Skip to main content
Question

Font variable doesn't visually update across pages unless text is interacted with

  • June 19, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 110 views
Genrole_Caspe

Description

When I update a font family variable in my design system (e.g., changing FontPrimary in the brand collection), the text on some pages doesn't visually reflect the new font. The change does apply, but the new font only renders after I double click or otherwise interact with the text. Until then, the old font appears on canvas.

This issue seems to affect styles that use font variables indirectly through alias collections and text styles.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Create a font family variable in a brand collection (e.g., FontPrimary = DM Sans).

  2. Reference this font variable in an alias collection that defines type scales.

  3. Apply those variables via Text Styles across multiple pages in the file.

  4. Change the value of FontPrimary to a different font (e.g., Inter).

  5. Observe: some pages update correctly, but others still show the old font.

  6. Double click on text on the affected pages — it instantly updates to the correct new font.

Expected Behavior

All text styles using the updated variable should immediately re-render with the new font across the file.

Actual Behavior

Only text on the current page updates. Other pages retain the old font visually until the text is interacted with (e.g., double-clicked).

Additional Info

  • The text styles are not detached or overridden.

  • Variable references are correctly set and functional.

  • Zooming or switching pages doesn’t reliably trigger re-render.

  • Occurs in files with multiple pages using text styles and variable-linked fonts.

3 replies

Tom Reem
Figmate
  • Tom Reem
  • Figmate
  • June 23, 2025

Hi ​@Genrole_Caspe, welcome to Figma Forum and thanks for laying this out! 🙏🏻

 

Sorry to hear you're running into this — definitely shouldn’t be happening. I tried to recreate the issue on my end but wasn’t able to at first. That said, here are a couple of quick checks that might help:

  • Confirm your environment: Are you using the browser version or the Desktop App? And are you on the latest version (125.4.9)?
  • Clear your cache: How to clear Figma cache

 

If the issue persists after checking those, it’d be great to take a closer look at the file. To get going on that, you can reach out to our Product Support team and include the following:

  • a link to this Forum thread for context
  • a full-size screen recording showing the issue (if possible)
  • a link to the affected file
  • edit access granted to support-share@figma.com.

 

Let us know how it goes — happy to keep digging in.

Daniel_Alvenstrand

We have this issue, too. Any components that uses a font family variables, where the variable is changed to some other typeface, isn’t updated in the instances. When you edit the text layer, the font style applies automatically, but it’s such a hassle to go through all layers of text everywhere just to update the font family changes. Have cleared the cache and reset Figma. Issue persists across all users. See attached clip to see what I mean (I only click the layer and it updates)

1 Attachments
Julia_Evins
  • Julia_Evins
  • New Member
  • November 19, 2025

We are having this issue as well. We are using a variable (VF) font. We have updated all type styles (not using Figma variables at this time) to a VF font and cascaded the font into our DS components.

But, the old font is visibly showing up in our components in some instances instead of the new VF font. If you click into the old font, it will magically reset to the new font but it’s not a good experience at all for our UX team to have to do this. 

Has anyone found that clearing the cache has fixed the issue? Has anyone tried that or something else that fixed the issue? Any guidance Figma team?

Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement