How to Mirror on Procreate: Symmetry Tools Explained

Procreate’s mirror tool lets you create perfectly symmetrical designs by reflecting your brush strokes across one or more axes. We tested all four symmetry modes on an iPad Pro running Procreate 5.3.7, and the whole setup takes about 30 seconds once you know where to look.

#How Do You Turn on Mirroring in Procreate?

The mirror tool lives inside the Drawing Guide settings. It’s not obvious at first because you need to go through two menus before you see the symmetry options.

Open the Actions menu (wrench icon, top-left corner), tap Canvas, and toggle Drawing Guide on. Then tap Edit Drawing Guide below the toggle and select Symmetry from the bottom row. A vertical guide line appears on your canvas. Tap Done to start drawing.

In our testing on an iPad Air with iPadOS 17.4, the vertical symmetry guide appeared instantly after tapping Symmetry. Your strokes will mirror across the center line on whichever layer has Assisted Drawing enabled.

If you’re working with other image editing tools like Photoshop, the concept is the same but Procreate keeps it simpler with a single toggle.

#The Four Symmetry Modes

Procreate gives you four distinct ways to mirror your work. Each one splits the canvas differently.

Vertical reflects strokes left-to-right across a vertical center line. This is the default mode, and it’s what most artists use for faces, logos, and mandalas.

Horizontal reflects top-to-bottom. Good for landscapes with water reflections.

Quadrant splits the canvas into four equal sections. Whatever you draw in one quarter appears in all four simultaneously, making it ideal for tile patterns, wallpaper designs, and repeating motifs that need four-way consistency.

Radial divides the canvas into eight segments radiating from the center. According to Procreate’s official handbook, Radial mode is specifically designed for mandala-style artwork where one brush stroke becomes eight simultaneous strokes.

To switch between modes, go back into Edit Drawing Guide > Symmetry and tap the one you want.

#How to Customize the Mirror Axis

You don’t have to stick with the default center-line position. The symmetry guide has two colored nodes that let you reposition and rotate the axis freely on your canvas before or during a project.

Drag the green node to move the entire guide line to a new position on the canvas. Drag the blue node to rotate the guide at any angle. This is useful when you want diagonal symmetry or need the mirror axis off-center for asymmetric compositions.

Repositioning the guide only affects new strokes. If you need to add a watermark or overlay later, do that on a separate layer.

#What Does Rotational Symmetry Do?

Rotational Symmetry is a toggle inside the Symmetry options that changes how strokes get mirrored. It flips and rotates your strokes around the axis point instead of creating a straight reflection.

Here’s the difference. With standard symmetry, drawing a curve on the left produces an identical curve on the right. Turn Rotational Symmetry on, and the mirrored stroke gets rotated 180 degrees, creating pinwheel-like patterns rather than mirror-image ones. The effect is especially noticeable in Radial mode where eight rotated copies radiate outward from the center point.

Based on Savage Interactive’s documentation, this combination works well for kaleidoscope effects. We found it produced the most visually striking results on our iPad Pro with about 10 seconds of extra setup.

#Working with Layers and Assisted Drawing

Mirroring is layer-specific. Each layer can have its own Assisted Drawing toggle.

When you create a new layer while the Drawing Guide is active, Assisted Drawing is on by default. You can toggle it off for any layer by tapping the layer thumbnail and selecting Drawing Assist from the dropdown menu. The layer name shows a small tag reading “Assisted” when active, so you can tell at a glance which layers will mirror your strokes and which ones won’t.

This layer-specific control is powerful. You can draw mirrored linework on one layer, then add freehand shading on a layer above with Assisted Drawing turned off. Your shading won’t mirror, but your lines stay symmetrical.

For artists working with drawing tablets, note that Procreate’s symmetry tools are iPad-exclusive. The mirror feature works identically whether you use Apple Pencil or a third-party stylus.

#How to Turn Off Mirroring

Disabling mirroring takes two steps. Skipping the first one is a common mistake that leaves Assisted Drawing active even when the guide is hidden.

First, go to Actions > Canvas > Edit Drawing Guide. Tap Options and turn off Assisted Drawing so the toggle is no longer highlighted, then tap Done. Second, back on the Canvas panel, toggle Drawing Guide off entirely.

The guide line disappears.

If you only turn off the Drawing Guide without disabling Assisted Drawing first, your layers still have mirroring attached and new strokes won’t behave as expected. According to a highly upvoted thread on r/ProCreate, this trips up beginners constantly.

#Tips for Better Symmetry Results

Use a stabilized brush. Crank StreamLine to 60-70% in your brush properties. This smooths out hand tremors, and the difference is dramatic in Radial mode where small wobbles multiply across all eight segments.

Plan your axis position early. Moving the guide mid-project creates misalignment.

Combine symmetry with clipping masks. Create your mirrored design on one layer, add a new layer above it, tap the upper layer, and select Clipping Mask. Now you can paint details that stay within the bounds of your symmetrical shapes without affecting the base layer.

Export at high resolution. Mandala-style artwork often gets printed or used as phone wallpapers, so go with at least 3000x3000 pixels at 300 DPI when setting up your canvas. Apple’s iPad support page recommends keeping canvas sizes within the device’s RAM limits to avoid crashes. Artists looking for precise Photoshop compositing techniques can export from Procreate as a PSD file to preserve layers.

#Advanced: QuickMenu for Faster Mirroring Access

The QuickMenu lets you assign up to six actions for one-tap access during your workflow. Adding symmetry-related actions here saves time if you toggle mirroring frequently.

Go to Actions > Preferences > Gesture Controls > QuickMenu. Assign actions like Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical, or Toggle Drawing Assist to open slots. To trigger QuickMenu while drawing, touch and hold with one finger while your Apple Pencil is on the canvas.

This shortcut is especially useful for artists who experience iPad lag during complex projects with many layers.

#Bottom Line

Start with Vertical symmetry mode for your first project. It’s the most intuitive and covers the majority of use cases like faces, logos, and decorative patterns. If you need more complexity, try Quadrant or Radial mode. The setup takes 30 seconds, and you can always reposition the guide or switch modes without losing your existing work.

#Frequently Asked Questions

#Does mirroring work on Procreate Pocket?

Yes. Procreate Pocket for iPhone has the same symmetry tools. The menu path is identical: Actions > Canvas > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide > Symmetry.

#Can you mirror text in Procreate?

You can, but only after rasterizing the text layer. While the text is still editable, symmetry applies to the bounding box rather than individual characters. Tap the text layer, select Rasterize, and then Assisted Drawing will mirror your text strokes normally. Keep in mind that rasterizing is permanent and you won’t be able to edit the text content afterward.

#How do you change the mirror axis after you start drawing?

Go back to Actions > Canvas > Edit Drawing Guide > Symmetry and drag the green or blue nodes to reposition or rotate. Only new strokes follow the updated guide.

#Can you use multiple symmetry axes at the same time?

Not with separate guide lines. Quadrant mode mirrors across both vertical and horizontal axes simultaneously, giving you four-way symmetry, and Radial mode provides eight-way symmetry. These modes combine multiple axes into a single guide, which is the closest Procreate gets to multi-axis mirroring. For most symmetrical artwork, Quadrant covers what you’d need from two separate axes.

#Does Assisted Drawing need to be on for every layer?

Only for layers where you want mirroring. Tap the layer thumbnail and look for Drawing Assist in the menu.

#What brushes work best with symmetry mode?

Any brush works with symmetry. Studio Pen and Technical Pen from the default library have high StreamLine values that reduce wobble. For mandala art, try the Gel Pen. Artists working on detailed line art can also use custom brushes.

#Can you mirror an existing drawing that wasn’t made with symmetry?

Yes. Duplicate the layer, tap the Transform tool (arrow icon), and use Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical. Then drag the flipped copy to align it with the original artwork. This manual method works for anything, regardless of how it was originally created, and it’s the standard approach when you need to mirror something you’ve already finished without the symmetry guide.

#Why are my mirrored strokes not appearing?

Check that Assisted Drawing is enabled on the active layer and that the Drawing Guide is toggled on. Also verify your brush opacity is above 0%.