I’m working on a React project where users need to upload their Figma design files. The goal is to show these designs as regular images on the website instead of keeping them as Figma files.
What I’m trying to achieve:
Allow users to upload Figma design files
Convert these files automatically to image format (PNG or JPG)
Display the converted images in my React components
Make the whole process seamless for users
I’m wondering if this kind of conversion is technically possible. Has anyone implemented something similar before? Are there any APIs or libraries that can handle Figma file processing and image conversion? I’ve been searching for solutions but most examples I find only cover basic file uploads, not the conversion part.
Any guidance on how to approach this would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!
quick heads up - figma’s api has rate limits, so don’t spam requests. image quality depends on your scale factor when you call the api. i stick with 2x for good quality without massive files. handle errors properly since figma’s servers can be flaky.
I worked on a similar project a while back, and I can confirm you can’t directly process Figma files since they’re in a proprietary format. You will need to utilize the Figma API. Instead of allowing users to upload files, ask them to provide a shareable Figma link or the file key. You can then use the Figma REST API to fetch the design data and create images in either PNG or JPG formats. Just keep in mind that authentication is crucial; you will need a personal access token or an OAuth setup for your API requests. I opted for a backend solution where the server makes the API calls and generates the images, which are then served to your React app. It’s also worth noting that larger designs can take longer to render, so implementing a queuing system and caching the images can significantly improve efficiency.
Built something similar last year and hit some annoying issues. Figma components and nested frames are a pain - they don’t export cleanly through the API. You’ll get weird cropping or missing pieces. I added a fallback so users can manually pick which frames to export instead of trying to convert whole files at once. Also, Figma’s export endpoints work differently for team vs personal files, so your auth flow needs to handle both. The conversion gets memory-heavy on your server, especially with complex designs full of vector elements. Stream the response back to your React app instead of waiting for the full conversion. And definitely add proper error messages - Figma files can have permission problems even with valid links.
Been there too - here’s another option. The Figma API works great, but try browser automation like Puppeteer or Playwright if users don’t mind sharing direct Figma URLs. You can screenshot the web interface and sometimes get better control over what’s captured vs the API export. Always validate those Figma URLs first - learned this the hard way when invalid or private links burned through my API quota. Set up a preview system so users can check the generated image before converting. Storage gets expensive fast with high-res designs, so auto-delete old converted images.