There’s this plugin I’ve been using for a few years, and it does the job very well.

Align To

+1. I miss this feature from Illustrator. The “click to set key object” feature linked in above video would be nice to have in Figma natively.

That’s good to know about. Thanks. It would be nice to have this natively in Figma though

Yeah, we need this feature ASAP.

After moving some projects to Figma, it was one of the first features I looked for, but couldn’t find. Needed, indeed. Quite basic. Plugins are cool, but such functionality should be part of the core solution.

You can get a similar effect by using frames and in combination with Automater plugin.

Here are the steps you have to do:

1. Frame the elements including the anchor
2. Select the layer that you want to use as an anchor
3. Use “Resize Parent” command from Automater
4. Align layers one by one using native features or use Align features from Automater to align multiple layers at once.

Let me know if you want to see the flow recorded. 😁

I’ve spent an embarrassingly long time trying out different methods to do alignment operations efficiently with different anchor points.

What I can tell you is that unless the anchor is smaller than the other alignment object, you don’t need to fiddle with telling figma which object is the anchor.

There are two alignment fundamentals you need to know to align stuff quick and efficiently:

1. Alignment on a single object/frame/group selection aligns relative to the parent frame
2. Alignment on multiple selection aligns to the selection bounding box.

We can use this information to align things however we want.
In your example for instance, the button text is smaller than the button. So if you align to bottom then the text will move into the button area and thus the button area is the same as the selection bounding box, and any alignment actions will only apply to the text. This requires equal or less clicks than assigning anchors, but even so I’d recommend learning the alignment hotkeys to significantly speed up the process.

If the alignment object is larger than the anchor object then you have to jump through some framing hoops if you want to center align a larger object to a smaller one (the quickest way I’ve found at least).

The steps written out goes like this:

1. Wrap the smaller object in a frame (ctrl/cmd +alt/opt + G)
2. Hold ctrl/cmd + alt/opt and drag the edge of the new frame facing the larger object
3. Drag the larger object into the frame (hold down shift if you only want to align it parallel to the anchor object)
4. With only the larger object selected, align it to your liking
5. (Optional I guess) Select the parent frame and remove it (ctrl/cmd + shift + G)

This is a workflow I’ve become comfortable with. Maybe using a plugin is more convenient, but this is just my two cents on how to aligns things.

jeez, if there’s ONE thing I miss about Illustrator it would be this…

Yes please. The ability to select a key object (regardless of size) by clicking on it again should be a basic native feature. Please fix!

And most importantly double click to select the key object after selecting both objects just like the illustrator.

This is my favorite feature in Illustrator. I can align object etc very fast and efficiently. Most
of the plugins dont even align properly so i would be very thankful for a native feature like this to be added.

Well implemented in Omnigraffle: The first object you select makes it the key object. Missing this!
To be fair, excellent snapping in Figma has compensated for this shortcoming, but for some reason since the introduction of Sections, snapping seems harder to control (too sensitive… So missing the Omni feature again!)

Just reinforcing, as everyone has already mentioned, the importance of having this feature by default.
I think before wanting to integrate with Firefly or any other feature moving forward. Figma team, let’s look at the basics and simple first. 😉

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

We’ll pass this onto our team for consideration.

This is a basic but very key function. Figma team, let’s work on this please.

I’m honestly shocked that this doesn’t work yet… it’s such a basic feature that I use constantly with other software. C’mon, guys!

I need this feature please! I didn’t realize how much I use this feature in illustrator until I started using Figma and its so annoying

We shouldn’t need a plug in to get alignment to work. It’s totally mystery meat in Figma as it stands today.

@dvaliao Was this align to key object feature ever added? I see the feedback was originally from 2021 but can’t seem to find it today (2024)

We really need this feature! 🙂

Adding my voice to this chorus. This feature makes life so simple. Especially being able to shift select multiple objects and then, while continuing to hold shift, being able to tap the one you want as your key object one more time to automatically turn on align to key object (overriding the default bounding box behavior for this particular selection instance without having to touch a setting).

I need key object to align And distribute with shortcuts. 🙏

I am genuinely baffled that there are multiple separate feature suggestions with multiple people commenting in them dating back 4-5 years to comments from 5 days ago and this basic workflow function is STILL NOT IMPLEMENTED. 

FIGMA, PEOPLE NEED THIS BASIC FUNCTION