Inside stroke increases Auto Layout frame size

Hey Begis, Celine from the Community Support team at Figma here.

Based on what you've described, this sounds related to the recent Auto Layout update that makes designs more compatible with CSS.

As mentioned in this Help Center article, inside strokes are now included in layout calculations by default. This means an inside stroke contributes to the size used for layout, so a frame can grow by the stroke width (for example, a 36 × 36 frame becomes 38 × 38 with a 1px inside stroke). This behavior is intentional and aligns more closely with how CSS handles borders.

So, from your description, this sounds like expected behavior rather than a bug. You can read more about it in this article: Use auto layout with CSS Flexbox in mind

If you're seeing something different from what's described there—for example, unexpected resizing beyond the documented behavior—please let us know by submitting a bug report so the team can take a closer look.  To do that, go to the Support Hub / Type “Report a bug” / Click Start a chat / select Enter and follow the prompts. In the form, include the URL of the file and grant "Can View" access with support-share@figma.com This allows us to reproduce the issue and investigate, thanks!

This is very frustrating for a UI designer working on only iOS designs and a long time Figma user. Not sure why this was forced through, as its another setting to change manually within my new designs and component builds when its never required. Can this be more housed within preferences for those that really don’t want this to happen?

You can revert it

​@Deniss_Ivanjuk indeed you can, but I’m having to now do this on every new auto layout frame… very manual effort. This needs to be a sticky setting not forced on all users, who like me prefer their auto layout as “Excluded” for the Inside Stroke, there is no need on my side to have it Included.

​@Celine_ can there be some consideration or user feedback given on this feature, that not all UI designers are handing off UI for interpretation into CSS? This update is a hinderance to my iOS workflow now :(

Youll get used to it smh

Even in CSS, box-sizing: border-box has effectively been the standard for modern web UI for years, so this should be the default mental model. It’s ridiculous that Figma, while trying to bring its functionality closer to CSS, still doesn’t get this.

Why should we even get used to this? Until recently, this wasn't the default behavior. Who thought it was a good idea to change it?

Because you should? Chill, and do your job :D

Hi,

Would it be possible to have a global setting for the included/excluded option across all of Figma, rather than having to set it manually for each Auto Layout in a file?

Personally, I would like to work exclusively with “excluded” because:

• I want two identical elements placed side by side, where one has a stroke and the other doesn’t, to have the same height.
• I want the space between two elements with strokes to take those strokes into account, so that the visual spacing is exactly the space between value I defined—not that value minus the stroke thickness.

I can’t afford to change this setting for every new Auto Layout I create, as this is far too time-consuming and tedious.

Thank you for your feedback.