How to Use Figma for Developer Handoff

· Category: VS Code & Developer Tools

Short answer

Figma provides developer mode and inspect panels that reveal CSS properties, measurements, and exportable assets directly from design files.

Steps

  1. Open a Figma file and switch to Dev Mode or right-click and select "Inspect".
  2. Click any element to see its dimensions, colors, typography, and spacing.
  3. Copy CSS snippets from the right sidebar.
  4. Export images and SVGs by selecting layers and clicking Export.
  5. Use comments to ask designers questions directly on the canvas.

Tips

  • Enable "Show percentages" for responsive layout values.
  • Figma generates React code snippets with the appropriate plugin.
  • Use the contrast checker in the inspect panel for accessibility.

Common issues

  • Auto-layout frames can produce complex CSS that does not map one-to-one to code.
  • Font names in Figma may differ from web-safe or Google Font names.