I’m working on a design system in Figma and need help with font management.
I have a main text component set up with different font weights as instances. When I change the font family on the main component, I want all the instances to automatically update to show the new font family while keeping their respective weights.
Right now I’m using text styles for headers and body text, but this means I have to manually update each style when testing different fonts. It would be much easier to have one master component that controls the font family for the entire typography system.
Is there a way to set up component instances so they automatically inherit font family changes from the parent component?
the component properties approach works, but there’s an even simpler trick - just use variables for your font families! set up a variable collection for typography and bind your text styles to those variables. when you want to test a new font, just swap the variable value and everything updates instantly. way cleaner than find/replace.
Having faced a similar issue with font management, I found a useful approach. Instead of relying solely on text styles, create component properties for the font family itself. This way, you can set up your main text component with a property that accommodates different typefaces you’re experimenting with. By changing this property on the master component, all instances will automatically reflect the new font family across the board. It requires some initial configuration, but it simplifies font testing throughout your design system significantly.
yup, i get that! figma’s font system can be a pain. i usually go with “Font Replacer” to swap fonts quickly. it’s not ideal, but def way better than doing it manually all the time. lets you spend more time on the fun stuff, ya know?
Yeah, this is a super common Figma limitation. Text components just don’t pass font family changes to instances like they should. I’ve hit this wall tons of times building design systems. Here’s what actually works: create a hybrid setup using text styles for semantic stuff (heading-large, body-regular) but name them so bulk updates are easier. Skip separate styles for each weight - group related ones together in the styles panel instead. Quick fix: use Figma’s Find and Replace for fonts. It’ll hit your whole file at once. Not as clean as proper component inheritance, but it’s built-in and handles the bulk updating you need when swapping typefaces.