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PDF Export Consistently Missing Elements


dbig

I’m having consistent issues with PDF export, where one or more elements is missing from exported PDFs. The missing elements are sometimes vector objects created in Figma, and sometimes raster images imported into Figma. I always confirm the elements are correctly inside the desired frame before PDF export. Are there any known issues that prevent PDFs from rendering correctly?

Best answer by Daphney_Dupervil

So I found a workaround to the missing elements issue when you export your Figma design to PDF.

Add a section behind the designs you want captured. You can access sections:

  1. Region Tools
  2. Select - Section (Shift + S)

Then add the section behind the design(s) you want to capture. Once you do this - it should appear on the PDF when you export it.

Happy designing!

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40 replies

Ember
  • 6 replies
  • May 17, 2021

exporting from Figma out to PDF. i try to make everything into outline. the fonts, circles with boarders flatten it if it doesn’t have shadows and opacity. hope this tip works for you!


Bill_Bowers

Any workaround for missing images on PDF export?


Tobias_360_Products

Same issue here. PDF export is buggy - Images are missing, some vector elements are not correctly exported (but for me, just on “Export Frames to PDF” - when exporting frames manually to PDF (from Design / Export)) everything is fine…


Kit_Chui_HM

Same issue here, when trying to export to pdf, I got many images missing with just a purple image place holder left. Any idea on that ?


Jaanvi_Gk
  • 1 reply
  • November 2, 2021

My pdf kept missing one vector no matter how times tried to export but I was able to fix the situation by replacing the vector with a lookalike!

As the vector was part of a component, I didn’t have to repeat the process across all frames except for 1 or 2 as I wanted to change the colour. Hope it works out for you!


Nick_Storchay

135 our of 430 frames 1920X1080 had images. In exported PDF after 135 slide all images turned pink in the pdf file, how to fix?


Dylan_Blanchard

We are also getting many images missing on export, showing up as purple. Is there any way around this issue?


I’ve also been getting the purple boxes in place of images on pdf exports - usually on larger exports. Any tips to fix this would be greatly appreciated! I’ve had to resort to exporting individual frames and then combining them in Adobe - NOT ideal…


Ciaran_Cronin

Same as this guys…i’d export in png if the option was available. When i got to export I can export the icons and not the frames. Such a pity.


Kencey_Christopher

same issue with it exporting purple frames instead of my images.


Laura16
  • 1 reply
  • December 22, 2021

Same issue with the purple frames instead of images 😕


Asbjorn
  • 2 replies
  • January 5, 2022

I have the same issue. However, I did get the export to include all images when exporting from the Figma Windows app instead of using Figma in the browser. Hope it can be a temporary fix for some of you.


Ruth_Osuntola

This worked for me. Thanks!


Nick_Marks

I solved it. Windows app. Zoom out to to get everything loaded into memory. Make sure it has time to sit and load. Then export. It then could find all the markers and pull all data to assemble PDF:) Mic drop.


Morgan5
  • 1 reply
  • April 10, 2022

It appears to be a memory issue for Figma. I kept having this issue with Exporting a Portfolio with a lot of imagery content on it and it was only 12 Frames long. I tried on the Windows App, the Browser Client and MacOS App. Try not to have everything in 4K.

The solution I found was using the TinyImage Compressor plugin for compressing the images by modifying the DPI, I managed to reduce the file size to 5% and it doesn’t look too bad. It might not look as good but it’s still a toll you have to take when making digital content.

https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/789009980664807964/TinyImage-Compressor


Julio1
  • 1 reply
  • April 21, 2022

Thank You!


Min3
  • 1 reply
  • June 3, 2022

None of the above DID NOT work when you have many images on each frame for your visual report with more than 20 pages.

The images were constantly missing, or their quality became shitty randomly (It should be a memory problem), so I could not finish my critical project until the deadline due to the exporting issue.

DO NOT MAKE A VISUAL REPORT ON FIGMA.

It will drive you crazy and make you want to kill yourself when exporting your hard work into PDF.

And I’m wondering if Adobe XD has the same issue. Please leave a comment if anyone makes a visual report using XD.


Peter27
  • 1 reply
  • June 26, 2022

Same happened to me today – exported PDF had pink images. Its probably memory issue.
I am on Mac using native Figma app.

I have done this, after that, export PDF worked perfectly for me:

  1. quit all opened software Illustrator, Photoshop, acrobat, zoom etc. and also Figma
  2. closed all open tabs in Finder
  3. I have cleaned the cache (i use Disk Diag)
  4. Restarted Figma and export worked well

Nils_Weyner

sounded good, but unfortunately didn’t work


Summer_VanPay

Having this same issue… 😦 All I am doing is exporting a basic wireframe. First time using figma- this is so extremely frustrating! I am using Figma browser on windows


lynn_nakiganda_sekajugo

Try going to the 3 dots on the export and untick the ignore overlapping layers option


Nikita40
  • 1 reply
  • August 11, 2022

This is extremely frustrating!
This is a basic functionality of any design software!

It is ridiculous that Figma has such a broken PDF export! It randomly misses pictures and in larger exports you literally don’t know what is missing, since there is no error message or anything indicating that something went wrong or that it had a memory issue!

You have to check everything and figure out whether or not it just skipped something somewhere – which in 20+ frames with pictures ALWAYS happens and is also not solvable…

Not even to mention that we don’t have ways to export compressed PDFs in any way on top of that.

The only solution I’ve found is the Plugin “Pitchdeck Presentation Studio” which has none of these issues and shows that it is definitely possible to have a working PDF-Export in Figma. It also allows 150dpi/300dpi exports and it never drops pictures… however after 10 exports they want 230$ per year just for a basic functionality → exporting my work to pdf! This is insane!
(well the plugin can do more than that, but if you just need to be able to export a pdf this price is ridiculous!)

Figma needs to urgently fix this!


Zaigam_Akhtar

How do you export frames manually?


Daphney_Dupervil

So I found a workaround to the missing elements issue when you export your Figma design to PDF.

Add a section behind the designs you want captured. You can access sections:

  1. Region Tools
  2. Select - Section (Shift + S)

Then add the section behind the design(s) you want to capture. Once you do this - it should appear on the PDF when you export it.

Happy designing!


Sam_Teacher

So after reading through the whole thread and trying out all the different methods, unfortunately nothing worked for me. However, I did learn that the element that was causing the problems was outside the page layers. To check for this you can click the element you are having problems with and make sure its within a page layer in your layers, panel. Hopefully this helps!


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