Merging Figma frames into a PDF

TinyImage includes a Create PDF feature which allows you to merge and export any parent frames from Figma into a compressed PDF file.

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Selecting and refreshing Figma frames

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Opening the PDF feature with parent frames

To get started merging parent frames to a PDF, you can click the Create PDF button in the TinyImage toolbar. This will open up a list that displays all of the parent frames currently on your Figma page.

If you don’t have any parent frames on your page, you’ll see a prompt letting you know; if you add some parent frames to the page, and then click the Refresh Parent Frames button, the plugin will refresh those new layers and load them into the list of available frames.

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Reordering PDF frames

There are a number of different ways to sort the order of your frames in your merged PDF:

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Sort frames by Custom Order

You can manually sort the order of your frames using drag and drop, by clicking/holding your mouse on any thumbnail image, and dragging it up or down to shift its order in your PDF, then dropping it to confirm that order. This custom ordering will be saved if you want to switch between ordering options, so you can get it back by clicking the Sort frames by Custom Order option in the sorting select box.

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Sort frames by Figma Layer Order

Selecting the Sort frames by Figma Layer Order option will automatically sort your the order of your frames to match their order in your Figma layers.

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Sort frames visually by Columns

Selecting the Sort frames visually by Columns option will automatically sort your the order of your frames to match their visual positioning order by columns in your Figma design.

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Sort frames visually by Rows

Selecting the Sort frames visually by Rows option will automatically sort your the order of your frames to match their visual positioning order by rows in your Figma design.

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Sort frames visually by Figma Layer Name

Selecting the Sort frames by Figma Layer Name option will automatically sort your the order of your frames to match their alphabetical order according to their Figma layer names.

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Selecting frames to merge to PDF

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Setting PDF export options

There are a few options you can specify when exporting merged PDF files. These are related to the compression/quality level, password protection and the color profile of your exported PDF.

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Choosing PDF quality

You can set the quality level for your PDF export from 72dpi-300dpi by using the compression slider. Clicking/holding and dragging the slider will allow you to specify your desired quality level.

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Downsizing your Figma layer fills for your PDF exports

Enabling the Downscale large Figma image fills toggle will automatically resize (and lightly compress) any Figma image fills on your layers to their actual layer size. This is useful if you’ve originally imported high resolution images to your Figma file, but then shrunk the layer dimensions down to be much smaller (with the original large image file still being used).

One common case of this would be adding a large image from Unsplash (or another stock photo site/plugin), the resizing that layer to be used as a much smaller “card” or “avatar” image. This can cause the performance of your Figma file to slow down and potentially crash when exporting these layers via the TinyImage PDF export options; so using this feature will help save file size and improve page performance in your Figma file.

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Setting a password for your merged PDF

If you would like your exported merged PDF file to require a password before it can be opened, you can enable the Require a password to open PDFs setting, then set your own password in the password input field. Ensure that you give this password to anyone you’re sending the exported merged PDF file to, or they won’t be able to open the file to view its contents.

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Choosing a color profile for your merged PDF

Depending on where your exported PDFs are going to be used, you may need to change the colour profile setting, by choosing an option from the PDF Color Profile select box.

• RGB (Default/For Screens)
• CMYK (For Print)
• Greyscale (Black & White)

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Exporting the merged PDF

Once you’re happy with your PDF settings and frame selection/order, you can click the Export PDF button in the toolbar; this will begin the process of merging and compressing your PDF pages one by one. You’ll see a progress indicator showing you that the PDF is being merged and compressed.

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Saving the exported merged PDF file

After all of the pages in your PDF have been merged and compressed, you’ll see a confirmation notification letting you know that your PDF has been merged, and your .pdf file download will automatically be triggered.