Vertical and horizontal flows

The vertical auto layout flow places objects in your frame along the y-axis. Any objects you add, remove, or reorder will follow the y-axis. For example: list items in a to-do list, or posts within a newsfeed or timeline.

The horizontal auto layout flow objects in your frame along the x-axis. Any objects you add, remove, or reorder will follow the x-axis. For example: a row of buttons, or icons in a mobile navigation menu.

When you have the horizontal selected, Wrap becomes available. Wrap pushes any overflowing objects to the next line in your frame.

Resizing

Resizing allows for objects to adapt their dimensions to the objects and spacing properties around them. You can set resizing behavior on a parent auto layout frame to determine how it resizes based on changes made to its contents, and vice versa.

Learn more about the resizing property.

Alignment

Choose how to align child objects within an auto layout frame. What alignment options are available are determined by the flow of the auto layout frame and the distribution, or gap between items.

Unlike objects in a regular frame, you can't control the alignment of the objects individually. For that reason, you set the alignment of the child objects on the parent auto layout frame.

Use the alignment box in the right panel to select from nine layout options for the children in a frame.

• Select the box and use arrow keys to switch between the different alignment settings. 
• Select the box and press W/A/S/D to set alignment to the edge of the frame.

If gap between items is set to Auto, you have three options for each flow:

• Vertical auto layout flow: Left, Center, Right
• Horizontal auto layout flow: Top, Center, Bottom

If gap between items is set to a specific number, you have the same nine options for each auto layout flow:

• Top left
• Top center
• Top right
• Left
• Center
• Right
• Bottom left
• Bottom center
• Bottom right

Spacing

Gap between items

Use gap between items to set the distance, or distribution, between objects in an auto layout frame.

Gap between items has two different settings:

• Auto: Set the gap between objects to be the largest distance possible. Type Auto in the field or select it from the dropdown menu.
• A specified gap: Specify how far apart you want objects to be. Enter a value into the field, nudge the values using your arrow keys, or scrub the field using your cursor.

To quickly toggle between these two settings, click the alignment box and press X.

If the auto layout frame's flow is set to vertical or horizontal, you'll be able to set gap between items vertically or horizontally, respectively. If the frame's flow is set to wrap, then you'll be able to set both horizontal and vertical gap between items.

Padding

Padding controls the empty or white space between the boundary of an auto layout frame and the frame’s child objects. You can set padding uniformly, vertically and horizontally, or have different values for top, right, bottom, and left padding.

Adjust the padding using canvas controls or spacing fields in the right panel.

To access canvas controls, select an auto layout frame and hover over it. Pink handles will appear, similar to those in smart selection.

• Click handles to open input fields and enter a numeric value
• Or, click and drag the handle to change the spacing

Padding controls in the right panel are separated into vertical (top and bottom) and horizontal (left and right) padding by default.

• To set individual padding, click to use top, right, bottom, and left padding fields.
• To set uniform padding or to use CSS shorthand, hold ⌘ Command or Control and click into any padding field. You can also type CSS shorthand. For example, entering 1,2,3,4 sets the top, right, bottom, and left to 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively. Entering 1,2 sets the values to top/bottom: 1 and left/right: 2.

Additional auto layout settings

Text baseline alignment

A baseline is the invisible line in which text or a layer sits. In typography, descenders will extend beneath this line.

In some cases, aligning the baselines of layers can create more balance—such as when aligning baselines of text layers with varying font sizes, or when aligning an icon with a text layer.

To align layers by their baselines, select the layers you want to align, and click from the right panel to open auto layout settings. Next to text baseline alignment, click to enable baseline alignment.

Strokes in layout

By default, strokes aren’t accounted for when calculating the size of objects, and thus don’t affect their parent frame or surrounding siblings.

This may not be ideal during developer handoff, as it doesn’t accurately represent how CSS renders borders.

Choose whether strokes will take up space in an auto layout frame by going to the auto layout settings, and using the dropdown next to stroke to select included in layout or excluded from layout.

Canvas stacking order

When multiple layers have negative spacing creating a stack, the last object (either the right-most or bottom-most object) in the stack will be on top by default.

You can change the visual order of the stack as seen on the canvas.

With the auto layout frame selected, click from the right panel to open auto layout settings. Next to canvas stacking, select:

• First on top: the first layer in the stack will be on top
• Last on top: the last layer in the stack will be on top

Work with objects in the frame

Add objects

To add a layer or object to an auto layout frame.

1. Click and drag an object over an auto layout frame.
2. Use the blue indicator to choose where to place the object.

Duplicate objects

You can duplicate existing objects to add them to the Auto layout. Figma will add the duplicate to the right (horizontal) or below (vertical) the original object.

1. Select a child object in an Auto layout frame.
2. Duplicate it by using the keyboard shortcut:
   • Mac: ⌘ Command D
   • Windows: Ctrl D

Arrange or reorder objects

You can change the order that objects appear in an auto layout frame. This is only supported on main components, or auto layout frames outside of a component.

1. Select the child object. If the layer is nested, you'll need to use the modifier key to deep select:
   • Mac: ⌘ Command
   • Windows: Ctrl
2. There are a few ways to reorder objects:
   • Use the arrow keys on your keyboard the object to a new position.
   • Click-and-drag the object to a new position.

Remove objects

To remove an object from a main component or auto layout frame:

• Drag the object outside of the auto layout frame
• Click next to Appearance in the right sidebar, or next to the layer in the left sidebar to toggle the layer visibility
• Select the object and press the Delete or Backspace key

You can't delete a layer or object from an instance. If you try, Figma will only toggle the layer's visibility instead of removing it.

Try it out

New to auto layout? Play around with the different auto layout properties in the interactive sandbox below to see how they work. Just keep in mind that this demo is a simplified version and doesn’t fully replicate how auto layout works in Figma Design.

What did you think of this demo? Let us know by rating this article at the bottom of the page.

More ways to learn:

• Figma tutorial playlist: Learn to create flexible designs and components
  This playlist includes video tutorials that cover the basics of auto layout, how to apply auto layout to designs, and hands-on tutorials for more practice.
• Community file: Auto layout playground
  Grab a copy of the auto layout playground file to practice while you learn.