RindrawProcreate ColorDrop filling the whole canvas? How to fix it
You drag the color into a shape and the whole canvas turns that color. Or the fill stops short of the lines and leaves white specks, or the color won't come off the dot at all. On Procreate's forum, every one of these has come down to one of five things. Here they are, most likely first.
For Procreate 5.4. From Procreate's Handbook and Community, where the main ColorDrop thread alone has been read over 240,000 times. Checked October 29, 2026.
1. The threshold is too high
ColorDrop Threshold decides how different a color has to be to stop the fill. Procreate's Handbook says that at higher percentages "the color will bleed out much more aggressively." Near 100%, it walks straight over your lines. It's the first thing Procreate's moderators ask about, and the setting is easy to miss because there's no slider for it until you're in the middle of a fill.
- Drag the color from the color dot onto the area you want to fill, and don't lift.
- After a moment a blue bar appears along the top of the canvas, with a percentage.
- Still without lifting, slide left to lower it and right to raise it. Watch the fill shrink back inside the lines.
- Lift when it looks right.
Procreate remembers the setting for the next fill. If you set it to 100%, it saves at 97.6%, so it won't flood everything every time afterwards. If sliding seems to do nothing, you're probably sliding too early: it only moves once the color has flooded in, so pause before you slide.
2. The lines are on another layer
ColorDrop fills to the edges on the layer you're on. If your line art is on one layer and you're coloring on an empty layer, there are no edges there, so the whole layer fills. Procreate's moderators put it the same way: you're filling an empty layer.
The fix is Reference. Tap the line art layer to open its options and tap Reference. Its thumbnail then says "Reference" under the name. Now select your color layer and drop the color: it fills as though the lines were on that layer.
3. The wrong layer is set as Reference
The reverse catches people out just as often. Only one layer can be the Reference, and once one is set, ColorDrop reads every fill from it, whichever layer you're on. If that layer is blank, or isn't the line art, every fill floods the layer, and lowering the threshold doesn't help.
Open Layers and look for "Reference" under a layer's name, including inside every group: on the forum, more than one person found theirs in a group they'd forgotten about. Tap that layer and tap Reference to turn it off, or set it on the layer that really holds your lines.
4. There's a gap in the lines
The fill spreads until it meets a boundary, so a gap one pixel wide lets it out into the rest of the canvas. Gaps hide where lines nearly meet, and at the ends of tapered strokes.
- Zoom in on where it leaked. Fill, see where the color escapes, undo, and close that gap with the inking brush.
- Check for selected layers. One person on the forum had two outline layers selected but not merged; once they merged them, the fill stayed put.
Procreate can't close gaps for you yet: "ColorDrop – Gap Detection" is on its list of requests In Development.
5. White specks or a pale edge along the lines
The edges of a brush stroke fade from solid to clear, and a textured inking brush has see-through spots inside it too. At a low threshold the fill stops at the first of those pixels, leaving a pale fringe or specks of white.
- Raise the threshold a little. A moderator confirms it should fill them, as long as the lines are solid.
- Color below the lines. Put the color layer under the line art layer, with the line art as Reference, so the lines cover the fill's edge.
- Ink with a solid brush. A grainy pencil leaves holes that a fill can't see as lines.
If the color won't drag at all
ColorDrop is one movement: swipe from the color dot at the top right straight onto the canvas. If you hold on the dot first, Procreate switches to your previous color instead; tapping it opens the color panel. To fill several areas in the same color, use Continue Filling: after the first drop, tap it in the top bar, then tap each area.
How Rindraw's fill handles this
We make Rindraw, and its Fill tool was built around these forum threads. Tap a shape to fill it, or drag sideways from it to change the threshold as you watch.
- No empty layer to flood. Until you mark a reference, fills read everything showing, so line art on another layer stops them.
- More than one reference. Mark any number of layers Reference for Fills, such as inks and a separate layer of hair lines. The Fill tool's settings say which layers fills read, so a forgotten one is easy to spot.
- Close Gaps. Gaps up to 12 points wide count as closed, so the fill stays in the shape.
- Under Lines. Spreads the fill under the line's edge, so no pale halo shows.
- Refill. When you change the lines, Refill makes the fills again to match them.
Rindraw opens your Procreate artworks, brushes and palettes. See Rindraw vs Procreate.
Questions
Why does ColorDrop fill the whole canvas in Procreate?
The threshold is too high, the line art is on another layer that isn't set as Reference, or the wrong layer is set as Reference. A gap in the lines lets it leak out too.
How do I change the ColorDrop Threshold in Procreate?
Drag the color onto the area and keep holding. When the blue bar appears, slide left to lower it and right to raise it, then lift. Procreate remembers it.
Why does ColorDrop leave white specks or a pale edge along the lines?
Stroke edges and textured brushes are partly see-through. Raise the threshold a little, ink with a solid brush, or color on a layer below the lines.
Can Procreate's ColorDrop close gaps in line art?
Not yet. Gap detection is In Development at Procreate. For now, close the gaps by hand before filling.
Sources
- Procreate Handbook (5.4), Color Interface: ColorDrop "will spread outwards until it hits a boundary"; Threshold's blue bar, "drag your finger left to lower the percentage"; it's remembered, and 100% "will save at 97.6% to avoid color overflow"; Continue filling; press and hold the Active Color to switch to the previous color.
- Procreate Handbook, Layer Options: Reference Layer, "Create color fills that respect inked lines on a separate layer"; it shows the label Reference under the layer name.
- Procreate Community, Flood fill/color drop issues: about 241,000 views; threshold set too high, a forgotten Reference layer (one in another group), unmerged outline layers, and holding the dot instead of swiping.
- Procreate Community, Fill tool filling the whole page: about 33,000 views; a moderator explains that with Reference on a blank layer, ColorDrop floods the layer even at a threshold of zero, and without one it floods an empty color layer.
- Procreate Community, Threshold not working for colordrop: about 18,000 views; the slider only engages after the color has flooded in.
- Procreate Community, Can't shape fill/drop color: about 11,000 views; white spots from lines that aren't fully opaque, fixed by the threshold.
- Procreate Community, What we're working on: Procreate's team lists "ColorDrop – Gap Detection" In Development.
Related guides
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Procreate and ColorDrop are trademarks of Savage Interactive Pty Ltd. Rindraw is made by Sawir Studio and isn't affiliated with Procreate or Savage Interactive.
