Printing your Comic Book from Procreate

Earlier this year I set myself the goal to print my comic Woolly Wonderful. Even though I finished a digital version almost 2 years ago, for a long time I did not think about getting it printed. It was only through my contribution to the WIP Comics Anthology in 2025, and meeting with other comic creators who brought along their work in person, where in contrast I did not have anything to show physically. These experiences finally convinced me to give it a go.

Especially the learnings and guidance through the comics group and my participation in the anthology last year helped me to better understand the printing process.

My comic was drawn entirely in Procreate on the iPad. Here are some tips for getting your comic ready for print:

Start with the correct format and DPI

Procreate has a template named "Comic", but what is odd about it, is the preconfigured DPI (dots per inch) of 400. Dots per inch means how many ink dots per inch (2,56 cm) the printer will use when printing on the page. The more dots, the finer the result.

Usually printers work with an amount of 300, or if you need to print highly scaled images for bigger formats, 600 DPI is used.

You can see the set up dimension and DPI in the actions > canvas > canvas info > dimensions.

If you have not the correct size or DPI, you can change it in a different menu point (oh my!), under actions > canvas > resize & crop.

It is usually best to download a template file from your printer of choice and import that as a new project, so you are starting with the right settings.
Which brings me to another important point...

Choose the colour profile right

Right at the beginning, when choosing your page settings, you are able to define a colour profile. You are not able to change it once the file is created! This is only possible in more advanced programs like Photoshop.

The same tip applies from above, if you have a template given by your printer, when you import it, it will have the correct colour profile already.

Drawing your pages in CYMK from the start is probably the best option IMO as no colour conversion is needed later on, in case you started with a RGB profile. I have no experience with using any special colour profiles, so you probably should keep your hands off them too, if you don't know what you're doing.

Respect the bleed (and panel margin)

Look at the image below. I imported the template from the printer company. This gave me the measurements of the bleed (in black) and safe zone (blue).

The bleed will be trimmed away when the pages are getting cut down to the final size, in my case the standard UK comic page. Any artwork that should go to the borders also need to go over the bleed. So that the printer can recognise that and you are not left with any annoying white borders. It took me ages to get that into my head!

The blue area is what might get trimmed partially and/or gets obfuscated by the binding. Any important clues or speech bubbles should stay away from this area.

In the above image as a first panel I used a splash panel, which goes right over the bleed. The normal panels needed to keep enough space (white border) from the page border. I took a page of one of the comics I read and used it as a template to get a feeling for the right amount of border space to leave.

Export your images in the correct format

I mentioned before to start with the correct colour profile. When you export your pages for sending them over to the printer, make sure you export them in a format that keeps your selected CYMK profile. You don't want to work in a profile just to mess it up in the final stages!

Strangely, with PNGs or JPEGs, my CYMK pages were turned into a RGB profile. I don't know if that made any visible difference, but it left an uncomfortable feeling.

The best option for me was the TIFF format which kept the profile.

Have a human proof it

Yes, when you are inexperienced, another person looking over your pages, preferably from the printer company, will be immeasurably helpful. Initially my panels were getting too close to the page edge, which I didn't realise beforehand.

Someone like an editor can help you spot mistakes too, especially in writing or continuity errors in your drawings. I didn't have an editor and spotted a grammar error on the inner back cover, but only as soon as I held the book in my hand. Tiny fail!

Conclusion

That sums up my tips so far! I hope you get to print your comic, it's a marvellous feeling to hold something only you could make in your own hands, and hand it out to people who have supported you or are curious about your creation. Definitely beats just showing them what you created on your phone.

You should also give it to your mom, because your mom always complimented you as a kid when you showed her a new drawing, didn't she? So why not now as well?

No clue about the comic I am talking here about? Here is a post about the struggles I faced with the developments of Woolly's story which were started with this comic.

Till next time,

Andi Pasti