When I first posted on my Instagram an example of iPad Lettering with an offset stroke, I did not anticipate the overflow of questions that would follow. Since Procreate has no outright “Stroke” feature, everyone wanted to know how I created a solid looking stroke for my lettering.
While it may seem complicated, creating a solid stroke in Procreate is actually a pretty simple process. This offset style has become one of my go-to looks when I want to give my iPad lettering a little extra oomph but I don’t want to spend a ton of time adding gradients, shading, and drop shadows to my work.
I’ve shared a video of the entire process below along with step-by-step instructions to create your own offset stroke lettering using Procreate.
If all the steps seem intimidating at first, don’t worry! It’s actually really simple to add an offset stroke in Procreate. Once you get the hang of it you won’t be able to stop adding the offset stroke to every piece of iPad lettering you do!
How to Create an Offset Stroke Lettering Style in Procreate
Follow Along with the Video Using These Steps
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- Write your lettering using any solid-looking brush. I recommend using a thick monoline or a brush with thick upstrokes for the best results. My custom Lettering Eraser Brush is great for creating monoline lettering perfect for this technique.
- Tap the layer and choose “Select” from the flyout menu to create a mask.
- Add a new layer and drag it below your original lettering layer.
- Make sure you have black selected as your color and tap the empty layer to bring up the flyout menu. Tap “Fill Layer” to fill your selection with black.
- Zoom in nice and close so you can see the edges of your letters. Go to the Adjustments panel and select “Gaussian Blur” from the drop-down menu.
- Add a SLIGHT Gaussian Blur to the layer with the black lettering. You want to just barely be able to see the blur begin to peek out from the edges of your lettering. I typically end up setting the blur to somewhere between 3% and 7% depending on how thick I want my stroke to be.
- Go back to the layers panel and tap the top layer. Choose “Select” again from the flyout to create another layer mask like we did back in step 2.
- Tap the bottom layer with the black lettering and choose “Clear” from the flyout menu.
- Drag the bottom layer to the top so it’s above your colored lettering layer.
- Now duplicate the crap out of it until you’re satisfied with the resulting stroke weight. The more you duplicate this layer the more solid your stroke will become. I tend to do around 6 copies before I merge all the strokes layers together.
- If you’re happy with how your lettering looks now and don’t want to add an offset to the stroke, you can stop the tutorial now to keep the look of the current lettering stroked style you have now.
- To create the offset, select your stroke layer and tap the move tool to select the layer contents. Tap the bottom right corner of your canvas 4-6 times to create the offset effect.
That’s it! You’re officially a stroke making master.
Be sure to tag me on Instagram if you try out this technique so I can check out all your awesome lettering!
Let me know in the comments what you think of this tutorial and my walkthrough of the steps involved in creating offset strokes in Procreate!
