How to get a screenshot straight into Figma

The desktop-folder detour is optional, and so is dropping twenty images in one clump.

Open the Klipto Stack with ⌥⌘S, then take your shot with ⇧⌘4. It lands on the pile instead of your desktop folder, and you drag it from there into Figma. Repeat for the next twenty references and place them one at a time, in the order you took them.

Twenty references, one pile

1. Press ⌥⌘S to open the Stack.

2. Take each shot with ⇧⌘4. Every capture joins the pile while the panel is open, whichever capture mode you have set.

3. Switch to Figma.

4. Drag a row out of the Stack onto the canvas. It arrives as an image.

5. Drag the next one. Dragging does not consume the item, so a shot you place twice is still in the queue.

Press ⌃⌘V instead of dragging and Klipto pastes the next item into whatever has focus, then removes it from the queue. Both routes work in the same session, so I drag when I care where the image lands and paste when I do not.

Dragging an image out hands the receiving app a real PNG file on disk, not a lazy promise. That sounds like a detail and it decides whether the drop works at all. Chromium and Electron apps, Figma included, never materialise file promises, so a promise-based drag arrives empty. Writing the temporary file first is why the same drag lands correctly in Figma and in Finder.

Images are stored outside the database and deduplicated by content hash, so the same reference collected twice takes one copy of disk space, and a copied screenshot still opens after a restart.

Text is the honest exception

Dragging text out of the Stack gives the receiving app plain text. In Figma that plain text does not become a text layer on drop. Press ⌘V into Figma and you get a text layer; drop it and you do not.

That is Figma's own handling of dragged text, and no clipboard manager works around it. Anyone telling you otherwise is describing the paste path and calling it a drag. For text destined for a Figma layer, use ⌃⌘V or ⌘V.

What macOS already gives you free

For a single screenshot you do not need any app. ⌃⇧⌘4 copies the capture straight to the clipboard, and ⌘V puts it into Figma. The floating thumbnail in the bottom right corner is draggable too, so you can pull one shot onto the canvas without saving a file.

Both of those handle one image. They fall apart at twenty, because the clipboard holds the last capture only and the thumbnail disappears after a few seconds. I posted once about watching a designer friend copy twenty references and rebuild them in Figma one by one, and the Stack is the part of Klipto that came out of that.

What I use

The Stack in grid view while collecting, list view while placing. It is a Pro feature: Klipto is $19.99 once with updates included, and the 14-day trial covers the Stack.

There is a setting that lets a screenshot open the Stack when the panel is closed, so you can shoot first and think about the panel second. I leave it on.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a screenshot into Figma without saving it to the desktop?

Press ⌃⇧⌘4 to copy it and ⌘V into Figma. To keep several shots for later placement, open Klipto's Stack first and take the shots with ⇧⌘4.

Do dragged images arrive as real images in Figma?

Yes. Klipto writes a temporary PNG and hands over the file, which is what Figma and Finder both accept.

Why does dragged text not become a text layer?

Figma treats dropped plain text differently from pasted text. Use ⌘V or ⌃⌘V for text you want as a layer.

Does dragging remove the item from the Stack?

No. Dragging leaves it in place. Only pasting with ⌃⌘V consumes it.

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