Frames and grouping

A frame is a named rectangle you draw on the canvas to hold a set of things together. Whatever it holds moves with it, and the pictures it covers can join it without being dragged in one at a time. It can also arrange what it holds for you, and it downloads as one file of exactly the area inside its edge.

Frame or group

They look similar and solve different problems.

	Group	Frame
Moves as one	Yes	Yes
Has an edge and a size	No, it is the bounds of what is in it	Yes, you draw it and resize it
Takes in what it covers	No, it holds the set you grouped	Yes, pictures and videos it is drawn, moved or grown over
Can lay contents out	No	Yes, with Auto layout on

Reach for a group when a handful of things should travel together. Reach for a frame when the set needs to read as one composition, with an edge you can deliver from.

Drawing one

Pick Frame in the bottom toolbar, or press F, and drag out a rectangle. While you drag, the pictures and videos it is about to take in wear a blue outline: every one whose centre sits inside the rectangle and that no other frame holds. The frame arrives selected, with its name above the top-left corner. Double-click the name to change it; Enter or a click anywhere else keeps the new name, and Esc leaves it as it was.

What a frame holds

Moving a frame follows the same rule as drawing one. Drag it onto pictures and videos, or pull one of its edges out across them, and the ones whose centres it newly covers join when you let go, while anything another frame already holds stays where it is. Other things join by being dropped onto the frame: text, text cards, sticky notes, sketches, vectors, audio, comments, stacks and other frames.

Things leave the same way they arrive. Drag a member out until its centre is past the edge and it leaves the frame, or hold Cmd (Ctrl on Windows) while you drag to take it out and keep it out of any frame you drop it on. Shrink a frame and every member whose centre ends up outside it leaves too. Everything a frame holds shows in full on the board, including any part that hangs past its edge.

Auto layout

Select a frame and press Auto layout, one of the two pills under it, and the frame takes over placement. Its members line up in a single row at an even spacing, and the frame resizes to fit around them. Press it again to turn it off: everything stays where the layout put it, and you can move each member by hand again. While it is on, resizing the frame never lets a member go, because the layout decides where each one sits.

A frame you draw starts with Auto layout off, because most frames hold a composition you placed by hand. A batch frame starts with it on and wraps its results into rows, newest first.

What a frame is for

Five uses cover most boards, and the last two are the ones people find late:

• Holding a look. A frame around a set says “this group is the direction”, and its edge and name keep the set reading as one composition rather than as loose parts.
• Sizing to an output. Draw the frame at the aspect you have to deliver and compose inside it. Select it and the download pill in the bottom-right corner offers Frame image, a PNG at exact pixel size, or Frame video, an MP4 when the frame holds a clip. The file is exactly the frame’s area, so anything hanging past the edge is cut off there even though the board shows it in full.
• Handing over a section. A frame is a natural unit to point a teammate at, and it travels as one thing when the board grows around it.
• Collecting a batch. Turn on Batch on a tool card and every run lands in one frame docked beside the card, newest first, so the results arrive arranged instead of stacked on top of each other. Move the card and the frame comes with it; drag the frame away and it stays put as an ordinary frame.
• Crossing to Figma. Press Send to Figma, the other pill under a selected frame, and the Figma plugin carries it across. Frames come the other way too, with their top-level layers as members.