Making a binary brush in Procreate

An image of two "loops" drawn in Procreate. The one on the left has standard anti-aliasing. The one on the right has no anti-aliasing, making its edges appear pixelated.

As in, a brush that is pixelated (no anti-aliasing), but not pixel-art.


First, find a brush you like to use as a starting point.
Here I'm using the "Studio Pen" brush because it has pressure sensitivity set up.

Swipe on the brush horizontally to bring up the mini-menu and pick Duplicate:

A screenshot showing the brush library in Procreate and the brush actions menu that appears when swiping on a brush.

A copy of a brush (usually named like "Brush Name 1") should appear next to the original brush.

Double-tap your new brush to open it in the Brush Studio.

Here, switch to the "Shape" section and tap "Edit" next to "Shape Source":

A screenshot shows the Shape section of Procreate's Brush Studio. Arrows point at the section in the menu and at the "Edit" button next to "Shape Source".

In the Shape Editor you'll want to tap "Import" and choose a 2048x2048 black-and-white (no grays!) image with your desired shape inside.

There's no quick way to make a pixelated circle in Procreate so here's one:

A 2048x2048 white circle on black background. Perfectly sharp (no anti-aliasing)
or this one

You'll have to long-tap it, pick "Copy", and then pick "Import" ➜ "Paste" in the Shape Editor.

Note: If you "Save to Photos", iOS will mercilessly compress the image, so don't do that.

With the shape replaced, the only thing left to do is to switch Shape Filtering to "No filtering" on the bottom of the section:

A screenshot shows "Shape filtering" section of the "Shape" section of Procreate's Brush Studio. An arrow points at the "No filtering" option.

And that's it!

Text "p. cool, huh?" written with a newly made binary brush in Procreate.

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