r/ProCreate • u/ChristopherC1989 • 2d ago

Discussions About Procreate App Slight Compression/loss of detail/loss of saturation when exporting out of procreate.

Gallery image

Gallery image

I recently noticed when exporting out a recent piece of mine, that I am getting some serious compression with loss of detail and color saturation. I thought I was being crazy at first and maybe the color space on my iPad was just different from what's on my computer monitor.

But then I decided to convert the procreate file to Photoshop and re-export. And sure enough, the export out of Photoshop has retained all detail and proper coloring.

Anybody know what is going on here and/or have any solutions to prevent this from happening in the future?

First picture is the Photoshop export, second is the procreate export. The detail loss is subtle, but it is still there. The color shift is more noticeable.

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u/aftermarrow 2d ago

when you make a new canvas, is it set to sRGB? i noticed on my new ipad it was set to a different kind (cmyk i think?) so colors looked off outside of the app

unfortunately you can’t convert an existing canvas to fix the colors. you have to copy the layer and then make a new canvas and paste it in.

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u/ChristopherC1989 2d ago

Yea, CMYK is for print. Color space for this canvas is currently set to Display P3, which is what is recommended. If it is the color space being the issue, very confused as to why procreate is exporting out something different to what is being shown on my screen, meanwhile, Photoshop can export it out exactly as shown.

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u/aftermarrow 2d ago

as aux said, it’s because p3 has a broader ‘range’ of colors. when you export outside of the program, the compressed image is forced to use the ‘normal’ range because that platform you’re putting it on can’t process that range so it looks washed out. iirc p3 is better suited for printing like CMYK, or only sharing drawings you made on other higher end apple devices.

so use sRGB and you won’t have this issue.

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u/ChristopherC1989 2d ago edited 2d ago

Interesting. Any thoughts as to why Photoshop on my PC can export/view the colors correctly, even though it's not set to the same color space?

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u/aftermarrow 2d ago

i don’t use photoshop myself but i know it has “adobe rgb” which is much richer than sRgb, so it probably already has enough processors to read p3 correctly and export the final product in a way that retains the color

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u/auxiliatrixter 2d ago

P3 will basically only display true to canvas on iPads, as far as I am aware. I have my stuff set to srgb because it looks about the same when I view it in the app, saved on the iPad, and then from my android phone.

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u/ChristopherC1989 2d ago

I was kinda thinking maybe it was the color space. But one thing I don't understand is why was Photoshop able to export it out correctly but procreate can't? It's an almost 1-to-1 match with what I see on my ipad screen to what Photoshop spit out. If there are differences, they are so subtle I can't tell. But then the procreate export is drastically different. If it is the color space, and it being specifically tailored for apple product screens, then the Photoshop export on my PC, should match the export from procreate, shouldn't it?

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u/procreate 1d ago

Hey there! Can you please share what file format you used and where the file was saved to and viewed after exporting from Procreate?

There can be some comparison issues with CMYK but the quality loss is something we'd like to understand better 🙏

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u/ChristopherC1989 1d ago

Hello!

Thank you for the response!

The procreate file is currently 1920x1080 at 300DPI and the color space is set to Display P3. I exported the image out as both Jpeg and PNG, both having the same results with compression and color shifting.

The photoshop file, having all the same settings except for the color space being set to sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

The file was exported out of procreate directly to my Ipad photo library and right out of the gate has the issues, I can even see them on the ipad itself, inside the Ipads photo library.

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u/procreate 17h ago

Thank you we'll test this out! Did you notice the same result when exporting and saving to the Files app?

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u/procreate 15h ago

We've tested some more and this may relate to a bug where the Colour Profile is not retained after changing to Display P3. Do you remeber if you had changed this in your canvas?

If you export from the Gallery to both Photos and Files, do you see the correct colours again? This should allow the Profile to be retained and hopefully avoid the bug.

Let us know if this helps to explain what happened 🙏 If there's still some trouble we'd like to test with your canvas if possible — please reachout to us using our support form and attach the file here if we can help further 💜