Figma templates

This guide provides an overview of how to set up your Figma file and import it into Frontify as a template.

*Please note, this feature is for Figma Design files only (and not FigJam files). Contact your Customer Success Manager for more information.

Everything on the selected page of your Figma file will be imported as a template, so it's best to separate existing pages or create a fresh page to start with.

If a frame URL is copied, we will import the page that the frame is in. If it's not possible to determine the page selected, we will import the first page by default.

A few notes:

Make sure that only your designs are on the selected page. Don't use sections or additional frames to group your designs. The first-level frames of the selected page will be imported into a Frontify template, with each frame as a separate page within the template.

This makes it especially easy to organize and manage different designs, for example when working on multi-frame projects like social media campaigns, like the example above.

If you currently have your design as a component, copy an instance of that component to the new page, but make sure the component is kept on another page.

If you're creating your designs from scratch, make sure to read the following steps first to set them up well from the beginning.

Nested auto layout structures are supported, for more complex, multi-level layouts. However, it's recommend to keep nesting to what your design actually needs — the deeper and more layered your structure (especially combined with rotation), the more likely it is to render differently than expected. If your design doesn't call for several levels of nesting, a flatter structure will give you the most predictable result.

See auto-layout support below for details.

Image fills work best when applied to shapes (e.g. rectangles — all shapes are supported), rather than directly to frames. If the layer shows an image icon in the Figma layers panel, it's good to go.

One thing to note: we don't currently support Figma's Tile scale mode for image fills. If an image is set to Tile, switch it to Fill, Fit, or Crop before importing to avoid unpredictable results.

To import a design file, you can either:

If using Figma in the browser, you can copy the URL from the address bar. If using the Figma app right click the corresponding tab and press "Copy Link".

Go to the template library that you want to import into.

Since Figma can be used to create both Digital and Motion templates, you'll be asked what you'd like to create. Choose digital unless you’d like to animate a frame: in that case, head to motion templates rather than following the rest of this guide.

Each option shows the source formats it supports as small icons — hover one to confirm (e.g. Figma shows up under digital).

Under "Select a design for your digital template," pick link, then:

First time importing from Figma: you'll see "Please log in to Figma — Connect your account to import your design." Click log in and authorize Frontify when prompted.

Frontify requests read-only access to: Figma files, projects, components, variables and styles you have access to, and your basic profile information (name, email, profile image). This is handled entirely by Figma — Frontify never sees or stores your login credentials.

Already logged in: your Figma account shows at the top of this step, with a Log out option if you need to switch accounts. You won't need to log in again unless you revoke access or log out.

Paste it into the "Paste a Figma link" field, then press Continue.

Frontify reviews your file — you'll see "Reviewing your design… Making sure everything is ready to create your template." When it's done, a green check confirms "Ready to import," and you can press import. It can take a moment to generate the template; keep the window open while it works.

If something needs your attention instead, you'll see what to fix before Import becomes available — adjust your Figma file and try again.

Check out the template and make sure it has been imported as expected.

Note: The source file will also be linked to the template. You can access the Figma file by clicking "view source" in the template menu.

If you encounter any issues, reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

Large images and complex vector artwork can slow your template down while it's loading and while you're working in it, and can also cause unexpected rendering results. Before you import:

Keeping your Figma file lean makes for a faster import and a more predictable result

Ensure that the authenticated user has at least view access to the file being imported.

This can be achieved by clicking on the "Share" button in the top righthand corner of your design file and:

Frontify supports Figma's auto-layout features, including nested layouts and the following:

Auto-layout support works best with straightforward structures. The more complex your setup — deeply nested frames, multiple layers of rotation, and similar edge cases — the more likely it is to render differently than expected. Keeping your layout as simple as your design allows will give you the most reliable results.

Known limitation: nested components with variants keep their structure on import, but switching between variants isn't available afterward. This is a limitation of what Figma's public API exposes, not something we control.

If a template doesn't reflect the behaviors above, use Replace to re-import the latest version of your Figma file (see Setting up Templates).

This is required for: wrapped-row vertical gap, canvas stacking, component instance styling, baseline alignment, and image fill and aspect ratio. Sizing modes, alignment, wrap distribution, negative overlap, strokes in layout, and text-editing stability apply automatically, without re-importing.

To ensure your Figma templates render properly in Frontify, you can upload and manage fonts directly in your dashboard.

Please note that this functionality is currently only available for Figma templates.

Once your fonts have been installed and your Figma design file ready to be imported, you can head to your Template library to create a new template.
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In order to do this, you’ll first need to authenticate your Figma account using OAuth. This ensures a secure and seamless connection while keeping your login credentials private.

When you click to create a new Figma template in your Template library, you’ll be prompted to log in to Figma (if you aren’t already). A pop-up will appear asking you to authorize Frontify to access your account.

When granting access, Frontify requests permission to:

This authentication process is fully handled by Figma, meaning Frontify never sees or stores your credentials. Your login remains with Figma, and you can control what’s shared.

Once authenticated, you can continue importing files without logging in again, unless access is revoked or you decide to log out.

Figma variables are imported into Frontify when you create the template:

We are currently working on supporting variables management for all Frontify templates. You won't be able to adjust the variables in the template editor once imported. If you‘d like to remove variables from your template in Frontify, you will need to remove them in your Figma design file.

Note: This function is not yet available for "Advanced" template blocks.

Frontify templates support many Figma features, with more being added continuously. However, some limitations still exist:

All caps

Text layers with all caps will not be respected when importing a template. This is a known limitation.

Auto-sizing text

There is no support for auto-sizing text. Text elements are imported at their current size and will not adapt to content changes.

Bullets and numbered lists

We currently don't support this functionality.

Components

While component instances are generally supported in templates, components themselves are not.

Frame properties

Several properties are not respected when applied to frames, we recommend using shape layers (e.g. rectangle) where possible.

Image fill on frames

We translate image fills to an image element in Frontify. Image elements can't have children in our templates so we cannot support image fills on frames currently.

Multiple pages

Currently, we only import a single page of your Figma document. All other pages will be ignored.

Superscript

Superscript and subscript formatting are not supported in Figma templates. This applies to all rendering contexts - the Figma template editor, the preview, and PDF exports regardless of whether the text layer has been edited in Frontify or not.

Text spacing differences when importing from Figma
If elements positioned near or around text elements with vertical trim applied are incorrectly positioned in Frontify compared to Figma, this is caused by Figma’s Vertical Trim (Text Box Trim) setting. When enabled, Vertical Trim adjusts the text layer’s bounding box so it tightly hugs the glyphs. However, this property is currently not exposed via Figma’s public API, which means Frontify cannot detect or replicate this behavior when importing designs. As a result, text layers using Vertical Trim may render with different spacing. To ensure consistent rendering between Figma and Frontify, we recommend keeping Vertical Trim disabled on any text elements intended for use in Frontify.
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​Error when importing a Figma file
If you see the error message “Figma is temporarily limiting requests from your account.” when trying to import a Figma file URL, the issue is caused by the Figma API rate limiting. Figma applies API rate limits depending on the account type and usage volume. On the Free plan, these limits are stricter. If too many API requests are made within a short time frame (for example, multiple imports, large files, or repeated retries), Figma may temporarily block additional requests. When this happens, Frontify cannot retrieve the file data and the import fails with an error message. If the issue occurs frequently, consider upgrading to a paid Figma plan, which provides higher API rate limits.

To help you get started with creating Figma templates in Frontify, we've provided these sample files that you can duplicate or download and use as a reference.

Simply duplicate or download one of the files to your workspace, and make any adjustments you'd like. You can then follow the outlined steps above to import the template into your Frontify Template Library.

Please reach out to your Customer Success Manager with any issues you encounter.