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I am using auto layout a lot in my projects and think it is awesome. However, there is one small issue that annoys me a lot. The default setting for canvas stacking is always “Last on top”, which is usually not what I want. For instance when switching state of a dropdown in a layout, the dropdown list will appear below the content that is underneath it (at least in my case where the list is using absolute position). With lots of nested auto layouts, things quickly become a mess if you forgot to change this when you created the auto layout. I would suggest either of these solutions:



  • Change default to “First on top”.

  • Make the default setting optional

  • Remember the last used setting (like the animation properties work)

Hi @GrandPM , thanks for the feedback! Do not also forget to vote up so we can track the overall interest in the community ☑️

That would indeed be a small but significant improvement and relief.

I deffo have this same problem, also it makes no sense that it’s last on top by default, it’s the opposite of what’s obvious and natural! I’d love some insight on the design process behind defaulting to last on top bcs i can never think of use cases for it

Could be relevant, if you want to have a footer-element that overlaps the above section with some kind of graphic element… but I agree totally hat this would be the exception rather than the rule.

Agree. The default being ‘last on top’ does not feel intuitive. In most instances personally I have to amend the default making unrequired extra steps to create my prototypes. Many frustrations with prototypes not working how expected come from this choice.

I always arrange my designs for prototyping so that the top most layers are on top at all times.


Canvas stacking should always have an option to default to “First on Top”.


Like just add the Global Default into the Preferences. If we need to adjust we can do it on a case by case basis.

I agree. Probably 99% of the time things at the top need to appear on top (we scroll top to bottom, not bottom to top), yet the default is set to last on top? Yet another swing and a miss for Figma…

The reason for this is mostly that it is how it works on the web. Later elements/layers will stack on top of earlier elements unless explicitly set to a different stacking position using position: absolute/relative/fixed/etc and z-index which unfortunately doesn’t exist in Figma.

I totally agreed with this, I need this update.

I lost a lot of time in changing this setting on all auto layout I create 🥲

Interesting, good to know. Seems like many of us designers are unaware of that and still need to change it back to first on top in order to stop things from being hidden. So it doesn’t feel like it’s very helpful to include in design software.

Yes please, need this update. Thanks!

100% needed as a default. I have yet to want to have something on the bottom be on top.

Yes, please. For pretty much all other software, whatever is above in the layers panel, is higher up in z-index. Make that the default.

+1 here. I’m curious what the decision behind this was to go for the reverse order 🤷

Yeah, I’ve never understood why it was defaulted to Last On Top in the first place. I can’t think of a good reason for it. Can anyone?


Whenever the order is important, I always go in and switch it to First—which adds yet another few seconds of wasting my life.

Yesss!!! 100% i need First on Top is set by default.

I’m really annoyed because every time I create variants and nested instances, they have to be reordered.

+1 …First on top by default, no one wants to be last 😆

10000% Please!!


So bored of having to manually change ‘Last On Top’ to ‘First On Top’ …

My love for auto layout is seemingly limitless… except for having to change this preference from a fiddly menu literally every single time I use it.

As a web developer, I’m absolutely of the opinion that this setting should be visible in the auto layout section, and that I should be able to set this as some level of global default. There is almost no case in which I would need Last on Top, meanwhile any time I am creating/applying common UI elements like popovers, dropdowns, and comboboxes, I have to repeatedly set stacking to First on Top.

Really hoping to see this happen: I have to manually toggle “first on top” for any frame that I prototype with. It’s not the kind of thing that is easy to catch without testing every single frame/component either 😕

I need this feature as well! Biggest painpoint in my workflow today

But in web dev it IS last on top by default unless you change the stacking order manually with positioning, transforms, z-index, etc. Figma is closer to web default.

I think this should remain by default last-on-top and Figma instead should give us actual z-index functionality.


The way the real web works is last on top, I think it would be more confusing for developer handoff if Figma was the opposite of what they will see in HTML.

Over a year an a gazillion people voting this up. Figma continues to ignore good user experience and ignore its users’ needs.

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