Figma plugins allow you to speed up your design workflow, and there are thousands available. We've rounded up our favourite plugins which save us time and make designing faster. So no matter if you are a Figma veteran, or only started using it this week, there’ll be a plugin to help speed up your workflow.

Scale

Resizing and scaling elements is a common action when designing. It may be as simple as scaling a shape or icon, or scaling an entire screen for a mockup

Sadly, Figma’s native scale tool misses the mark a little, with no ability to scale by desired value.

That's where Scale comes in. A simple, utility plugin that allows you to scale width or height by a set value, or to scale by percentage.

It’s that simple, and is my number one used plugin.

Redlines

It’s quite rare these days that I provide extensive handover files with redlines for sizing and spacing. I like to work incredibly closely with my engineers and get them into the Figma file, plus design systems do a lot of the defining for spacing/sizing so there's less need for spec files.

But when it comes to writing and delivering documentation between design teams (for your design system for example), Redlines comes in handy for highlighting spacing and sizing of your components when showcasing examples.

Stark

When it comes to accessibility, there is one team responsible for educating and bringing attention to the space, and that’s Stark.

Accessibility shouldn’t be an afterthought, and the sooner you can get your designs up to scratch, the better. Doing it directly in your design tool will speed up your workflow, and get your whole team on board.

The Stark plugin allows you to check the contrast of your colours and provide smart suggestions when your colours fall short. You also get a visual simulator to experience your designs through others' eyes. Finally, you can use the focus order to document your focus patterns for keyboard users.

Icon pixel preview

If you’re in the business of creating custom icons, you’ll want to download Icon Pixel Preview.

It’s important to know not all your customers will be experiencing your designs with XHD/retina displays. And if you’re working with sub-pixel stroke widths, you’ll definitely want to preview your icons at various resolutions to ensure they appear sharp across all screens.

Content Reel

Working with realistic data is really important in ensuring your design will work when in the hands of your customers.

And if you haven’t got an extensive design system in place with example content, Content Reel (made by Microsoft) will be super beneficial to you.

Out of the box you’ve got access to a variety of content types (names, emails, avatars and more). Select your elements on the canvas, and in a few clicks, you’ll have realistic content in your designs.

Autoflow

Ever need to illustrate a flow? Next time you do, instead of drawing your own flow connectors, reach for Autoflow.

It’s as easy as selecting two elements while holding Shift. What’s great, is if you ever need to move your screens, the arrows will adjust and remain intact.

Design lint

If you’ve got a robust design system / Figma library, and want your design to always adhere to your system, Design Lint could be a great plugin to add to your workflow.

Running the design lint plugin will review your screens and call out any elements that aren’t using your library (rogue colours, or an inconsistent border radius). You’ll be able to quickly select multiple instances of the same error and fix them.

Automator

Automator is a super exciting plugin on the Figma scene.  It gives you a UI to access the Figma Plugin API. That means creating a plugin without writing any code.

Ever thought to yourself “X would be awesome as a plugin?” - well chances are you could create it with Automator.

For example, if you’re designing a mobile app, and want to see your design across various device sizes, you could create an automation to scale your frame to various sizes.

Head over to the Automator twitter account so see loads of examples from designers utilising the Automator plugin.

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That's it! A collection of our favourite Figma plugins. Let us know which one is your favourite over on Twitter (@hellotimoapp).