Localization of your Figma design with LingoHub

What is Figma?

Figma is a collaborative design platform used to create interfaces, prototypes, design systems, and digital product experiences. Since its launch in 2016, it has become a common workspace for designers, product teams, developers, and other stakeholders who need to work on the same product without constantly exchanging design files.

Its collaborative model is particularly useful for localization. Interface copy already lives inside the design, alongside the buttons, navigation elements, forms, dialogs, and layouts where users will eventually see it. Instead of treating localization as a separate step after the design is finished, teams can evaluate different languages while the interface is still being developed.

This localization-first approach to UX design helps teams account for language differences before layouts and components become difficult to change. With the LingoHub Figma integration, design and localization can remain connected throughout that process.

Figma and multilingual product design

Figma changed product design largely by bringing work that previously happened across separate files and handoffs into a shared environment. Designers can collaborate in real time, maintain reusable components and design systems, and give developers access to the information they need for implementation.

Localization benefits from the same principle. A multilingual interface is easier to evaluate when translated copy can be seen inside the design rather than in a spreadsheet or translation file.

Consider a simple button labeled Add to cart. The English version may fit perfectly within the original component. Its German equivalent, In den Warenkorb, requires considerably more space. Similar differences appear in navigation labels, form fields, error messages, onboarding screens, and almost every other part of an interface.

The challenge becomes even more apparent when a product expands into languages that use different writing systems or directions. Arabic and Hebrew, for example, require teams to consider right-to-left and left-to-right design alongside the translation itself.

Testing translations directly in Figma allows designers to identify these layout requirements before they reach development. The LingoHub integration extends this workflow by extracting design copy automatically, processing it through a structured localization workflow, and returning localized versions to Figma.

Common challenges when localizing Figma designs

Design localization introduces several issues that are difficult to judge from text alone.

Text length changes across languages

Translated text rarely occupies exactly the same amount of space as the source. A compact English interface can therefore require changes to buttons, cards, navigation elements, or entire layouts once German, French, Spanish, or another language is introduced.

Seeing translations inside the design gives teams an early indication of where components need more flexibility.

Fonts need to support every target language

A font that works well for Latin characters may not support Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or other scripts required by the product. Font decisions therefore need to account for the languages the interface will eventually support.

Testing localized pages in Figma helps designers spot these issues while they can still adjust typography and component behavior.

Short UI strings need visual context

Words such as Open, Post, Back, or Close can have several possible translations depending on where they appear and what the user is expected to do.

A translator looking at an isolated string has very little information to work with. Seeing the corresponding screen, component, or button provides much more useful context.

The LingoHub Figma plugin can automatically capture screenshots of selected frames and attach them to the corresponding text segments in LingoHub. Translators and LINA can therefore work with the visual context of the interface instead of interpreting isolated strings.

From Figma design to localized pages with LingoHub

The LingoHub Figma plugin connects a Figma Design file with a LingoHub localization project. Once connected, teams can select the Figma pages and target languages they want to translate and start the process directly from Figma.

LingoHub extracts the relevant text nodes and makes them available within the localization project. Depending on the project configuration, LINA can translate new content, translators can review or edit it inside LingoHub, and automated quality checks can help validate the content before localized copy returns to the design.

When translation processing is complete, the plugin can generate localized copies of the original Figma pages. A source page can, for example, appear alongside Page 1_de and Page 1_fr, allowing designers to inspect German and French layouts without changing the original page.

The workflow keeps design and localization closely connected:

Figma design → LingoHub localization workflow → localized Figma pages

Teams can manage translation centrally in LingoHub while designers review the result in the environment where the interface was created.

Bringing LINA into the Figma localization workflow

AI translation becomes considerably more useful for interface localization when it has access to the same information that guides the rest of the localization team.

Within LingoHub, LINA can take different roles depending on how much automation a team wants. LINA can translate text and send the result for human review. Or she can translate, check, and approve content automatically, requiring human input only when uncertainty is high.

The translations can draw on the linguistic assets already maintained in the project. A glossary provides preferred terminology, a style guide defines writing and brand conventions, and the translation memory makes previous translations available for reuse.

Visual context from Figma adds another layer. A short interface string may contain only one or two words, yet its correct translation can depend heavily on the screen, component, or action surrounding it. Context screenshots give LINA and human translators information that the source text alone cannot provide.

This combination is increasingly relevant as teams develop a broader content localization strategy for the era of AI. AI can handle more translation work, while structured context and workflow rules help determine how that output should fit the product.

Supported Figma content and translation exclusions

The LingoHub plugin currently supports Figma Design files, including text and design extraction for translation.

FigJam boards and Figma Slides are currently not supported.

Within supported Figma Design files, teams can decide which text should actually enter the localization workflow. This becomes useful because a design often contains content that should remain unchanged across languages.

A price such as €19.99, a date, a numeric value, a placeholder, or a fixed brand term may not need translation at all. Sending these elements through the translation process creates unnecessary work and can introduce unwanted changes.

The plugin therefore supports exclusion rules for:

• numbers

• dates and times

• currencies

• custom regular expressions

• exact, case-sensitive terms

For example, a team can exclude the exact term LingoHub while still allowing other text nodes to be translated. Because term exclusions are case sensitive, LingoHub can be excluded without automatically excluding Lingohub or lingohub. Regex rules can also be used for structured values such as hex codes or placeholders.

These exclusions happen before the affected layers are sent to LingoHub, keeping the localization project focused on content that actually requires translation.

Visual context for better Figma translations

Context has always been a difficult part of UI localization because interfaces contain large numbers of very short strings.

Imagine a translator receiving the word Post. Is it a noun referring to a social media post, or a button telling the user to publish something? Both interpretations are reasonable without seeing the interface.

The LingoHub plugin can automatically create screenshots of selected Figma frames and upload them together with the extracted text. Inside LingoHub, those context images are linked to the relevant segments, giving translators and LINA a direct view of where the copy appears.

This reduces the amount of context that has to be explained manually and makes design information part of the translation process from the beginning. Terminology from the project glossary, writing conventions from the style guide, previous translations, and the actual visual interface can all contribute information to the same localization process.

For teams working with hundreds or thousands of UI strings, this creates a much stronger foundation than trying to maintain contextual explanations in separate documents.

Test localized designs before development

Localized Figma pages are useful well before a product is ready for release.

A designer can send new interface copy to LingoHub, use LINA to generate an initial translation, and bring the localized version back into Figma. The translated pages can then be inspected for overflowing buttons, awkward line wrapping, crowded navigation, or components that need to accommodate longer text.

The plugin can also be configured to overwrite an existing localized design when translations change. For teams working through frequent iterations, this keeps the Figma file focused on the latest version. Teams that want to retain previous iterations can instead create additional localized pages with timestamps.

This makes localization something designers can test repeatedly during product development rather than a check performed shortly before release.

Once the interface moves into development, the same broader localization process can continue through repository integrations such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and more. Design copy and product resource files can therefore remain connected to the same localization environment across different stages of development.

Less manual work between design and localization

Without an integration, Figma localization can involve a surprising amount of manual coordination. Someone has to collect the copy, move it into a translation environment, explain where ambiguous strings appear, track translated versions, return the copy to the designer, and make sure the correct translation lands in the correct component.

The LingoHub Figma plugin handles much of that movement automatically. Copy is extracted from the design, context screenshots can travel with it, LINA or human translators process the content inside LingoHub, and localized pages are generated directly inside Figma.

The localization team can manage these activities through a shared localization workflow, while designers continue working in Figma. Linguistic assets and quality checks remain part of the process instead of having to be recreated for every design iteration.

Designers can concentrate on how each language behaves in the interface, while localization teams retain the terminology, context, translation memory, review processes, and quality controls they need to manage multilingual content consistently.

Bring localization into the design workflow

A multilingual interface works best when localization is considered while the product is being designed. Figma gives teams the environment to test those interfaces visually, while LingoHub provides the localization layer behind them.

With automated text extraction, context screenshots, LINA-powered translation, configurable exclusions, and localized pages generated directly inside Figma, teams can move between design and translation without relying on repeated copy-and-paste workflows. The same linguistic assets and localization processes can then follow the content beyond design and into development.

Install the LingoHub plugin for Figma to connect your designs with your localization workflow.

Want to see how LingoHub fits into your product localization process? Try LingoHub for free or book a demo.