Skip to main content

Vertical alignment lost when horizontally resizing text boxes

  • June 3, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 36 views
Ryan8

When a text box is set to Middle or Bottom vertical alignment, horizontally resizing the text box by dragging its edge causes the text box to behave as though it is Top-aligned.

 

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Create a text box with enough lines of text to reflow.
  2. Set the text box's vertical alignment to Middle or Bottom.
  3. Drag the left or right edge of the text box to resize it horizontally, causing line reflow.

Expected behavior:

The text should maintain its chosen vertical alignment (Middle or Bottom) throughout the resize operation, and the text box frame should expand or contract in a way that preserves that alignment.

Actual behavior:

As the text reflows during resizing, the frame appears anchored to the top edge, causing the text to shift downward and temporarily behave as though it is Top-aligned.

Additional observation:

Using Shift + Command while resizing produces behavior that appears correct: the text box frame resizes proportionately and the selected vertical alignment is preserved. This suggests the alignment logic already exists in Figma but is not being applied during standard horizontal resizing.

Here is a screen recording demonstrating the issue.

4 replies

adamsmasher
Figmate

Hi, ​@Ryan8! Thanks for taking the time to detail this out and for making a screen recording. This does seem inconsistent.

 

I tried to replicate what you are seeing, but I’m not sure I’ve set up my layers and layer properties the same as you. Could you provide a bit more information on the properties of your text layer and parent frame so I can test this? I just want to repeat the behavior myself before I take it to the team on your behalf. Thank you!

Ryan8
  • Ryan8
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • June 4, 2026

Hi ​@adamsmasher thanks so much for looking into this!

In investigating this more deeply and preparing another screen capture (with layout and type panels visible), I’m realizing the bug is solely with the Auto Height layout mode.

Before 0:16 in the video—and when using Shift + Command to resize (as mentioned before)—there is nothing unexpected happening with how vertical positioning responds with the text box resizing.

After 0:16, I double-click the bottom of the text box which kicks the text box into Auto Height mode (see tab in Layout panel in video), after which the bug surfaces.

adamsmasher
Figmate

 Thanks for that extra info, ​@Ryan8! With that I was able to reproduce what you were seeing with the following steps:

  1. Add a text layer with a few sentences of text in it.
  2. Set the alignment to bottom.
  3. Click and drag the width of the text box, which works as expected with the text remaining aligned to the bottom.
  4. Double-click the bottom border of the text box to switch to auto-height.
  5. Click and drag the width again, and this time it shows as aligned to the top even though it shows as aligned to the bottom.

I’m not sure which is expected here - that it will remain aligned to the bottom, or if it should also update the alignment to the top when it sets the height to auto. I’ve reached out to the team for more info and will let you know what I hear.

Ryan8
  • Ryan8
  • Author
  • New Participant
  • June 6, 2026

Thanks ​@adamsmasher ! Much appreciated.

I prefer the first option.

The second option sounds reasonable at face value but I believe it may cause more user confusion. For instance, if the user sets bottom vertical alignment, and then fits the text box using Auto-Height, the reversion back to top-alignment might happen too quietly. The text would no longer flow upward when the user goes back to add text to the text box. This seems like a breaking change, considering the current text flow behavior in Auto-Height mode works as expected for any vertical alignment; it’s just the resizing that doesn’t.

Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement