Introduction
Despite Figma's origins in product and UI design, its also a fantastic tool for graphic and print design, rivalling traditional software from companies like Adobe and Affinity. With Figma plugins, you can take this even further and make Figma your tool for everything.
I've tailored this list of Figma plugins specifically to graphic and print design, based on more than 7 years of experience using Figma, and more than 5 years of experience building my own Figma plugin: Print for Figma. You won't find anything in this list for UI design, but if you want to use Figma for graphic or print design, you're in the right place.
The following plugins are in no particular order - the ranking will depend on your specific needs.
Insert Big Image
Insert Big Image | Figma
Insert and retain the original resolution of big images. Fund my work on Figma plugins → Insert Big Image Opens a dialog through which one or more image files can be selected. Intelligently splits up and inserts each image file as a set of smaller images. (This is to work around a limitation in...
Good graphic and print design usually makes use of lots of images - whether that's textures like we discussed above, or things like photographs and illustrations. Sometimes, your images will be very high resolution, e.g. 4K photographs.
The problem is, at the time of writing this, Figma still limits the resolution of images you import. If you import an image into Figma that is larger than 4096px(in either width, height, or both), then behind the scenes Figma downscales the image. Even though the image will have the same dimensions after importing, it will look 'blurrier' as Figma has reduced it's quality. A message will be displayed to you when Figma does this, but it's easy to miss.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to get around this arbitrary limit that Figma imposes - and it's called Insert Big Image. The creator, Yuan Qing Lim, had the smart of idea of making a plugin that splits big images into smaller parts when you import them, avoiding the 4096px limit.
The plugin automatically calculates the most optimal way to split up the image, and then creates a group of multiple images in your Figma file. The idea is that if you keep the images aligned properly, there's no way to tell in your final design that an image is actually made up of multiple smaller images.
Print for Figma
Print for Figma | CMYK, Bleed, Crop Marks, DPI | Figma
Export Figma to CMYK with Bleed, Crop Marks, and 300 DPI Use Figma for print design instead of slow and expensive Adobe software. Print for Figma is the top print design plugin for Figma, now with over 200,000 users! 📄 Create flyers, posters, business cards, reports, and more! 🎨 Export Figma to...
Creating print-ready PDFs is a whole different problem compared to creating good looking PNG exports. Unlike raster images formats (jpg, png) which are simply just a collection of different colored pixels, PDFs are complex 'vector' files, that can contain thousands of other design elements and objects like layers, fonts, text boxes, CMYK and Pantone colors, images, and more.
The complexity of PDFs is why there aren't that many good print design and publishing tools. If you're born before the year 2000, you might remember software like QuarkXPress - which is actually still around today. But for the last decade or so, Adobe InDesign has been basically the only mainstream print design tool.
The problem with InDesign, or even with newer tools like 'Affinity by Canva', is that they're not collaborative or real-time. Figma essentially still has a complete monopoly when it comes to real-time, online, browser-based design software. While some designers might not value real-time collaboration, it's pretty clear from Figma's massive success (and recent IPO) that a lot of designers are willing to pay a lot of money for it.
The value of real-time collaboration with your team extends to graphic and print design too, which is why so many designers have started to use Figma for everything, not just UI design. Figma knows this, which is why they've put time and money into features like native PDF exporting, and products like Figma Buzz. However, there are certain features that Figma either can't or won't add to their software natively (namely CMYK & ICC profiles) - and that's where Print for Figma comes in.
Print for Figma includes several features not available in Figma natively:
- create Figma frames in inches and millimeters instead of pixels
- add printing marks like bleed and crop marks
- check the DPI of the images in your design
- export PDFs in CMYK instead of RGB
- export PDFs with specific ICC profiles
I've spent the last 5 years building Print for Figma based on my own experience as a print designer, as well as feedback from thousands of other professionals - from freelancers, to in-house teams and design agencies. Everything in Print for Figma is intentional - the goal is to take away the pain of using Figma for print design. All features are built around a “preset” system too, meaning that you can save different profiles/settings for different projects, clients, or brands.
If you're not already using Figma for print design projects, Print for Figma will help you make that a reality. The ROI of only needing one tool for everything is incredibly high. You can share assets, templates, and color palettes between both digital and print marketing efforts, which means less duplication, less time wasted, and more money in your pocket.
Figma + Print for Figma is a fantastic toolkit for print and graphic design, and it will no doubt continue to get better as time goes on. If you or your team like Figma, then I highly recommend adding Print for Figma to your toolbox as well.
TinyImage Compressor
TinyImage Compressor | Figma
Documentation & Video Tutorials For plugin documentation and step by step video tutorials, please visit https://docs.hypermatic.com/tinyimage Questions & Support TinyImage is still a baby panda, so if you notice any bugs or have any questions about the plugin, please get in touch directly via ...
While the last plugin helps you import images, TinyImage Compressor helps you export them.
Unlike UI design which often gets handed off to developers, graphic design usually requires exporting your work as an image. Figma's native exporting can get you pretty far, but as soon as you need to maintain a certain file size (e.g. 10 MB) or export hundreds of files in bulk, TinyImage Compressor can be a life saver.
Created by Hypermatic - the same team behind 11 other super powerful Figma plugins - TinyImage enables “simple, fast and effective image compression directly in Figma”. The founder of Hypermatic calls it “Ludicrous Mode” for your Figma image export options - and they're not joking. It's popular for a reason. So, the next time you feel like native Figma exports aren't enough, I highly recommend TinyImage.
If instead of images, you need to export print-ready PDFs, then keep reading. The next plugin on this list (Print for Figma) provides more tools specifically for print design and print-ready PDF creation.
Noise & Texture
Noise & Texture | Figma
A Figma plugin to dynamically generate seamless tiled noise, textures, patterns, gradients, and more. Select a layer and add your noise or texture. Change the settings and see your layers updated live.
If you look at most art, there is almost always some form of texture or physical dimension that plays a large role in how the art 'feels' - the brush strokes of a painting, the roughness of stamps and stencils, or the natural grain of a wood carving - all of these forms of art wouldn't feel the same if you stripped away their texture. It's the same reason why movies shot on film sometimes feel more “real” or “raw” than a low-budget shot-on-digital TV show. The imperfections of the film strip (the film 'grain') remind us of the real world and all it's various textures.
So, if we know that noise and texture helps add depth and realism, we should probably use it more in our designs, right? Well, yes! - in fact, if you look for it intentionally, you'll start to see noise and texture in almost all of your favourite designs.
This is where the Noise & Texture plugin comes in handy. Created by Figma's former Designer Advocate and now product designer Rogie King, Noise & Texture lets you “dynamically generate seamless tiled noise, textures, patterns, gradients, and more”, all from within Figma - no photoshop needed.
Give Noise & Texture a shot with your next project and I guarantee you'll notice a difference. Even something simple like a very subtle background texture can be effective, or you can get more experimental and see what fun concepts you can create. Many of the effects the plugin offers are super hard to create without a plugin, and aren't even available in traditional tools like Photoshop, without a ton of manual steps - so this plugin is super powerful!
Similar plugins
- Noise - by Dustin Mierau
- Noisy Gradients - by Shiv and vijay verma
Coolors
Coolors | Figma
Coolors is the super fast color palettes generator loved by 2,5 M users Usage Click on Generate to get random colors schemesLock your favorite colors by clicking on the lock iconClick again on Generate to get the remaining colors that match perfectly with them Other features Add or remove the ...
We can't talk about graphic and print design plugins without mentioning color. A huge part of design in general revolves around good color selection and color management.
While Figma has native tools for managing colors - namely variables and styles, there isn't yet a built-in tool for selecting a good color palette. If you're a designer, you've probably used, or at least heard of Coolors - the color palette generation website. Well, they offer a Figma plugin as well!
It might seem like a simple thing, but Coolors makes it fun and easy to quickly randomize colors until you find a palette that looks good. Next time you're starting a new project, give Coolors a try.