Variables: JSON export and import & font family changes among modes

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1

Hello all,

I am excited for Variables!

Thinking about transitioning to it to manage our themes across multiple brands, but ran into some challenges:

  • text styles are tied into the string variables
  • no option to set different mode for one text style to render in different font families (which changes between our brand A and B)

We have extensive primitive and semantic tokens set up in Tokens Studio, which we can export to JSON, but I don’t see a way for Variables to import JSON or consume existing Tokens Studios files. would there be a future update to ease the transition?

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2

Hey hey! Sorry for the late response to this, but I’m checking in with the teams that work with variables to see if there are plans to help with this. Will get back to you soon as an edit to this comment :smile:

EDIT:

You should be able to import JSON-formatted tokens using the API – we have a code sample on Github that might help: https://github.com/figma/plugin-samples/tree/master/variables-import-export

Can you let me know if you’re looking for something different? Hope this helps a bit in the meantime!

3

Hi Kim, thanks for the response! I am sure that the API doc is helpful but to be honest our team is basically all designers/non-engineer and we really don’t know how to work with the API.

I’d prefer something more of a simple UI with an export or export button/action on the Variables panel (or wherever Figma team think fits the best)

thanks a lot.

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4

No problem! Appreciate the extra context – I just passed that feedback over to the teams working on Variables.

Totally understand where you’re coming from. Hopefully we’re able to make this more simplified in the future :grin:

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5

Oh! Also, a sidenote: our Community has plugins that may fit what you need.

Give it a view when you have a chance!

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6

yes just used some since last week. Appreciate the update !

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