Design to code - Anima Blog https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/ Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:37:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Figma to HTML: How to export a Figma design into HTML https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-figma-to-html/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-figma-to-html/#respond Wed, 03 Apr 2024 12:17:12 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=5379 Reading Time: 4 minutes You can export a complete HTML code package or get individual component code from your Figma design. See how to convert Figma to HTML here!

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If you’re wondering how to convert Figma to HTML & CSS without writing the code yourself, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll show you how to export your Figma designs as production-ready HTML in a few simple steps using Anima.

Anima lets you create high-fidelity code-based prototypes in Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch, then export those prototypes as developer-friendly code in just a few clicks.

Going directly from Figma to HTML will allow you to create live web-based prototypes, deploy your own simple websites or landing pages, and hand developers clean code packages for the entire UI to speed up development.

Get Anima for Figma

Are you a visual learner? Here’s Figma to HTML YouTube tutorial.

How to convert Figma designs to HTML

You can export a complete HTML code package or get an individual component/screen code from your Figma design:

  1. Export full HTML flows from Figma, with multiple screens and links
  2. Copy or export HTML code snippets from Figma’s Dev Mode or Edit Mode

Export full HTML flows from Figma

Step 1: Run Anima’s Plugin in Figma’s Edit Mode

First, open your Figma project in Edit Mode (the main mode) and run Anima’s plugin.

Search for Anima in Edit Mode

Step 2: Select a screen, and click “Get Code”

After clicking “Get Code”, select “HTML” (React / Vue code packages are also available).

 

figma to html - anima plugin

When your design is successfully synced to Anima’s web app, you will get notified in the Anima plugin.

Click “Go to Anima” to open a browser tab with a preview of your Figma design, then click “Export code” → “Download”

In order to change the code framework, click the settings icon under “Export code”

What’s in the Code Package?

The downloaded Code Package is saved on your computer as a zip file in your selected location. In this zip file, you can find all the files for your design (this includes the HTML, CSS, images, and fonts files).

An HTML Code Package Automatically Generated by Anima.An HTML code package automatically generated by Anima

Once the files are unzipped, you can preview them locally in the browser by double-clicking the HTML file. You’ll be able to see all of your responsive elements and interactions, just like the final product!

Opening the files in a text editor will present to you a well-structured HTML and CSS code.

  • For every Frame/screen, Anima produces both HTML & CSS files.
  • The screens with Breakpoints (Multiple layouts per screen size) share the same HTML & CSS file and use CSS media queries.
  • Assets and fonts are included, and your code is ready to run or deploy.

Copy or export HTML code snippets directly in Figma

Step 1: Run Anima in Figma (Edit or Dev Mode)

Open Anima’s plugin in Edit or Dev Mode.

Step 2: Select a Figma Component, Layer, or Frame to get code

Select any Figma component, layer, or frame to get its corresponding HTML code in the right panel. You can then copy the code from the panel, open it in Anima’s online playground, or download the code package.

Export Figma to HTML in Dev Mode

This option is the fastest and the most straightforward for individual components and screens.

It is perfect for developer handoff since Dev Mode is accessible in Read Only.

How it looks in Figma Edit Mode

Run the Anima Plugin in Figma’s Edit Mode using the “Switch” button

get your code from edit mode inspect

Gen AI code personalization – Prompt right inside Figma

In the inspect panel on both Edit Mode and Dev Mode, you will see a toggle to open the AI code personalization. You can ask Anima to code according to your own coding conventions, add animations, or even a basic logic, by simply typing your request.

Learn more about Figma to code with AI code personalization:

Ready to export production-ready HTML code for your Figma designs?

Welcome aboard, let’s get you going!

Get Anima plugin for Figma

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How to export Tailwind CSS from Figma https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-tailwind-from-figma/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-tailwind-from-figma/#respond Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:26:48 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9048 Reading Time: 3 minutes This article will show you how to seamlessly export Figma designs into Tailwind CSS using Anima.
Anima will map your design properties to Tailwind's base styles. Design attributes, such as colors, spacing, and typography, will be translated into concise Tailwind classes.

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Get Tailwind CSS from your Figma design

This article will show you how to seamlessly export Figma designs into Tailwind CSS using Anima.

Anima will map your design properties to Tailwind’s base styles. Design attributes, such as colors, spacing, and typography, will be translated into concise Tailwind classes. If you are using styles and variables, Anima’s AI code gen will generate it as a Tailwind configuration file.

Tailwind is the go-to choice for developers aiming to streamline their workflow and easily create responsive web applications.

So, let’s dive in and discover how you can bring your Figma creations to the world of Tailwind CSS magic!

With Anima, you can now turn Figma designs into:

  • React, HTML, or Vue
  • Utilizing Typescript or Javascript
  • With CSS or TailwindCSS

So let’s get started!

(*If you prefer to follow the steps with the related video, here is the YouTube tutorial: How to convert Figma into Tailwind CSS 

**if you are a VSCode user: Figma to Tailwind in VSCode)

How to convert Figma designs to Tailwind

Step 1: Run the Anima Plugin on your desired Figma file

Open Anima’s plugin in your favorite mode (Classic Mode or Dev Mode). You can use the search box if you are a first-time user and type Anima. It will require you to sign up for Anima. It takes a few seconds, we promise.

Step 2: Select React, Typescript / Javascript + Tailwind

Next, you will have to change the code selection to match your current needs:

    • Framework: choose React in the framework dropdown
    • Language: check Javascript or Typescript based on your preference
    • Select Tailwind CSS under the Styling selection

This will be saved as your default code preference. You can modify it anytime.

Step 3: Select a Figma Component, Layer, or Frame

Now just select the section that you want to export with Tailwind and Anima will generate its code. 

Step 4: Get your code

Once you are satisfied with your selected code, you have three options:

  1. Copy snippets with the button or with your keyboard shortcut.click copy code
  2. Download all the files together as a zip by clicking “Download selection”.
  3. View how your code is running by clicking “Open in CodeSandbox”. Here is one for example: CodeSandbox link
figma to tailwind code sandbox
Now it is your turn!

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Convert Figma to React & Tailwind Automatically in VSCode https://www.animaapp.com/blog/product-updates/convert-figma-to-react-tailwind-automatically-in-vscode/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/product-updates/convert-figma-to-react-tailwind-automatically-in-vscode/#respond Wed, 10 Jul 2024 18:18:01 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9978 Reading Time: 2 minutes Frontier seamlessly transforms Figma files into React code, perfectly integrating with your existing Tailwind configurations. Frontier meets you where you work, in VS Code.

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Are you a frontend developer who loves using Tailwind CSS for its utility-first approach and flexibility? If so, you understand the challenges of translating Figma designs into Tailwind-enhanced React components. Aligning new components with both design fidelity and your established styling conventions can be time-consuming.

That’s where Frontier comes in—a revolutionary tool that seamlessly transforms Figma files into React code, perfectly integrating with your existing Tailwind configurations. Frontier meets you where you work, in VS Code.

Effortless Figma to React Conversion in VSCode

  • Converting Figma designs into React components is more streamlined with Frontier. Here’s how it enhances your workflow:
  • Automatic Component Detection: Frontier scans your Figma design and identifies potential direct matches with existing React components in your codebase.
  • Component Reuse: Frontier generates code that reuses your existing components, enhancing efficiency and reducing code duplication.
  • Tailwind CSS Code Generation: Automatically generates the necessary React code with Tailwind classes applied, preserving the intended design aesthetics while adhering to your predefined styles.
  • Reduce Redundancy: This approach not only accelerates development but also helps keep your codebase clean and manageable.

(Not using VSCode? Translate Figma to Tailwind in Figma)

Seamless Integration with Your Tailwind Config

Frontier does more than just convert designs—it ensures the generated code integrates flawlessly with your existing project frameworks:

  • Tailwind Config Utilization: Detects and uses your tailwind.config.js file, allowing all generated components to inherit your custom styling rules automatically.
  • Intelligent Style Application: Ensures that every component not only matches the design specs but also aligns with your established Tailwind conventions. If needed, Frontier will generate new style configurations that you can then add to your original config file.

For front-end developers using Tailwind CSS, Frontier offers a powerful way to enhance your development workflow. It ensures precise translation of your Figma designs into React components and maintains style consistency through smart integration with your Tailwind setup.

Start using Frontier today and take your Tailwind projects to the next level, where design meets code not just with accuracy, but with style 😉

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Figma to HTML Email: Converting Designs to HTML Email Templates with Inline CSS https://www.animaapp.com/blog/product-updates/figma-to-html-email-converting-designs-to-html-email-templates-with-inline-css/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/product-updates/figma-to-html-email-converting-designs-to-html-email-templates-with-inline-css/#respond Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:51:35 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9772 Reading Time: 3 minutes With Anima’s Figma plugin, you can convert your flex layouts directly into HTML email templates. We’ll do all the hard work of converting those into table layouts with inline CSS. You design freely in Figma, and we’ll do the heavy lifting of translating your vision into adaptive, pixel-perfect emails.

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Figma to HTML Email 

In the world of digital marketing, your email isn’t just a message; it’s a first impression, a handshake, a personal invitation to your world. Recognizing the importance of polished and professional email designs, Anima is thrilled to announce a game-changing feature that’s set to revolutionize how designers and marketers alike create email templates.

Get Anima for Figma

Compatibility with a wide range of email clients

For designers who live and breathe in Figma, creating a responsive complex layout can test your patience. Making it compatible with a wide variety of email clients, that’s even harder. With Anima for Figma plugin, you can convert your flex layouts directly into HTML email templates. We’ll do all the hard work of converting those into table layouts with inline CSS. You design freely in Figma, and we’ll do the heavy lifting of translating your vision into adaptive, pixel-perfect emails. Compatibility with a wide range of email clients

Responsive layout for every device

Leveraging Figma’s auto-layout with Anima’s breakpoint to ensure your emails adapt to every screen size so your communications look and function as intended, regardless of whether your user viewed it on a desktop or a mobile.

– Auto-Layout Translation: Anima converts Figma’s auto-layout settings into responsive HTML tables, maintaining layout integrity across email clients.
– Breakpoint Integration: While many email clients don’t support responsive design, Anima includes inline CSS media queries for those that do, ensuring your emails look great on every device screen.Responsive layout for every device

Prioritizing Accessibility in Design

Our plugin utilizes Figma’s text styles to implement a clear and coherent heading structure, ensuring that your emails are not only visually appealing but also navigable and readable for all users. Additionally, we prioritize alt text for images, enhancing accessibility for visually impaired individuals and improving the SEO of your emails.Prioritizing Accessibility in email Design

Your Code Playground

Experience what your users see firsthand using Anima’s Playground. Edit your HTML and watch your designs transform in real-time. Once ready, just copy the final HTML code directly from the playground into your mail service of choice (e.g., Mailgun or Mailchimp).
Your HTML email Code in Playground

Code sample here
Figma email design template

Forward-Thinking Email Design

We understand that in the fast-paced world of digital marketing, efficiency is just as important as aesthetics. Now, you no longer have to sacrifice one for the other. Our commitment to innovation continues, and this new feature is just another step in our journey to streamline the design process without compromising quality.

From Figma to Inbox – Step-by-step guide

  1. Install Anima’s plugin and open it in Figma
  2. Add auto layout while designing.
  3. You can also add Links, breakpoints, GIFs, Headings, and Alt text.
  4. Select the framework & styling ‘HTML’ + ‘Email compatible’.
  5. Get code! Click ‘Open in Playground’ to preview and edit your HTML and CSS in Anima’s Playground environment.
  6. Copy the HTML code from the playground – The HTML contains your CSS, and Anima will host your images, so you are ready to send your emails!

Stay tuned as we continue to update and upgrade your Anima experience. Not part of the Anima family yet? Join us today and transform the way you create email templates forever.

 

Get Anima for Figma

*Some features might not work with some email clients.

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Anima’s VSCode extension: Figma to React is now in your favorite IDE https://www.animaapp.com/blog/code/animas-vscode-extension-figma-to-react-is-now-in-your-favorite-ide/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/code/animas-vscode-extension-figma-to-react-is-now-in-your-favorite-ide/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:07:29 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9642 Reading Time: 2 minutes A big step toward becoming developers’ sidekick is Anima’s new VSCode extension, now available in beta. With the first beta, you’ll be able to turn Figma into code right inside Visual Studio Code.

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Update: Frontier, Figma to code in VSCode, is now accessible to all!

With almost 1M installs on Figma’s platform, Anima is leading the design to code space. As the next phase, Anima is evolving into a front-end coding assistant. In this article, we will cover the challenges our customers are having and how we address more of them by taking a more active part in helping R&D teams deliver faster daily.

A big step toward becoming developers’ sidekick is Anima’s new VSCode extension, now available in beta. With the first beta, you’ll be able to turn Figma into code right inside Visual Studio Code.

Anima’s code is clean, runnable, and has high fidelity compared to the Figma design. All you need in order to start is a link to a Figma file, and the rest append in the IDE. Select any layer, turn it into code, extract visual assets, and deliver great UX at half the time.

 

 

Today’s new beta means that Anima will now be available in developers’ home court. We have a great roadmap around how to interact with existing code and integrate smoothly into your workflow.

How to Turn Figma to React in Visual Studio Code

Here is the gist:

  1. Install Frontier, Anima for VS Code
  2. Paste a Figma link into Anima
  3. Select any part of the design to generate React code
  4. Assets are available under “Asset Manager”

Generative AI and Front-end Code Automation

As generative AI is slowly maturing, companies are experiencing AI tools and discovering the pros and cons of providing such solutions to their teams. AI in places such as email and document creation, as well as data analysis, is becoming a no-brainer.

GenAI tools in software development are less straightforward. These are the early days, and we are starting to see a variety of solutions for developers, ranging from chat interfaces to interactive WYSIWYGs, to coding completion, such as GitHub’s Copilot, and all the way to an “AI Developer agent” that tackles bugs.

When it comes to Front-end automation, we believe that there’s a big gap between what’s possible and what’s out there. And with Anima’s capabilities and our understanding of the space, we can do much more. 

A Developer’s Sidekick – Evolving into a Front-end coding Assistant

Gradually, Anima will help developers run faster and faster as they build and maintain front-end code. Mixing Anima’s code-gen engine with GenAI in multiple ways opens new doors to what’s possible. From building new workflows on top of existing code, and all the way to maintaining and governing design systems and even older legacy code.

If you wish to become a design partner and help us shape the future of Front-end, contact us.

Who is This For?

Any dev team building Front-end, starting with those building with React.

Anima’s front-end coding assistant does not compete with Github Copilot, Tabnine, or Amazon’s CodeWhisperer—it complements and expands the amount of coding you can automate.

With this first release, we start by bringing the same offering of today’s Anima to VSCode—Figma to React—runnable, pixel-perfect UI code. Next comes design-system integration and front-end code base maintenance and monitoring.

We’d love to hear your feedback, join the beta, and give it a spin 🙏

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Figma to React: How to get clean React code in Figma https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-figma-to-react/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/how-to-export-figma-to-react/#respond Mon, 01 Apr 2024 12:14:32 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=5909 Reading Time: 2 minutes Anima instantly converts Figma components into React components inside Figma. Here’s a step-by-step guide.

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With over 1 million installs on Figma, Anima is the best way to turn designs into code.

In this article, we’ll show you how to turn Figma into clean React code instantly. Anima can produce React components or even full flows with multiple screens, links, and responsive layouts.

What to expect from Anima’s code:

  • Pixel-perfect, clean code that runs out of the box.
  • Figma variants support, as well as props and sub-component support.
  • Responsive CSS flex layout based on Figma Auto Layout.
  • TypeScript / JavaScript, with CSS / SCSS / Tailwind / Styled Components styling.

How to convert Figma designs to React code

Anima provides 2 ways to export code for different use cases:

  1. React code for an entire full flow, with multiple screens & links – Great for Marketing sites, PoCs, MVPs, or to kickstart a new project.
  2. React code for a specific component – Great for code handoff to engineers on an existing project.

Generate React code for full flows with links

  1. Install & open the Anima plugin in Figma
  2. Select the Figma screens you’d like to convert to React.
    If you have multiple layouts for the same screen, use the Breakpoints feature.
  3. Click the ‘Get Code’ button → Choose “React”.
Figma to React: How to Get React Code from Figma
  1. Click ‘Go to Anima’ when syncing is complete. 

    You’ll be directed to your project in Anima’s web app, where you can download the full code package, ready to run. 

Figma to React: Export full flow with links

Get Anima plugin for Figma

Generate React code for a specific component

  1. Switch to Dev Mode using the toggle at the top of Figma’s Inspect panel, and run Anima’s plugin.
  2. Select any Figma component, layer, or frame.
Figma to React: Export a single component in Dev Mode
  1. On the right panel, you will get runnable code at your choice of framework: React, Vue, or HTML, with CSS, SCSS, or Tailwind.
  2. Download the code or run it on Anima’s online playground using the buttons at the bottom.

No Dev Mode access?

  • Edit mode – Use Anima in Edit mode and click “Switch” to inspect a single component.
  • VSCode beta – Anima is coming to Visual studio code, get the beta here.
Figma to React: Export a single component in Edit Mode

Build frontend 2x faster with Anima

Get Anima plugin for Figma

 

Video tutorial: How to export React components in Figma Dev Mode

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Breakpoints with Anima: From Figma design to Responsive Website https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/breakpoints-with-anima-from-figma-design-to-responsive-website/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/breakpoints-with-anima-from-figma-design-to-responsive-website/#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2024 14:04:18 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9660 Reading Time: 3 minutes Anima easily converts Figma designs into responsive HTML and CSS code, by letting users set breakpoints in a Figma project.

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Anima easily converts Figma designs into responsive HTML or React code, by letting users set breakpoints (Media queries) to a Figma project.

Imagine you’ve just poured hours into perfecting a website design in Figma. It looks stunning on your desktop. But then you check it on a smartphone, and it zooms out so badly that letters are just pixels. So, you make multiple prototypes for each resolution and share multiple links with stakeholders and engineers. In the best case, you’re getting one resolution right, and others are far from being pixel-perfect. This scenario is all too common in the digital design world, where supporting multiple resolutions is not just a challenge; it’s a necessity. This is where breakpoints come in.

Using breakpoints, Anima ensures that your design automatically adjusts to look its best, whether it’s being viewed on a compact smartphone, a tablet, or a widescreen monitor. The right layout will show.

Get Anima plugin for Figma

What are Breakpoints?

A breakpoint is a specific point where a website’s content and design will adjust to accommodate the screen size or resolution it’s being viewed on.

Today, the convention is to have a different artboard representing the page layout for Desktop, Mobile, and sometimes even tablet or a wide desktop. Each of these artboards stands for a breakpoint.

Why Should You Use Breakpoints?

  1. Enhanced user experience – By ensuring that your website or app looks great and functions well on any device, you cater to a wider audience, making your design more inclusive and user-friendly.
  2. Readability and clarity – Breakpoints allow designers to adjust not just the scaling of elements, but also their positioning, visibility, content, and even functionality, depending on what is the most appropriate for the device resolution. If you are building a landing page, it all boils down to a better conversion.
  3. SEO – Search engines favor mobile-friendly websites. A responsive design is more likely to rank higher in search results, increasing visibility and traffic.
  4. Communicating with stakeholders or clients – Even during the design process, Breakpoints allow you to share a single link to all resolutions, helping you close a sale or impress stakeholders before involving engineering.

Breakpoints are a vital tool in the modern designer’s toolkit, allowing for the creation of responsive, user-centric designs for any screen. Ensuring that the end product is accessible and engaging for all users, regardless of their device.

How to Use Breakpoints

Here’s how to use Breakpoints and create a responsive website with Figma:

  1. Design with multiple layouts 
    The process begins in Figma, where designers create variations of their pages for different screen sizes. Typically, at least two or three versions, such as mobile, desktop, and tablet.Save breakpoints
  2. Connect artboards with Anima’s Breakpoints feature 
    Select all the artboards of the same page (i.e. “homepage mobile” & “homepage desktop”), then use Anima’s plugin for Figma, and click “Responsive pages” → “+” → “Save”.responsive page - breakpoints
  3. Publish a public link or Export code 
    • With your breakpoints set in Anima, you’re ready to convert your designs into responsive HTML / React code.
    • Click “Get code” to download an HTML/React code package. The generated code pack contains all the necessary code and assets to render the website responsively, adjusting layouts automatically based on the browser window’s size. This code is designed to reflect your Figma designs accurately across all specified breakpoints.
    • Or, click “Publish” to get a public link under animaapp.io, or even under your own domain. 

More on Breakpoints

  • Multiple screens and Figma links – Anima supports Figma prototype links out of the box, and multiple pages may have their breakpoints.
  • Breakpoints & Auto-layout – Figma auto-layout is also supported. And using AL would give an even better experience on your pages.
  • The CSS behind the scenes – Anima uses CSS Media queries to jump between your different layouts according to screen width.
  • What width should I have my artboards for best performance?
    • The artboard width should represent the minimum width of this layout.
    • I.e. using 1200px for Desktop and 350px for Mobile – This would show Mobile layout for any screen with less than 1200px width. Below 350px, it’ll keep a minimum of 350px (usually zoomed out on mobile browsers rather than scrolls).

Transforming a Figma design into a responsive website with Anima streamlines the development process, allowing designers and developers to work closely from the initial design phase to the coding phase.

Want to read more?
How to export Figma to HTML / CSS

Ready to start for free?
Create an Anima account

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GenAI Figma to Code: 6 Examples of how to use Anima’s new AI Code Customization https://www.animaapp.com/blog/genai/genai-figma-to-code-6-examples-of-how-to-use-animas-new-ai-code-customization/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/genai/genai-figma-to-code-6-examples-of-how-to-use-animas-new-ai-code-customization/#respond Tue, 20 Feb 2024 21:51:02 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9542 Reading Time: 5 minutes Anima's latest innovation, GenAI code personalization within Figma, is game-changing for front-end developers. This feature introduces a layer of customization that speaks directly to the developer's style and technical requirements. Let’s see how Anima’s GenAI helps you add code conventions, styles, behaviors, and animations.

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Anima’s latest innovation, GenAI code personalization within Figma, is game-changing for front-end developers. This feature introduces a layer of customization that speaks directly to the developer’s style and technical requirements. 

Developers can use simple prompts to guide the code generation process to use their specific coding conventions, frameworks, or architectural patterns. This article explores practical use cases and examples where Anima’s GenAI empowers developers to maintain coding standards while significantly accelerating the design-to-code conversion process, opening new avenues for efficiency and collaboration in software development.

Let’s see how Anima’s GenAI helps you add code conventions, styles, behaviors, and animations.

1. Using Anima’s GenAI to add SEO-friendly semantic HTML

When creating a new web page from a Figma design, you will need to add a bunch of semantic HTML to prepare for on-page SEO. Anima GenAI offers a preset “SEO Friendly” that adds all the tags based on its understanding of your Figma design content.

select SEO friendly preset in Anima GenAI

Here we started from a Portfolio template available on the Figma community.

Portfolio design in Figma

And here is the result, after personalizing the code with the SEO-friendly preset:

SEO preset applied by Anima GenAI

In this example, Anima’s GenAI added automatically SEO features to the code:

  • Contextual Semantic Meta tags, which derive their content from the design.
  • A place holder for the application/ld+json script
  • <nav>
  • <main>
  • link target and rel
  • <footer>

2. Using Anima’s GenAI to create a responsive font with REMs

It’s generally considered better practice and more responsive to utilize REM units instead of Pixels when it comes to font sizes. REM bases its size on the root element, which can be easily controlled relative to the screen or based on media queries.

Since REM is such a common request, Anima provides a dedicated preset to convert font sizes to REM units. To test this preset, we used this Landing page, available on the Figma community.

LP with REM responsive font

In the AI personalization tab, in Presets, under “Typography”, we selected “Use REMs for font units”.

Use REMs preset in Anima

And here we go:

Before After GenAI - REMs

3. Using Anima’s GenAI to add behavior/logic to a design: the Weather App

This is a pretty neat use case, where we use GenAI to make your code work in terms of basic UI logic.

In this example, we designed a weather app. It is straightforward: the main screen with a search box, and placeholders for various pieces of information. However, a developer typically needs to figure out how to connect the design to state management and then how to retrieve the state from an API call.

To do that, we can use Anima’s GenAI to fill in these missing parts: connect search to an API endpoint and then populate the results into the various components of the App. For that, we needed to provide the API endpoint and API key as custom instructions.

"Make it work" preset by Anima GenAI


And here is a snippet from the results:

Weather app code snippet

4. Add behavior/logic to a design with the “Make it work” preset: Pokedex

“Make it work” takes this to a new level, this utilizes GenAI to analyze the figma design and “understand” what it is you are trying to build, and then tries to fill in the logic to execute on that implementation.

For this next example, we designed a mini Pokedex app, using the React + CSS + Typescript setting.

Pokemon app in FigmaWithout Personalization, you would get the high-fidelity React version of this app, and you would still be left with a lot of work hooking up the various components to state and executing the API call. So, we turned on “Make it work”

"Make it work" preset by Anima GenAI

Tip: You may get better results with the “Smart” option rather than the “Fast” option when going for more complex tasks.

You can see below that the AI has added state management and also found the Pokemon API all by itself, understood how to use await fetch to fetch the results, set the API results in their respective fields properly, and supported console errors if the request failed.

Smart option for the Make it work preset

Tip 2: If the preset is not giving you correct behaviors, feel free to add in additional free text instructions in order to make it understand what it is you’re trying to achieve. For example, when we created a game of pong we had to explain to the API that the ball needs to bounce off the paddles and the top and bottom of the screen.

5. Using Anima’s GenAI to add animation

Here we used another variation of the Landing Page UI Kit.

LP before Entrance animation

While this does look great, why not improve on it by adding in some fun animations to the entrance? In this case, we just selected HTML+CSS and turned on the “Add entrance animation” preset. As before, you can add more explanations of your expectations of the animations in custom instructions.

Add entrance animation with Anima GenAi

And here we go, after a few seconds:

 

6. Using Anima’s GenAI to change code convention

Let’s look at the Pokemon app we covered earlier. By adding a custom instruction, you can modify the code styles and conventions.
Here we added a Custom Instruction “Use React with classes”Use React classes

See below the before and after, adding to the “make it work” preset some extra instruction.

React hooks vs React classes

With Custom instructions, the options are limitless. Like with every AI tool, it might need a few tweaks, and you might experience that the code generation is slower than without personalization. But it is worth it!

Why not try Anima GenAI and share your results with us?

Need a step-by-step tutorial? Read the docs here​​ 🙌

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Introducing Codegen 2.0: reusable React components from Figma https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/introducing-codegen-2-0-reusable-react-components-and-typescript/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/introducing-codegen-2-0-reusable-react-components-and-typescript/#respond Tue, 24 Jan 2023 15:46:22 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=8334 Reading Time: 2 minutes This week, Anima released a powerful code generation engine that turns Figma components into clean React components.
It maintains each component’s design, structure, layout, and style, and enables overrides in the code without altering the original design.

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Reading Time: 2 minutes
Updated March 13, 2023
 
Anima just released a powerful code generation engine that exports clean, semantic, reusable React components directly from Figma. 
 
Each generated React component retains the Figma component’s design, structure, layout, and style, and unifies all of its instances into a single React definition.
 
What is included in our new component generation?
  1. Reusability – Anima’s AI generates a single, unified, reusable React component for each unique Figma component
  2. Cohesiveness – Prop names in the generated code are identical to those used in Figma
  3. Efficiency – Anima merges duplicate CSS classes for cleaner code, faster reviews, and simplified maintenance
  4. Productivity – Anima exports the complete definition of each Figma component, including instance overrides
 
What’s next?
  1. Interactivity – Translating Figma interactions into code
  2. State handling – Automatically generating states (hover, clicked, etc)

The benefits of Codegen 2.0 for product teams

1. Code Reusability 

When a designer reuses a single component throughout a design, such as a button, Anima interprets it as one component rather than a series of components with identical properties. Following the reuse principle, Anima’s AI generates a single React component that can be used in multiple screens, resulting in cleaner, more reusable code.

2. Cohesiveness: Bridging the Gap Between Figma and ReactJS

Both designers and developers have a common goal: more reusable components, fewer single-use elements, and more intuitive naming conventions. Thankfully, Anima’s AI ensures they’re always speaking the same language.

That’s because CodeGen 2.0 bridges the gap between Figma components and ReactJS components, making it easier to create cleaner, more reusable, and scalable semantic code with simplified CSS. How, you ask? By keeping props and naming conventions 1:1 between Figma and the generated code.

3. Efficiency: Unifying CSS duplications

Each generated code component retains the same design, structure, layout, and style as the original Figma component, and Anima ensures that the associated CSS classes aren’t duplicated throughout the design. This means the code stays clean from day one, and there’s no need to unify the CSS manually.

How does it look in action? Below, you can see a Figma component and its corresponding React component generated by Anima. The React component was automatically transformed from the Figma component and retains all of the original design, structure, layout, and style of the Figma component.

4. Productivity: Multiple instances under one component definition

Anima’s code generation engine consolidates every instance of a component into a single definition, so developers can easily implement component overrides from Figma with minimal frontend grunt work. This allows them to focus on logic and backend architecture instead of building unique component instances from scratch every time.

5. The Cherry on Top: Support for TypeScript

Anima now supports TypeScript to meet its growing adoption among React developers. This can streamline development by catching errors early, providing better code documentation, and making it easier to refactor and maintain large codebases.

Ready to fast-track your frontend development process? Sign up here!

 

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Convert any Figma design into React with Styled Components https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/convert-any-figma-design-into-styled-components/ https://www.animaapp.com/blog/design-to-code/convert-any-figma-design-into-styled-components/#respond Sun, 05 Nov 2023 15:58:33 +0000 https://www.animaapp.com/blog/?p=9207 Reading Time: 2 minutes Anima will turn any Figma design into React code with Typescript or Javascript, and Styled Components. 

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Anima will turn any Figma design into React code with Typescript or Javascript, and Styled Components. 

If you’ve previously used Anima to convert Figma to HTML or Figma to React with CSS, you might have noticed a slight difference in the time it takes to generate your code. The reason behind this change is Anima’s newly launched AI Beta, which brings a new level of customization to your design-to-code conversion process.

Codegen AI Beta - Styled components

With Anima, you can now turn Figma designs into:

  • React, HTML, or Vue
  • Utilizing Typescript or Javascript
  • With CSS or TailwindCSS and now Styled Components 

Let’s get to it:

How to convert Figma designs into Styled Components

Step 1: Open Anima in Figma

Search for Anima in the “Plugins”  tab in Dev Mode. You can also pin it for easy access.

Search for Anima in the plugin tab

Step 2: Select a Figma Component, Layer, or Frame

Select the section of the design you want to export. It will start generating the code and preview for the selected frame.

Step 3: Select React with Typescript or Javascript with Styled Components

Select the framework, language, and styling once, and Anima will keep it as your default.

  • Framework: Styled Components is currently available for React (Vue and HTML will follow)
  • Language: check Javascript or Typescript based on your preference
  • Styling: Styled components

Now sit back and watch the code being generated in the panel. 

Step 4: Copy, preview or download your code

You have now 3 options to get your freshly generated code:

 

  1. Copy the code snippets directly from Dev Mode by clicking this icon here
  2. Download it as a zip file with the full code package by clicking “Download selection”
  3. Run it live by clicking on “Open in CodeSandbox”

The last option is our favorite to check that the code includes states, interactions, and all intended behaviors.

As with any Beta release, we are perfecting as we go, and we need your feedback to do so! Don’t be shy and tell us what improvements by clicking on this banner in the plugin:

Click on Share insights

Ready to start?

 

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