each time, our print size calculator converts a print size into the pixels it needs, and printable wall art sizes lists the ratios that cover most frames, so one file serves many sizes.
Setting the canvas in pixels rather than inches is the habit worth building. Inches only mean something alongside a DPI value, and as you’ll see, that value moves.
What Procreate’s DPI setting actually does
DPI does two different jobs in Procreate depending on when you touch it, and conflating them is where sellers go wrong.
At canvas creation, DPI is real. If you enter the canvas in inches or millimetres, DPI is what multiplies those into an actual pixel count — so it genuinely determines how much detail you’ll have. Procreate puts it plainly: “A higher DPI equates to a higher density of detail on each inch of the printed output,” and advises that “if you plan to print your artwork, it is advisable to set your DPI and physical width and height before you commence the artwork.”
Worth knowing about the presets, too: “When you create a canvas from the preset sizes, the DPI will range from 132–400.” A preset is not automatically 300 DPI — check before you build a print product on one.
On artwork that already exists, DPI is only a label. This is the part that catches people out:
Increasing the DPI on an existing artwork will make the physical width and height smaller. Conversely, decreasing the DPI will make the physical width and height larger.
Raising DPI on finished artwork adds nothing. It re-labels the same pixels as a smaller print. If you painted 2400 × 3000 and set the file to 600 DPI, you now have a 4 × 5 inch print, not a sharper 8 × 10. This is the same trap as anywhere else — see what DPI printables should be for the underlying model.
The layer budget nobody warns you about
Procreate notes that “a higher DPI may reduce the number of available layers, depending on the pixel or physical width and height of your artwork.” Bigger canvases cost layers.
That’s the real trade. A canvas sized for a large print may leave you fewer layers than your usual workflow expects, and you’ll discover it mid-illustration. Procreate doesn’t publish one number for this, because it depends on your iPad and your canvas — so check the live layer count in the canvas settings when you create it, rather than trusting a figure from a blog. Procreate publishes a layer calculator for exactly this.
Plan for it: flatten finished sections as you go, or accept a smaller maximum print size, whichever hurts the artwork less.
Very large prints may exceed your iPad
Maximum canvas size is device-dependent. In Procreate’s words: “Your iPad model determines your maximum canvas size in Procreate. Generally, the newer the model, the larger the canvas you can create.”
There are actually two limits, and Procreate says “you’ll need to consider both when creating large canvases”:
- Maximum total pixel size — width × height multiplied together.
- Maximum longest edge — a separate cap on either single dimension.
Neither has a universal figure, so check Procreate’s per-model list before committing to a product size. The second limit is the one people forget: a long, narrow panoramic can sit well under the total-pixel cap and still be refused because one edge is too long.
Both numbers are just arithmetic, so here they are for the sizes printables actually sell at, all at 300 DPI. Check a row against your model’s two limits before you commit to selling that size.
| Print size | Canvas at 300 DPI | Total pixels | Longest edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 × 7 in | 1500 × 2100 | 3.2 MP | 2,100 |
| 8 × 10 in | 2400 × 3000 | 7.2 MP | 3,000 |
| A4 | 2480 × 3508 | 8.7 MP | 3,508 |
| 11 × 14 in | 3300 × 4200 | 13.9 MP | 4,200 |
| 12 × 16 in | 3600 × 4800 | 17.3 MP | 4,800 |
| A3 | 3508 × 4961 | 17.4 MP | 4,961 |
| 16 × 20 in | 4800 × 6000 | 28.8 MP | 6,000 |
| A2 | 4961 × 7016 | 34.8 MP | 7,016 |
| 18 × 24 in | 5400 × 7200 | 38.9 MP | 7,200 |
| 24 × 36 in | 7200 × 10800 | 77.8 MP | 10,800 |
The pattern worth internalising: total pixels grow with the area, so they climb fast — 24 × 36 needs roughly eleven times the pixels of 8 × 10. Small and mid sizes are comfortable on almost anything; large-format wall art is where sellers hit the wall, and it’s usually the longest-edge limit that stops them rather than the megapixel count.
If you’re unsure which sizes to offer in the first place, printable wall art sizes covers which aspect ratios cover the most frames, so you can serve several sizes from one canvas.
If your device won’t reach the size you want, the honest options are to sell a smaller maximum size or to build at a lower DPI and be straight about the largest print it supports. Inventing pixels afterwards doesn’t produce detail.
Exporting for an Etsy listing
Export a flat raster format — PNG for artwork with crisp edges or transparency, JPEG where file size matters more than perfect edges. Layered formats are working files, not products.
Then check the size against Etsy’s limits: each digital file is capped at 20 MB, and a listing takes up to five files. A large PNG at 300 DPI passes that ceiling easily, and this is where sellers get stuck at upload. JPEG at high quality is usually the fix; if you need PNG, our image converter will do the conversion, and image resizer will produce the smaller companion sizes. Once the set is ready, the Etsy digital file checker tests size, count, format and file names against Etsy’s limits in one drop.
Verify before you list
Check the exported file rather than trusting the canvas settings. Our DPI checker takes the file, asks the print size you’re promising, and returns the effective DPI — the number that decides whether the print looks sharp.
The short version
Choose the print size, multiply by 300, build that canvas in pixels. Don’t raise DPI on finished artwork expecting quality — it just shrinks the print. Watch the layer budget on large canvases, confirm your iPad can hold the size at all, and export a flat PNG or JPEG under 20 MB.