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The forum thread "Possible to change default unit of measurement to cm, mm, pt?" has around 40k views, and the answer hasn't changed: pixels only. Figma's help center describes no unit setting anywhere in the design panel.
Quick steps
Pick the resolution you're converting at
Use 72 px per inch for print files you'll export from Figma, 96 px per inch to match CSS, or 300 px per inch if you want the canvas at full print resolution.
Select the frame or layer
Click the frame you want to size. Its W and H fields are in the right sidebar.
Type the conversion into W
For millimetres at 72 px per inch, type the value followed by *72/25.4, for example 210*72/25.4, and press Enter. Figma calculates the pixel value.
Do the same for H
Type the height the same way, for example 297*72/25.4 for A4.
Scale up when you export
For a 300 DPI file from a 72 px per inch frame, export PNG or JPG at about 4.17x.
What unit does Figma use?
Pixels. X, Y, W, H, spacing, radius and font size are all px. For print, the useful fact is that Figma exports at 72 DPI at 1x, so a Figma pixel acts as 1/72 of an inch. A print point is also 1/72 of an inch, which means 1 pt = 1 px at 1x. A 12 pt body size in InDesign is 12 px in Figma.
For the web, CSS defines an inch as 96 px. If you're matching a physical size in a browser (a credit card on screen, say), convert at 96 instead.
mm, cm, inch and pt to px conversion table
- 1 mm = 2.835 px at 72 · 3.780 px at 96 · 11.811 px at 300
- 1 cm = 28.35 px at 72 · 37.80 px at 96 · 118.11 px at 300
- 1 inch = 72 px at 72 · 96 px at 96 · 300 px at 300
- 1 pt = 1 px at 72 · 1.333 px at 96 · 4.167 px at 300
- 10 mm = 28.3 px at 72 · 37.8 px at 96 · 118.1 px at 300
The formulas: px = mm × DPI ÷ 25.4, and px = inches × DPI. Going back the other way, mm = px × 25.4 ÷ DPI.
A4 and Letter size in pixels
- A4 (210 × 297 mm): 595 × 842 px at 72 · 794 × 1123 px at 96 · 2480 × 3508 px at 300
- A5 (148 × 210 mm): 420 × 595 px at 72 · 559 × 794 px at 96 · 1748 × 2480 px at 300
- US Letter (8.5 × 11 in): 612 × 792 px at 72 · 816 × 1056 px at 96 · 2550 × 3300 px at 300
- US Legal (8.5 × 14 in): 612 × 1008 px at 72 · 816 × 1344 px at 96 · 2550 × 4200 px at 300
Before you type sizes in by hand, check the Paper category in the Frame tool's presets. Figma frame sizes lists where the presets live.
Should you design print at 72 or 300 px per inch?
Design at 72 and export at a higher scale. A 595 × 842 A4 frame keeps font sizes equal to their point sizes, and exporting at about 4.17x gives 2480 × 3508 px, which is A4 at 300 DPI. Designing on a 2480 px wide frame works too, but a 12 pt caption becomes a 50 px text layer, and nobody wants to do that maths for every style.
Vector shapes and text stay sharp at any export scale. Placed photos don't: they need enough pixels for their printed size. How to export 300 DPI from Figma covers the export side and the missing DPI field.
Can Dev Mode show mm or inches?
No. Dev Mode lets developers change code units, but only to screen units: px or rem for CSS, px or pt for iOS, and px, dp or sp for Android. Pick them under Settings in the Code section's language dropdown. The iOS pt here is Apple's layout point, not a print point. Dev Mode covers who can open it.
Plugins that add mm, cm and inches to Figma
- Millimeters lets you type and read sizes in millimetres, converting at Figma's 72 per inch.
- Units to Pixels creates frames from sizes in inches, centimetres or feet, with optional bleed and crop marks.
- Figma for Print builds print artboards with units, a DPI selector and presets.
- Print for Figma and Printery handle the output side: CMYK, bleed, crop marks and print PDFs.
Measuring distances rather than setting sizes? Rulers and guides in Figma covers the ruler and the measure shortcut. For a multi-page print file, see how to export a PDF from Figma.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change Figma units to mm?
No. Figma only uses pixels. Convert millimetres at 72 px per inch (1 mm ≈ 2.835 px) by typing the maths into the W and H fields, or use a units plugin such as Millimeters.
How many pixels is A4 in Figma?
595 × 842 px at 72 px per inch, which is the scale Figma exports at 1x. Export at about 4.17x to get 2480 × 3508 px, which is A4 at 300 DPI.
Is 1 pt equal to 1 px in Figma?
For print, yes. Figma exports at 72 DPI at 1x and a point is 1/72 of an inch, so a 12 pt font is 12 px. On the web, CSS uses 96 px per inch, so 1 pt is about 1.33 px there.
Can I type centimetres into Figma?
Not with a unit suffix, but the fields accept maths. Type the value followed by *72/2.54, for example 21*72/2.54 for 21 cm, and Figma fills in the pixels.
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