Skip to main content
Mike_Higham2
Mike_Higham2
New Member
April 16, 2024

Add margins to objects without having to frame them

  • April 16, 2024
  • 11 replies
  • 2052 views

When using Auto Layout for an entire page flow, not everything is spaced equally. For example, imagine a page like:

  • Toolbar
  • Heading
  • Paragraph
  • Input
  • Button

To put all of these into a single Auto Layout and give equal spacing to all of it is not typically how it’d work (eg, Toolbar + Heading might be close together, but more spacing around above and below the Input).

To use the benefits of Auto Layout, I wrap these objects into their own Auto Layout frames and then use the padding within these nested frames to create the spacing between elements.

It’d be great to be able to apply margins to objects (like text frames or other frames) without having to first nest them into their own individual frames. This would be closer to how CSS typically works as text elements (h1, h2, p, …) don’t need to be nested in a div to have margin added to them.

    11 replies

    Show previous replies
    Samsj
    Samsj
    New Member
    April 2, 2026

    As a user interface designer, I need a way to mark up my Figma document to tell my developer how much margin my navigation elements will need. As is, I only have control over inner padding within an autolayout. What the dev wants to know includes how much outer margin. If I had a margin field in the Design panel, I’d use it. Instead, I’ll be adding a comment in the file, which devs may or may not find.

     

    Other commenters in this thread have taught me that designers are adding “invisible” rectangles to act as outer margin? If I were to do this, my dev would get confused.

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement