Pencil imports Figma designs natively. You paste a link to a Figma section or frame, and Pencil brings it in as a work or a reusable template with its layers intact. There is no plugin to install and no file to export first.

No. Import works from a Figma link.

Pencil reads your design through Figma's API using your own Figma authorisation, so you connect your account before your first import. Nothing is downloaded from Figma and nothing is uploaded to Pencil.

Where to connect. If you start an import before connecting, Pencil asks you to connect. Choose Connect Figma, and Figma sign-in opens in a popup without leaving the page. You can also go to Settings, open My connections, find Figma and choose Connect.

One connection per person. Your connection is yours alone, so each colleague connects their own Figma account. Any number of people can hold their own connection in the same workspace.

Every workspace. One connection works in all your Pencil workspaces. If you have already connected Figma, your connection carries over, so there is nothing to do.

Disconnecting.

To disconnect, go to Settings, open My connections and choose Disconnect on Figma.

Use a Figma account with a Full seat on your organisation's paid plan where you can. Figma limits how often each account can read files, and that limit also depends on where the file lives. See paused imports below.

Copy the link in Figma. Right-click the section or frame you want and choose Copy link. A section imports with each of its frames as a format. A single frame imports as a creative with one format. You can also link a component, an instance, or a group of frames.

A link to a whole file, with nothing selected, returns an error. So does a link to a component set or to a single layer, such as one text or shape layer.

Start the import in Pencil. In the Files Library, open either the Works or Templates tab, depending on whether you want the design to land as a work or a reusable template. Use the New work button, choose Import your work, then choose Figma.

Note: If you haven't yet connected your Figma account to Pencil, via the steps detailed above, you will be prompted to do so upon importing.

Paste the link. Paste your Figma link into the Import from Figma dialog and choose Import. Pencil checks the link, then shows progress while it reads your design.

Review before it lands. A review step opens before anything commits, listing what Pencil found and flagging anything worth a look, grouped by type. Confirm to bring the design in, or cancel to stop without changing anything.

You can graduate a work to a reusable template at any time using the Create Template option in the three-dots menu on the work.

One link, one item. The section or frame you linked comes in as one work or template in your library.

Frames and nested sections become formats. Each frame or nested section inside a linked section arrives as its own format, so a section holding a one-by-one, a nine-by-sixteen and a sixteen-by-nine gives you a three-format creative.

A single frame. Link one frame and it arrives as a creative with that one format.

Nested sections. A section inside the section you linked arrives as one format, with everything in it as layers. To bring in the frames of a nested section as separate formats, link that nested section on its own.

Groups of frames. A group that holds only frames is treated as a wrapper, so each frame inside it becomes its own format.

Format order. Formats arrive in the order they sit on the Figma canvas: row by row from the top, and left to right within each row.

What is left out. Component sets, and loose layers sitting directly in the section outside any frame, are not imported. If a section holds only loose layers, Pencil imports the whole section as one format. Hidden frames and hidden layers are left out too.

Notes and dividers. Notes, dividers and sticky-note components placed next to your designs import as their own formats. Delete any extra formats after importing, or link just the part you need.

Layers stay editable. Layers come across as layers, including those nested inside groups and frames, so text remains text and shapes remain shapes. A few grouped cases flatten to a single image instead, and the section below covers them.

Masks. Pencil reads masks as Figma defines them and applies each mask to the layers it covers. Pencil flags deeply nested masks at the review step. A mask on a group itself behaves differently: Pencil flattens that group to a single image.

Transparency. Transparency set on the outer frame or group carries through to the layers inside it.

Hidden layers. Pencil leaves hidden layers out of the import. If you need a layer in Pencil, make it visible in Figma before you import.

The direct import asks less of you than the plugin did. Pencil reads groups and auto layout for itself, so you can leave both in place. Six things are worth a look before you import.

Sections or frames. Put the formats you want together in one section and link that, or link a single frame.

Sections used as a crop. If you use a section as a crop around a larger artwork, link the section that contains it, so the format takes the section's size.

Matching layer names. Pencil identifies the same layer across your formats by its Figma layer name. Give a layer the same name in every frame of the section where you want to edit it everywhere at once with the Edit-all toggle on. Where the names differ, Pencil treats them as separate layers and your edit does not carry across. Photoshop import works the same way.

Effects on groups. Where an effect, blend mode, rotation or mask sits on the group itself, Pencil flattens the whole group to a single image, and any text inside stops being editable. Ungroup it, or move the effect onto the individual layer, to keep that text editable.

Image-only groups. Pencil merges a group holding only images into a single image. That suits a logo lockup. It does not suit images you want to swap out individually, so keep those ungrouped.

Auto layout. Leave it in place. Pencil resolves auto layout to fixed positions, so your design arrives correctly positioned. Watch one case: where an auto-layout frame has Clip content switched on and anything inside overflows its edge, Pencil flattens that whole frame to a single image. Check this first if part of your design comes in flat.

Everything else can stay grouped as it is.

Pencil matches each text layer to a font in your Brand Library by name. Where a layer's font is not found, the import applies a fallback in place of the original typeface, so upload the fonts used in your design to your Brand Library before you import.

Matching the name. The name Pencil looks for is the font name shown on the text layer in Figma. Match it as closely as you can, including capitalisation and any punctuation or spacing inside the name.

Close variants. Weights, widths and optical sizes each arrive as their own font file, even where the family name looks similar. A layer set in Poppins-SemiBold is not covered by uploading Poppins-Bold. Check the name in Figma before you upload.

Variable fonts. The editor renders variable fonts, but a Figma import cannot carry the axis settings across. Figma's API reports only a font name, such as Roboto-Bold, so Pencil has no way to read the weight, width, slant or optical size you set in Figma. Upload the variable font file to your Brand Library, then apply it to the text layer in the editor after import and set the axes there. There is more on this in using font files.

Import time follows the complexity of your design, so the more sections and frames it holds, the longer it takes. There is no fixed size limit, though a very heavy section can time out on Figma's side under load. If that happens, split the design into smaller sections and import them separately.

Figma, not Pencil, limits how often an account can read a file through Figma's API. When an import reaches that limit, Pencil stops and tells you when Figma will allow it again, in your local time, for example "Figma has paused imports until Nov 8, 10:30 AM". If the limit is reached after the import has started, the same message appears as a notification that stays until you close it.

What the limit depends on. Figma looks at two things:

The pause applies to you, on that file. Colleagues can still import it with their own Figma connection. Other files are tried as normal, though Figma may limit them too if they sit in the same team.

Figma covers this in more detail in its own help centre article.

No, as the integration runs in only one direction. You can, however, take a creative out of Pencil and keep working on it in Photoshop by exporting it as a layered PSD.