There's No "Artboard" in Figma — A Frame Guide for Adobe XD Users (Create, Resize, Export)

“How do I create an artboard in Figma?” “What was an artboard in XD called in Figma?” “Where do I resize or export an artboard?” — If you’ve moved to Figma from Adobe XD or Illustrator, the word “artboard” is often the first thing that trips you up.

Here’s the short answer: Figma doesn’t have anything officially called an “artboard.” What you called an artboard in XD or Illustrator is named a Frame in Figma. This guide walks through creating, adding, resizing, and exporting frames from an XD user’s perspective, plus the easy-to-confuse difference between frames, sections, and groups.

For how XD artboards are mapped to Figma frames during conversion (the migration behavior), see Mapping XD Artboards to Figma Frames. This article focuses on how to create and work with frames inside Figma itself.

📝 Intro — “How do I make an artboard in Figma?”

Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop — these tools all share the concept of an artboard: a way to place multiple screens (canvases) in a single file and treat each as an independent design area.

Figma has the exact same capability, but it goes by a different name: the Frame. So when you come from XD and go looking for an “artboard” tool or menu, you won’t find it — which is exactly where the confusion starts.

This article covers, for XD users:

The terminology mapping — Figma’s “artboard” = Frame
How to create a frame — the F key and size presets
Adding, resizing, and exporting frames
Frame vs. Section vs. Group — Figma’s organizing units
How frames differ from XD artboards — nesting, Auto Layout, and more

🎯 Figma doesn’t have “artboards”

Search Figma’s official docs, toolbar, or menus and you won’t find the word “Artboard.” In Figma, the container for a screen is a Frame.

Terminology across tools

Tool	Name for the screen container
Adobe XD	Artboard
Illustrator	Artboard
Photoshop	Artboard
Sketch	Frame (replaced Artboard in 2025)
Figma	Frame

A frame is a bit broader than an artboard

A Figma frame does everything an XD artboard does (a top-level screen), and more: it also serves as the container for components like buttons and cards. Frames can be nested inside other frames, and they’re the unit that Auto Layout and constraints operate on. Think of it as a superset of the artboard.

For XD users, the key shift is simple: stop searching for “artboard” and relearn it as “frame.” That alone makes Figma’s help docs and community answers far easier to find.

🖼️ Creating a frame (artboard)

There are a few ways to make a frame, but the most fundamental is the frame tool.

Using the frame tool

Press F (or A) to activate the frame tool
The Design panel on the right shows device size presets (Phone / Tablet / Desktop / Social media, etc.)
Pick a preset and a frame of that size drops onto the canvas
Or skip the presets and drag on the canvas to draw a frame at any size

The frame tool shortcut is F

Figma’s frame tool is on F (and also A). It’s the equivalent of XD’s artboard tool — when in doubt, just press F.

What the size presets include

With the frame tool active, the Design panel lists common device sizes, grouped into categories such as:

Phone — various iPhone / Android sizes
Tablet — iPad and others
Desktop — 1440 / 1920 widths for web design
Social media — per-platform post sizes
Paper — print sizes like A4

It works just like choosing a device preset when creating a new artboard in XD.

➕ Adding more frames

You can place multiple frames on one page to manage screen flows and variations — the same way you lined up several artboards in a single XD file.

Use the frame tool (F) again to create a new frame elsewhere
Select an existing frame and copy & paste (Cmd/Ctrl + C → Cmd/Ctrl + V)
Select a frame and press Cmd/Ctrl + D to duplicate it

Frames and pages

Above frames, Figma has a unit called Pages. You place multiple frames on a page, and split into more pages as the design grows. The hierarchy is “Page > Frame > elements” — one level deeper than XD’s “File > Artboard.”

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↔️ Resizing a frame

You can change a frame’s size at any time after creating it.

By the numbers

Select the frame
Enter values in W (width) / H (height) in the Design panel on the right

This is the reliable way when you need exact pixel dimensions.

By dragging

When a frame is selected, handles appear at its corners and edges. Drag a handle to resize in that direction. Hold Shift while dragging to keep the aspect ratio.

From a size preset

With the frame selected, you can also switch to a different device preset from the frame name/size area in the Design panel.

The contents follow your Constraints

When you resize a frame, how the contents respond depends on each element’s Constraints. Set things like “pin right” or “stretch left and right” so the layout holds up when the frame width changes. It’s similar to responsive resizing in XD, but in Figma you set Constraints explicitly per element.

📤 Exporting a frame

A finished frame can be exported as PNG, SVG, PDF, and more.

Steps

Select the frame you want to export
Scroll to the bottom of the Design panel and click + in the Export section
Choose a scale (1x / 2x / 3x) and a format (PNG / JPG / SVG / PDF)
Click the Export [frame name] button

Format	Typical use
PNG	Images needing transparency, UI screenshots
JPG	Photos and anything where file size matters
SVG	Vector assets like icons and logos
PDF	Print, or a multi-frame document

Choosing scales

Use 1x for web and add 2x for high-resolution displays. In the Export section you can press + to register multiple scales and formats at once — for example exporting 1x PNG and 2x PNG together. Note that SVG and PDF only support 1x; scale options apply to PNG and JPG.

🗂️ Frame vs. Section vs. Group

Besides frames, Figma has two more units for grouping things: Sections and Groups. This is a common point of confusion for XD users, so here’s how the roles differ.

Unit	Role	Shortcut
Frame	The design container. The unit for clipping, Auto Layout, constraints, and export. Equivalent to an XD artboard	`F`
Section	Groups multiple frames into a labeled area on the page. Good for organizing by flow or state	`Shift + S`
Group	Simply bundles elements together. Has no size container or layout features of its own	`Cmd/Ctrl + G`

A section is a box for grouping artboards

A Section lets you bundle several frames into one labeled area — handy for grouping related frames like “Login flow” or “Admin screens.” XD has no direct equivalent, so it feels unfamiliar at first, but it’s invaluable once your frames (artboards) start piling up.

A quick rule of thumb: one screen = a frame, a group of screens = a section, a temporary bundle of elements = a group.

🔄 How Figma frames differ from XD artboards

Even once you know “artboard = frame,” the two aren’t identical. Here are the differences XD users tend to stumble on.

They can be nested — Figma frames can live inside other frames. XD artboards were strictly top-level, but in Figma even a “card inside a screen” is typically built as a frame
They’re the unit for Auto Layout — apply Auto Layout to a frame and its contents arrange and resize automatically. It’s close to XD’s stacks, and it’s frame-based
They carry Constraints — you control how contents follow a frame’s resize, per element
They’re the unit for export and components — a frame is directly exportable and is the starting point for turning something into a component

Moving everything over from XD

Instead of rebuilding frames one by one, you can bring an existing XD file’s artboards into Figma as frames with a conversion plugin — artboards become frames with each element’s structure preserved. For the step-by-step workflow, see How to Open XD Files in Figma, which walks through it click by click.

❓ FAQ

Q1. I can’t find “artboard” anywhere in Figma

There’s no “artboard” in Figma. What XD and Illustrator call an artboard is a Frame in Figma. Search for “frame” in the toolbar, menus, and official help.

Q2. What’s the shortcut to create a frame?

It’s F (and A also works). It switches to the frame tool; then pick a device size from the right panel or drag on the canvas for a custom size.

Q3. How do I resize a frame afterward?

Select the frame and enter values in W / H in the Design panel on the right, or drag the corner/edge handles. How the contents follow is governed by each element’s Constraints.

Q4. How do I export a frame as an image?

Select the frame → in the Export section at the bottom of the Design panel, click + → choose a scale and format (PNG / JPG / SVG / PDF) → click Export. You can register multiple scales and formats to export at once.

Q5. When should I use a frame vs. a section?

A frame is the container for a single screen or design component, and the unit for Auto Layout and export. A section is a higher-level box that groups multiple frames by flow. Each screen is a frame; the grouping is a section.

🎯 Wrapping up

The “I can’t find the artboard” problem when moving from XD to Figma comes down to one terminology difference. The essentials:

Figma has no “artboard” — the official name is Frame
Create frames with F — device presets in the right panel, or drag
Resize via W/H or dragging — contents follow your Constraints
Export from the Export section at the bottom of the Design panel — PNG / JPG / SVG / PDF plus scales
Frame / Section / Group — screen = frame, grouping = section, temporary bundle = group
Differences from XD — frames are a superset, with nesting, Auto Layout, and constraints

Just reading “artboard” as “frame” makes Figma’s official resources far easier to search. And when you want to bring your XD assets across, a plugin that converts artboards into frames saves you from rebuilding everything by hand.

Install Pixel Fine Converter Free on Figma Community