For anyone still struggling with this, try Inkspace. I got great results with it. Export the design to SVG (with “outline text” unchecked), open the SVG in Inkspace, and export normally to PDF.
Incredibly frustrating that this is not addressed, I think a lot of designers will be laying out their CVs in Figma, this essentially means the Application Tracking Systems do not pick them up.
Here’s a process that worked for me, giving selectable text in both preview, and Acrobat/Acrobat reader:
- make sure all layers are ‘normal’ with no opacity (if you have grouped layers, make sure these are not set to ‘pass through’, Figma seems to set this option on grouping for some reason)
- remove bullets and have manual paragraphs with bullet characters instead
- export frames to PDF
A further optimisation step was required to get this to a decent filesize (I used Acrobat > Save as Other > reduced Size PDF)
Literally my recruiter just told me my CV had this issue. He copied and pasted my text and it came out with all these strange symbols. I tried the SVG method and the alignment is all messed up. How is this not fixed yet? 
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After much searching, this is the only FREE tool that exports a PDF with copyable text that worked for me. CopyDoc Text Kit also works, but it costs around 30 dollar/euro per month after the first 15 uses.
Free PDF Image Compressor
Note: If you have any links in your PDF, they will be exported with border around them. This is also a problem with the native Figma PDF export. It can be solved by doing the following:
Removing strokes from invisible links:
· Export PDF from Figma.
· Open PDF with TextEdit (free app on mac)
· Cmd-F to search for “/Link” (don’t include quotes)
· Check box in upper right “replace”
· In the replace field paste “/Link /Border [0 0 0]” without quotes.
· Click on the “all” button on the right side.
· Click on the “done” button.
· Save.
· Open file in acrobat to verify it still opens (it should)
· All links are now invisible but still present.
Alternatively this can be done programatically in the terminal
I successfully used the following script:
LC_CTYPE=C LANG=C sed ‘s|/Link|/Link /Border [0 0 0]|’ “FILENAME.PDF" > “FILENAME_NOBORDERS.PDF"
Source : Bug: Exporting to PDF adds a random box around my links - #15 by David10
Let me know if anything is unclear. I really hope that helps and that it works for you too!
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This actually is such a joke. How old is Figma now? And you can’t even select text from an exported PDF? Did no one in the history of this company ever come up with the brilliant idea of allowing the copying of text from a PDF? Absolute joke.
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This is working(:
thanks bro, i spent around two hours to save text selectable, but should have just remove opacity
Thank you very much! It works.
Thank you! It works!
I was having this same issue, however this method of saving works for me. I’m using the Figma app itself on an Apple Macbook Pro.
I’m saving a resume with 2 frames (page 1 and 2).
1.Select both frames in the left-hand Layers column, and in the right column “Design” tab, near the bottom click the + by Export and select PDF as the type of export.
2. This should export 2 PDF files to your machine.
3. Open one exported file in Apple Preview, enable Thumbnails to be viewed. Drag the second PDF file into the Thumbnails column, order as you wish, and then Export from Preview as a PDF and I get a 2-page PDF.
The text is selectable in the PDF export, can be copied, however when highlighted it looks really small height, like the line-height of the text isn’t translated on export correctly. But at least it’s copyable and interactive.
Hey @Adam_Arling are you trying to merge two pages (I’m guessing frames) in a single PDF file and for that you use the workaround with the Preview app? If this is what you re trying to do you might like the Super PDF plugin.
It merges every frame you select into a single PDF file and exports it in super high quality.
If this is not what you are trying to achieve, could you share more? I’d love to help.
THANKS!!! The plugin worked fine
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@Antonio_Marquez glad to hear it works and your Figma workflow is now improved.
What specific features does the Super PDF plugin offer for merging frames into a single PDF file in comparison to using the Preview app workaround?
Hey @samanthasen776, there are two key benefits which are important to me. One is that I do what I do inside Figma, avoiding context switching especially when I’m on my laptop with limited screen real estate. The second benefit is that I can do this on both Figma and FigJam.
PDF Export with TEXT and VECTOR objects | Figma
This plugin did it for me
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I had a similar issue and no plugin can maintain the layout that I want. But finally, after trying this and that, I can export the PDF in Figma with selectable text! Here’s what I did:
- Remove all opacity variables for layers or color, and make sure everything is 100%
- Remove all auto-layout and groups
- I used a Google Fonts typeface, which was not quite popular, but the PDF result didn’t work. So I tried to use a more common font first (Times New Roman) then tried to export and see the result (selectable or not). Once it’s selectable I could adjust it to my desired typeface.
It works now!
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I found a solution! Export the screen as .pdf and then use Make PDF searcheable. Online OCR tool. to convert it to searchable and selectable text
This worked for me thanks
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