Skip to main content
Question

Font letter-spacing gets messed up every time I close-open the app

  • July 1, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 51 views
DesignDept

I'm working with a Google font (Newsreader is the name, other one I'm using Red Hat is not having this issue) and every time I open the text box is changing the letter space. I select all my pages, run "Recompute text layout in selection", all the layers get updated, close the app, open the app again, select pages, run again "Recompute text layout in selection" and the text spacing changes again in all the layers that have the Newsreader font. 
WTF?

Sometimes the spacing changes more, sometimes just a few letters. But mostly I feel it's changing back and forth between 2-3 options.

Again, it doesn't happen with the other font Red Hat Display and Red Hat Text. 
Is this font the cause?
I notice this font has multiple static files for sizes 9pt, 14pt, 24pt, 36pt, 60pt.

It's a Google font, so no local files. I haven't touched my local fonts ever. On a new MacBook Air M4, with Figma App running the latest update as of today. Restarted computer and nothing changed. 

I’ve worked with the same design files for quite a while, letter-spacing was not jumping. The Newsreader font files downloaded from Google today say Date Modified 9 Sept 2025. The only thing different is the Figma App updated today.

3 replies

Jaycee Lewis
Figmate

Hey hey ​@DesignDept 👋 Thanks for flagging this. I’d feel a bit bonkers too. 

Could you grab a short screen recording:

  • Open the type settings panel to the Variable tab on one Newsreader text layer, so the optical size value is visible
  • Run "Recompute text layout in selection"
  • Restart the app and run it again
  • Keep that Variable tab in frame (where possible)

That'll show us whether the optical size value itself is changing or staying put while just the rendered spacing shifts.

A couple additional questions:

Talk soon! — Jaycee

DesignDept
  • DesignDept
  • Author
  • New Member
  • July 1, 2026

Here is the video: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4wfgeewkbius64e026qm0/Figma-letter-spacing.mov?rlkey=e1nn07i23sfs7zrvtc7pw7lcl&dl=0

I did not run the command, just double-clicked the text box. It's the same thing I believe.

The optical value isn't changing.

Started having this issue randomly today, it was working fine in the last days. I’ve also updated the app earlier today, using the latest version of the mac app.

Regarding the other questions, you can see my sizes in the video, one is 80px, another is 30px. I also have some paragraphs with 28px somewhere else. All of them are changing.

It isn't installed locally, I have not touched the local fonts.

Aaron Krane
  • Aaron Krane
  • New Member
  • July 13, 2026

This is happening a lot. It appears to be related to the text resizing, in that if I restart figma, then change the text resizing from auto to something else, then back to auto, then the text goes back to correctly (tightly) spaced

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement