Issue #40 •

Figma Beta for M1 and videos from Config

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that a new beta of the desktop app for Apple Silicon was the main recent Figma event for me. While the regular app works fine on M1, it’s not as smooth and fast as the native version. For me, this was the last major app still working through Rosetta. Good riddance!

Figma already released videos from the first day of Config 2021, and recordings from the second day should be released today. I missed many of them during the conference and now looking forward to catching up on the Memorial Day weekend!

— Eugene

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App Updates

New desktop ARM beta for Apple Silicon users

Figma Beta app update I’ve been waiting for! So far, it’s really fast and works great on my M1 laptop.

Using Figma

Config 2021 – Day 1

Figma published recordings of all 20 sessions with 30 speakers from the first day of Config 2021.

Using the Figma Inspect panel to help engineers build your designs

Read how the Elastic UI design system powering the Elastic Stack connects their design (Figma) and code (React) libraries.

How to use Figma as file storage?

“Figma is not conventionally thought to be a file organization tool. When our Product Design department introduced it to sort our ever-growing database, I admit – I was awfully sceptical. It still feels weird to write about how to use Figma for sorting out resources. But lo and behold, it turns out to be great file storage and file organization tool. All you need to do is create a transparent process.”

Redlines for engineers

Mariz Melo, a Lead Designer at Google, shows an update to their Figma components. Love the idea of keeping redlines for engineers as a component’s variant!

A few things I wish I had known earlier on for working in Figma

Joey Banks shares a few helpful shortcuts and tips.

Using animated GIFs as masks

Cool tip on masking, never realized it was possible!

Custom keyboard shortcuts for plugins

Using System Preferences on Mac to create custom keyboard shortcuts for your favorite plugins.

Professor Figma videos

Miguel took over Figma’s Instagram account for a day and shared a bunch of quick tutorials.

Move Components Between Files — Master Plugin for Figma

Gleb Sabirzyanov shows how to move components between files using his Master plugin.

Figma tutorial: File Browser

Figma recently tweaked its navigation, and this tutorial provides a handy overview of different areas of the app.

Responsive prototypes using smart animate

Good idea to show different sizes side-by-side in a prototype. An animation looks great, too!

Placing objects over Auto Layout frames

“How to move and place elements and objects over Auto layout elements and frames without placing inside of them. Spoiler alert: hold space bar while dragging them.”

Batch create Figma styles

“Using keyboard shortcuts and the Styler plugin, you can convert your Figma swatches and type hierarchies into styles in a flash.”

Archiving pages in a file

“Are you finding that you want to archive work in your Figma file? This video covers how to stow away archived portions using version history.”

Using FigJam

Setting file thumbnails with FigJam

Miguel shows how to add file thumbnails from Figma to FigJam files.

Resources

eBook UI Kit

Sometimes, the right tool for the job is the one you own and know. Figma may not be the best app for publishing an ebook, but this UI kit provides valuable building blocks for creating a good-looking PDF.

Tailwind Figma Design Kit (Free Edition)

While the makers of Tailwind Figma sponsor this issue, I also wanted to mention their free design kit with basic elements like spacing, typography, and icons from the Tailwind CSS framework.

Plugins

Figma Tips

Designer Advocate Rogie built a plugin that helps you up your design game in Figma by watching short tutorial videos from the official YouTube channel.

Styler

Styler is a plugin for Figma that generates styles based on selected layers. See the ​“Batch create Figma styles“ video above for a quick demo from Figma Designer Advocate Luis.

Backstage

Inside Maker Week: more than a hackathon

“Twice a year, Figmates are invited to pause day-to-day work and come together for a week of innovation and connection. Our take on a cross-functional hackathon, Maker Week is an opportunity to take a step back and live our values—thinking big and bold ideas, connecting with one another, and putting our individual stamps on the business, community, and culture we’re collectively building.”

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