Adobe Fresco and Procreate both are digital painting and drawing apps widely popular among iPad users. Adobe Fresco’s Windows version has been launched but Procreate is available only for iPad till now.
Procreate has spent more than 9 years with us. But, Adobe Fresco is a completely new offering from Adobe for iPad users.
So, if you want to know which one is better between these two apps, I will surely try to help you with this. The comparison would be based on their overall features only for iPad users.
So, let’s know which one should you use when it comes to the digital art, drawing, and painting.
I have written an article on the best Procreate Alternatives for Windows. If you are interested to use Procreate on your Windows PC, check this article out.
Now, let’s start discussing the things that are similar or different between both these apps.
What makes Adobe Fresco Special?
Just Like Adobe Photoshop, Fresco is also using the Sensei Brush Engine to create brushes. The watercolor brush is the thing that most users are loving inside this app. Most impressively, you do not have to be a watercolor brush expert in order to make the most out of it. Customizations are really easy to do using its interactive user-interface.
The pen tool is also impressive even after not having a customizable pressure curve. However, its sensitivity settings are enough to handle this work perfectly.
Some features are inspired by the Procreate such as double tap, triple tap, and opacity slider. In fact, some features are much better than the Procreate. You get simple-to-use slider options to edit the opacity, strength, and intensity of your paintbrushes.
Key Features of Adobe Fresco:
- More than 50 Photoshop brushes along with vector brushes
- Selection, masking, and layer grouping options
- Use brushes from Adobe Capture
- Learning content is available
- Suitable for beginners
What are the bad things in Adobe Fresco:
The most annoying thing about Adobe Fresco is that its main user-interface (when you open the app) is full of advertisements. So, you may end up clicking on some ads instead of doing your work which no one will like. Especially when you use a paid app, you will never expect this thing to happen. Hope Adobe will do the needful in this regard in the future.
As compared to the Procreate, the brushes are not so much refined in Adobe Fresco. The app does not allow exporting brushes until you subscribe to its paid plan.
The time-lapse feature in Adobe Fresco is also very bad. The video quality is really low even if you set its quality settings on the highest levels.
The worst thing about Adobe Fresco is that it is very slow even while doing simple tasks. Lots of people have admitted that this app crashes mostly when you try to flip your canvas. However, the developers will work on it for sure.
Talking about the Price:
For the people who do not have Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, using Adobe Fresco might not be a good option because of its limited features as compared to the procreate. If you have the Creative Cloud subscription, Adobe Fresco will come along with all other apps.
Fresco offers a large library of more than 1,000 brushed but sadly, you will get it only with its premium version.
Some other missing features in Adobe Fresco are as follows:
- Liquify and Animation tool
- Multiple layer lasso
- Symmetry and perspective tools
- Clipping Mask
- Shapes and Lines
Price of Adobe Fresco Premium: US$9.99
What makes Procreate Special?
Since this app is around for years, the developers have made it highly impactful when it comes to digital art and painting. But, the thing that I and most other artists love about this app is its natural (realistic) user-interface.
If we talk about the brushes, Procreate has a bunch of different sort of brushes which are perfect to convert your imagination into an excellent artwork. Airbrushes, Oil Brushes, Charcoal brushes, Spray paints, Touch up brushes, Watercolor brushes, and numerous other brush-types are available in Procreate.
The app is developed by taking the convenience of digital artists in mind. So, when it comes to the drawing tools, you do not have to worry about anything.
Key Features of Procreate:
- Up to 16K canvases on iPad Pros
- Great user-interface
- Numerous brushes with more than 100 types of customizations
- Precise layering system
- Animation support with onion skinning
- More than 25 layer blend modes
- Made for Apple Pencil
- QuickShape feature for perfect shapes
What are the bad things in Procreate?
This may do not impact most of the artists but Procreate does not have vector support. So, if you prefer vector-based illustrations, Procreate isn’t the app made for you.
In procreate, you can’t create your own color palettes. If you are professional and deal with the print stuff, keep in mind that Procreate do not have Pantone color swatch option available for the users.
If you want a high resolution file for better print, you will surely need more layers. But, Procreates allow you to use only 10 layers for a single illustration. It is still possible to do it by pumping that layer up to another and then play with new ideas.
One Time Price of Procreate App: US$9.99
Adobe Fresco vs Procreate: Which one should you use?
In my opinion, if you are a beginner, you can try out with any of these apps. But, if you want much more refined tools backed by a powerful performance and a great UI, Procreate should be your option.
However, if you have Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, you can try using Adobe Fresco.
Since, Fresco is a product from a popular brand Adobe, it is surely be able to grow more in the future. But, for now, I would not suggest you to use this app if you have professional goals.
In other words, Procreate is the best and affordable app to use for digital art and illustration works. Its best suited for both beginners and professionals which is another great thing about it.
Conclusion:
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Cheers!
Also Read: Adobe Sketch vs Adobe Fresco: Which One is Best For Drawing?