Hello, I may need some assistance. It seems someone in application architecture at Figma forgot a core requirement for producing ALL design collateral. I’m speaking about Unit of Measure (UoM) and Resolution.

The unit of measure should allow the selection of pixels, points, centimeters, inches, feet, yards, meters, etc. This is foundational for setting the overall canvas/frame/artboard dimensions. A must have. No debate.

The resolution should convey the pixel density within the dimensions of the canvas/frame/artboard. That’s print. A must have. No debate.

These are two of the most important settings for configuring a digital canvas. However, from what I’ve found poking around the internet, Figma thinks all designers work in Pixels and should rely on plugins, yes you heard that correctly. Figma suggest we use PLUGINS to manage these core settings. Come on? Really? What are you thinking? Oh, right, you aren’t.

With 25 years of experience in information architecture, systems engineering, and software design (desktop, web, and mobile) I understand the complexities and limitations of different software development environments. So then, is Figma just lazy, cheap, uninterested in supporting basic standards, or what? What justification can Figma suggest (I will not accept their reasons; they aren’t actually valid for something as core to design as this, but I still want to hear their reasoning). Manually calculating scaling multipliers or installing plugins is not a solution for core functionality… ever,

Perhaps consider diverting resources from frivolous features, like stickers, and instead invest in developing features actually necessary to design effectively, like measurements and resolution.