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.
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”.
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

The post Breakpoints with Anima: From Figma design to Responsive Website appeared first on Anima Blog.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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:

• Full guide: Figma to Code with AI Personalization. 
• GenAI Figma to Code: 6 Examples of how to use Anima’s new AI Code Customization

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

Welcome aboard, let’s get you going!

Get Anima plugin for Figma

The post Figma to HTML: How to export a Figma design into HTML appeared first on Anima Blog.

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.

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

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

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.

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

And here we go:

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.

And here is a snippet from the results:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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”

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

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​​

The post GenAI Figma to Code: 6 Examples of how to use Anima’s new AI Code Customization appeared first on Anima Blog.

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.

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.

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:

Ready to start?

• Install Anima for Figma plugin
• Create your Anima account

The post Convert any Figma design into React with Styled Components appeared first on Anima Blog.

Convert any Figma design into Vue code

If you’re trying to convert Figma to Vue without writing the code from scratch,  this article is for you. We’ll show you how to export your Figma designs as Vue in a few easy steps using Anima.

Anima will turn each design property into Vue code (Vue2 and Vue3).

If you prefer to follow the steps with a YouTube tutorial here is “How to convert Figma to Vue”.

Let’s get to it:

Step 1: Open Anima in Figma 

If you are a first-time user, you can use the search box and type Anima.

Step 2: Select Vue with Typescript or Javascript

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

• Framework: Choose Vue in the framework dropdown 
• Language: check Javascript or Typescript based on your preference

Anima will save it as your default code preference. You can modify it anytime.

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

After selecting the design section, Anima’s AI codegen will start generating Vue. 

If you have already used Anima with HTML or React, you might find that the code takes longer than usual to get generated. The reason is our new AI Beta! But worry not, it is picking up speed.

Step 4: Get your code
Once you’re satisfied with your selected code, you have 3 options:

• you can copy snippets directly by clicking this icon here:

• click the ‘Download selection’ button to get a zip file containing the complete code package for your selection 

• Or click “Open in CodeSandbox” to run your code instantly in CodeSandbox. 

Yes, it is that simple! Your turn

• Anima plugin for Figma
• Signup for Anima
• Let us know how it is going in Anima’s Discord channel

With Anima, you can now turn :

• Figma to React, Figma to HTML, or Figma to Vue
• Utilizing Typescript or Javascript
• With CSS  (Vue with Tailwind CSS is coming soon with AI Beta).

The post How to export Figma to Vue appeared first on Anima Blog.

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.
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. 

The post How to export Tailwind CSS from Figma appeared first on Anima Blog.