How to Migrate from Sketch to Figma

And not lose countless weeks of your time.

6 min readAug 8, 2020

My interest in Figma is not new, I tried the popular design tool in 2016 when I wanted to start working on a Windows laptop, but that’s a story for another time. Recently, I decided to give it another try and wondered if I could switch.

But, just the thought of trying to migrate was enough to make me anxious.

The good news is that with the use of plugins and native features, I was able to migrate 6 projects from Sketch to Figma in less than 1 week.

Just a few quick tips, Symbols in Sketch are Components in Figma and Artboards in Sketch are Frames in Figma. Also, Figma does not automatically generate a Symbols page like Sketch does, but having one may be helpful.

Note: Carefully evaluate your design workflow before switching, as this may not be the right move for your team and going backwards is not easy, since Sketch cannot import .fig files. There are some tools available that may be of use though.

Use Figma’s standard Sketch file import

The import feature is impressive and will get most of what you need done, but it has a couple of small flaws. Be prepared to lose all prototyping links.

Create an account on Figma’s website.

2. (Optional) Name your team. This is where your projects and files will exist.

3. Drag and drop your Sketch file pretty much anywhere into Figma to start.

4. (Optional) Rejoice, your file is now in Figma. Now click the background, then use the panel on the right to change the background color to either Figma’s default #E5E5E5 or another color you prefer.

Create your styles

If you already have a design library or design system setup in Sketch, it won’t be too much trouble to transfer it over into Figma. If you use a design library or design system, you should use these steps with that file first. Team Libraries are similar to Sketch Libraries, and you can read more on them here.

Note: Team Libraries in Figma only work on paid plans at the moment.

In your imported file, start creating your color styles. Colors in Figma are flexible and don’t require creating different styles for fills, borders, etc. so if you want to create them from any colors in your symbols you can do so.

2. Once you’ve added all your color styles, if you click on the background, you will see your color styles in the panel on the right.

3. Now start creating your text styles. You’ll be able to take those 1,500 text styles down to probably about 15. Text styles in Figma are not constrained by color or alignment.

4. Once you’ve added all your text styles, if you click on the background, you will see both your color styles and text styles in the panel on the right.

Connect your styles

You can repeat this process across as many pages and files as you’d like. Starting with your Symbols page can makes thing easier because most instances get fixed.

You can achieve this using plugins or with Figma’s native selection colors.

Option 1: Use Figma’s Selection Colors

First highlight as many artboards or layers as you want and in the panel on the right, you will see the Selection Colors area. This area displays all colors within the current selection. Clicking the select icon for a specific color will allow you to change your selection to all uses of this color.

2. Once you’ve made the selection, simply select the style icon and apply your style.

Option 2: Use A Styles Plugin

Install the Style Organizer plugin from the Plugins section.

2. Go back to your imported file and launch the Styles Organizer plugin. I would recommend starting on your Symbols page first since updating these will update their instances.

3. Once you have Style Organizer open, hover over a color style and click the button that looks like a crosshair. This will multi-select any layer within your file that uses this color.

5. Select the style icon and apply your style. Upon refreshing Style Organizer, you will see the bar at the top and list is updated. You can repeat this process until all your desired color styles are linked.

6. Now it’s time to do the same for text styles. Switch to the Text tab within Style Organizer and begin targeting and applying your styles. You can repeat this process until all your desired color styles are linked.

Fix your symbols

You probably noticed after importing your file that you have an artboard called “External Symbols.” This is where all symbols that were remote now live. You have two options on how to proceed with these.

Note: You may not have to do this if all your symbols were already local on the symbols page.

Option 1: Make Remote Symbols Local

If you don’t plan to use a library of symbols now or later on, this may be a good option for you.

Unhide the “External Symbols” artboard, select all the symbols you want, right click, and select the “Move to Page” option to move your selection to the Symbols page. This moves the Main versions of these symbols to the Symbols page.

Option 2: Connect Remote Symbols

This method requires you to be on a paid plan and have already imported a design library or design system to pull from.

1. Use “Select All” selections from the menu. By using the “Select All with Same Instance” option, you can mass select all instances whether they have overrides or not.

2. From the Instance panel, select your enabled and connected library, find the relevant symbol, and mass replace it. Repeat this process on any missing. If you are unsure which symbols are unlinked, check out that “External Symbols” artboard.