Setting Up Text Styles in Figma

Key Concepts

• Text Styles
• Creating Text Styles
• Applying Text Styles
• Modifying Text Styles
• Consistency and Reusability

1. Text Styles

Text styles in Figma are predefined sets of text formatting options that can be applied to text elements throughout your design. These styles include properties such as font family, size, weight, color, line height, and letter spacing. By using text styles, you can ensure consistency across your mobile app design and make updates more efficient.

2. Creating Text Styles

To create a text style in Figma, select a text element that you want to use as a template. In the right-hand panel, under the "Text" section, adjust the font family, size, weight, color, line height, and letter spacing to your desired settings. Once configured, click the "Create Style" button. This action saves the text style in the "Assets" panel, making it available for use across your project.

3. Applying Text Styles

Applying a text style to a text element is straightforward. Select the text element you want to style, then navigate to the "Assets" panel. Find the desired text style and click on it. The text element will automatically update to match the predefined style. This process ensures that all text elements with the same style are consistent and easy to manage.

4. Modifying Text Styles

If you need to update a text style, simply select the text style in the "Assets" panel, make your changes, and click "Save Style." All text elements using that style will automatically update to reflect the new settings. This feature is particularly useful for maintaining consistency when making global changes to your design.

5. Consistency and Reusability

Using text styles promotes consistency and reusability in your design. By defining text styles for headings, subheadings, body text, and other elements, you ensure that all instances of these elements are uniform. This consistency enhances the overall user experience and makes your design more professional. Additionally, text styles save time by allowing you to apply and update styles across multiple elements simultaneously.

Examples and Analogies

Think of text styles as templates for your text elements. Just as you might use a template for a business letter to ensure consistency in format, you use text styles in Figma to ensure consistency in text formatting. For example, if you have a heading style for your app, you can apply it to all headings across different screens, ensuring they all look the same. If you later decide to change the heading font, you only need to update the text style once, and all headings will reflect the change.

For instance, in a mobile app for a fitness tracker, you might create a text style for the main heading that uses a bold, large font. You can then apply this style to all main headings in the app, such as "Home," "Workouts," and "Settings." If you later decide to change the font size or color, you can update the text style, and all headings will automatically adjust, maintaining a cohesive look across the app.