Designers rely on Figma for creating responsive, pixel-perfect UI layouts. While layout guides like grids, columns, and rulers are essential for aligning and structuring content during design, there are times when turning them off becomes necessary for a cleaner view. Whether you’re presenting your design, exporting assets, or simply seeking a distraction-free environment, knowing how to hide these guides is vital for efficient workflow.
TLDR: Figma offers various types of layout guides—grids, rulers, and smart guides—that help in aligning and organizing UI elements. If you need to disable all of these for a cleaner workspace or during presentation, the process is straightforward. You can turn them off temporarily using keyboard shortcuts or permanently hide them via the View menu or individual settings in each frame. Understanding how and where these guides are applied ensures a more controlled, purposeful design environment.
Understanding Figma Layout Guides
Before you can effectively turn off layout guides in Figma, it’s important to understand the types of visual aids available within the platform. Each guide type serves a unique purpose:
- Layout Grids: These can be grid, columns, or rows configurations added to individual frames to help structure design elements.
- Rulers and Guides: These are static marked positions on the canvas to aid with alignment and spacing.
- Smart Guides (Snap to Object): Dynamic visual indicators that appear when moving or resizing objects, enabling alignment with nearby components.
Each of these layout tools can be turned on or off individually or in conjunction, depending on the workflow or specific need.
Why You Might Want to Turn Them Off
Although extremely helpful, layout guides can clutter the canvas at times. Scenarios where you may need to hide them include:
- Presenting high-fidelity prototypes to stakeholders or clients without distractions.
- Exporting clean design screenshots for documentation or marketing materials.
- Reducing visual noise when refining details or reviewing user interface layers.
Knowing how to manage visual clutter allows you to focus more productively during different phases of your design process.
How to Turn Off Layout Grids in Figma
Layout grids are applied on a per-frame basis, meaning there’s no universal toggle to disable them across an entire file. You’ll need to turn them off in each frame individually. Here’s how you can do it:
- Select the frame where the layout grid is applied.
- In the right-hand properties panel, locate the Layout Grid section.
- Click the eye icon next to the layout grid to toggle its visibility off.
Alternatively, you can delete the grids entirely by clicking on the grid settings and using the trash icon. Be mindful that this removes the grid rather than just hides it.
Quick Tip:
Use the keyboard shortcut Shift + G to toggle the visibility of all layout grids in the current view, though this won’t completely deactivate them from the frame—it just hides them temporarily.
Turning Off Guides and Rulers
Rulers and guides are different from layout grids and can be managed at the file level:
- Go to the top menu and click View.
- Select Rulers to toggle them off. This will also hide any guides placed using the rulers.
- Alternatively, press Shift + R as a keyboard shortcut to hide or show rulers along with guides.
If you’ve manually added guide lines to aid in alignment, disabling rulers will hide these guides as well. Note that this action is user-specific and doesn’t affect what other collaborators might see unless you share those settings explicitly.
How to Disable Smart Guides (Snap to Object)
Smart guides help objects align with nearby shapes or frame edges. While helpful, they can become annoying when making micro-adjustments. To disable them:
- Click on View in the top menu.
- Scroll down and look for the option Snap to Geometry.
- Uncheck it to turn off snapping behavior and smart guides.
This can make the interface less “sticky” but more flexible when doing fine-tuned design work.
Hide All Layout Guides at Once: Is it Possible?
While there’s no single button that says “Hide All Layout Tools,” using a combination of keyboard shortcuts allows you to effectively clear the canvas of visual guides:
- Shift + G: Toggles layout grids in view.
- Shift + R: Hides rulers and ruler-based guides.
- Toggle Snap to Geometry: Done via View menu for smart guides.
Although each setting needs some level of manual input, mastering these shortcuts gives you efficient control over your workspace.
Using Plugins or Figma Community Tools
Advanced users sometimes use plugins or community-made tools for batch-management of guides. While Figma itself doesn’t support disabling layout grids in bulk, plugins like:
- Grid Cleaner: Lets you remove all layout grids in selected frames quickly.
- TidyUp: Helps in organizing and decluttering the visual space, including guide removal.
To install these tools:
- Go to the Figma Community tab.
- Use the search bar to locate the desired plugin.
- Click Install, then run the plugin from the Plugins menu in your workspace.
While plugins can enhance workflow, ensure you trust the source as third-party tools access your design files.
Best Practices
Even though it’s easy to hide guides in Figma, for a professional workflow, it’s recommended to follow these guidelines:
- Use naming conventions: Clearly name frames where grids are applied, so you know where to look.
- Keep a backup: If deleting guides, duplicate your frame in case you need to revisit the original layout.
- Communicate with team members: Always inform collaborators if guides are being removed or hidden for presentation purposes.
This level of clarity fosters better collaboration and design accountability, especially on larger teams or shared files.
Conclusion
Turning off layout guides in Figma is a straightforward but nuanced task. Whether you’re toggling layout grids, disabling rulers, or turning off snapping features, understanding where and how these features are applied empowers you to manage workspace clarity with ease. By utilizing keyboard shortcuts and exploring plugin options, designers can control visual clutter without compromising future usability.
Ultimately, the key lies in knowing when to use layout tools effectively—and when to step back for a cleaner view of the design narrative.
