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View and inspect design specs

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  1. Adobe XD User Guide
  2. Introduction
    1. Release updates
    2. Common questions
    3. Design, prototype, and share with Adobe XD
    4. Color Management
    5. System requirements
      1. Hardware and software requirements
      2. Adobe XD, Big Sur, and Apple silicon | macOS 11
    6. Workspace basics
    7. Change app language in Adobe XD
    8. Access UI design kits
    9. Accessibility in Adobe XD
    10. Keyboard shortcuts
    11. Tips and tricks
  3. Design
    1. Artboards, guides, and layers
      1. Get started with artboards
      2. Use guides and grids
      3. Create scrollable artboards
      4. Work with layers
      5. Create scroll groups
    2. Shapes, objects, and path
      1. Select, resize, and rotate objects
      2. Move, align, distribute, and arrange objects
      3. Group, lock, duplicate, copy, and flip objects
      4. Set stroke, fill, and drop shadow for objects
      5. Create repeating elements
      6. Create perspective designs with 3D transforms
      7. Edit objects using Boolean operations
    3. Text and fonts
      1. Work with drawing and text tools
      2. Fonts in Adobe XD
    4. Components and states
      1. Work with components
      2. Work with nested components
      3. Add multiple states to components
    5. Masking and effects
      1. Create a mask with shapes
      2. Work with blur effects
      3. Create and modify gradients
      4. Apply blend effects
    6. Layout
      1. Responsive resize and constraints
      2. Set fixed padding for components and groups
      3. Create dynamic designs with stacks
    7. Videos and Lottie animations
      1. Work with videos
      2. Create prototypes using videos
      3. Work with Lottie animations
  4. Prototype
    1. Create interactive prototypes
    2. Animate prototypes
    3. Object properties supported for auto-animate
    4. Create prototypes with keyboard and gamepad
    5. Create prototypes using voice commands and playback
    6. Create timed transitions
    7. Add overlays
    8. Design voice prototypes
    9. Create anchor links
    10. Create hyperlinks
    11. Preview designs and prototypes
  5. Share, export, and review
    1. Share selected artboards
    2. Share designs and prototypes
    3. Set access permissions for links
    4. Work with prototypes
    5. Review prototypes
    6. Work with design specs
    7. Share design specs
    8. Inspect design specs
    9. Navigate design specs
    10. Review and comment design specs
    11. Export design assets
    12. Export and download assets from design specs
    13. Group sharing for enterprise
    14. Back up or transfer XD assets
  6. Design systems
    1. Design systems with Creative Cloud Libraries
    2. Work with document assets in Adobe XD
    3. Work with Creative Cloud Libraries in Adobe XD
    4. Migrate from linked assets to Creative Cloud Libraries
    5. Work with design tokens 
    6. Use assets from Creative Cloud Libraries
  7. Cloud documents
    1. Cloud documents in Adobe XD
    2. Collaborate and coedit designs
    3. Coedit documents shared with you
  8. Integrations and plugins
    1. Work with external assets
    2. Work with design assets from Photoshop
    3. Copy and paste assets from Photoshop
    4. Import or open Photoshop designs
    5. Work with Illustrator assets in Adobe XD
    6. Open or import Illustrator designs
    7. Copy vectors from Illustrator to XD
    8. Plugins for Adobe XD
    9. Create and manage plugins
    10. Jira integration for XD
    11. Slack plugin for XD
    12. Zoom plug-in for XD
    13. Publish design from XD to Behance
  9. XD for iOS and Android
    1. Preview on mobile devices
    2. Adobe XD on mobile FAQ
  10. Troubleshooting
    1. Known and fixed issues
      1. Known issues
      2. Fixed issues
    2. Installation and updates
      1. XD appears as not compatible on Windows
      2. Error code 191
      3. Error code 183
      4. Issues installing XD plugins
      5.  Prompt to uninstall and reinstall XD on Windows 10
      6. Issues with preferences migration
    3. Launch and crash
      1.  XD crashes when launched on Windows 10
      2.  XD quits when you sign out of Creative Cloud
      3. Issue with subscription status on Windows
      4. Blocked-app warning when launching  XD on Windows
      5. Crash dump generation on Windows
      6. Crash log collection and sharing
    4. Cloud documents and Creative Cloud Libraries
      1. Issues with XD cloud documents
      2. Issues with linked components
      3. Issues with libraries and links
    5. Prototype, publish, and review
      1. Unable to record prototype interactions on macOS Catalina
      2. Issues with publish workflows
      3. Published  links do not appear in browsers
      4. Prototypes do not render correctly in browsers
      5. Commenting panel suddenly showing up on shared links
      6. Unable to publish libraries
    6. Import, export, and working with other apps
      1. Import and export in XD
      2. Photoshop files in XD
      3. Illustrator files in XD
      4. Export to After Effects from XD
      5. Sketch files in XD
      6. Third-party apps not visible in Export

Learn how to view and inspect attributes such as colors, text, measurements, component states, interaction highlights, and more in design specs.

In a shared design specs link, you can view and experience the prototype, add comments and feedback contextually, and choose to get measurements and specs information for the design.

Tabs in the design specs link
Tabs in the design specs link

Design specs link opens in the prototype mode by default. To get the properties and specs info, switch to the design specs tab by clicking the  icon in the right rail.

Upon switching to the design specs tab, you can select elements and inspect them on canvas to get attributes such as colors, text, measurements, states, and other properties displayed in the Property Inspector.

Click the {} icon to switch to the variables tab. This tab is available when the designer publishes a design specs link for web. When the designer defines variable names for colors and character styles in a design, you can view the design token information in the variables tab. 

Read on to learn how to view and match the attributes in a design specs.

Screen details view

When you click outside an artboard, you are in its screen details view. In this view, you can inspect the screen and details like interaction highlights.

Screen details and properties

A. Screen details: View dimensions of the screen.

B. Colors: View colors marked for export.

C. Layout grid properties: Toggle to view the grids.

Use the Opacity slider to control the transparency of the colors.

Note:

If you mark a layer for export in the XD app, colors used in that layer won't appear in the screen details view.

Overlays

Click Interaction highlights to view artboard details, styles, design and viewport size, overlay position, colors, character styles, and target information for the applied overlay. 

Interaction highlights

Press and hold the shift key to view the interaction highlights. To inspect them, click the displayed artifact in the Interactions section, or Shift-click the interaction highlights. 

Layer details view

When you select a layer on an artboard, you switch to the layer details view. In the Property Inspector, you can view the layer name, and properties like dimensions and appearance.

Text and appearance

A. Text properties: Select a line of text to view text properties appended with default units such as px, pt, and dp.

B. Appearance: View colors that are used in an object or text in the Appearance section. 

Shapes

Inspect shapes

Select a shape to inspect its following attributes:

  • Width, height, and rotation.
  • Appearance attributes, such as colors, border size, dash, gap, strokes, and opacity.

Images

Inspect images

Select an image to inspect its following attributes:

  • Width, height, and rotation.
  • Opacity.

Videos

Inspect video

Select a video to inspect its following attributes:

  • Width, height, and rotation.
  • Poster image name.
  • Autoplay, loop playback, and audio settings.
  • If the video is to be trimmed, it shows the time at which the video clip should start and end. 
  • Opacity.

Lottie animations

Inspect video

Select a Lottie animation to inspect its following attributes:

  • Width, height, and rotation.
  • Autoplay and loop playback settings.
  • Opacity.
  • CSS properties.
  • Interactions.

Subrange text

Subrange text

Hover over subranges within a text element to highlight similar subranges within the text element.

Hyperlinks

Object hyperlinks

Inspect object Hyperlinks

  • When you select an object on an artboard, you see all its hyperlinks in the Interactions section of the Property Inspector.
  • Hover over a hyperlink in the Interactions section to identify the associated object on the artboard.
  • To copy a hyperlink URL to the clipboard, in the object details section, click the hyperlink.
  • When you click a hyperlink in the Interactions section, the link opens. To copy the hyperlink URL from the Interactions section, right-click it.
  • In the Interactions section, when you click a hyperlink that has a protocol other than https or mailto, doesn't have a protocol, or has an invalid domain, the URL does not open. You get an error message at the bottom of the screen.
  • If multiple hyperlink interactions are defined on an object, you can't copy them from the object details section. Right-click the hyperlinks in the Interactions section to copy them.

Text hyperlinks

Inspect text hyperlinks

  • When you select a text object on an artboard, the Property Inspector (both Interactions and object details sections) shows any hyperlink interactions defined for that object as a whole. 
  • You can inspect hyperlink interactions defined for the text object like you inspect any object hyperlinks.
  • When you select text (subrange text) within the object and if that text has a separate hyperlink, the object details section reflects that hyperlink URL. However, the Interactions section continue to display hyperlink and other interactions defined for the object.
  • To copy a subrange text hyperlink URL to the clipboard, click it in the object details section.

To learn about hyperlinks in XD, see Create hyperlinks.

Code snippets

CSS code

Inspect CSS code

  • To generate the CSS code, in XD app, select Export for Web in Share > Development, and publish the design specs.
  • You can view and copy CSS code of your design from the CSS snippets section.
  • To copy and paste the code snippet, press and drag the snippets, switch to your code editor, and paste it.

HTML code

Inspect HTML code of Lottie and video

  • To generate the HTML code for Lottie and video files, in XD app, select Export for Web in Share > Development, and publish the design specs.
  • You can copy the HTML code from the HTML section of the Property Inspector.
  • To copy and paste the code snippet, press and drag the snippets, switch to your code editor, and paste it.

Component states

Component states in design specs
Component states in design specs

  • Select an object in the artboard and if the selected object is a component, you can inspect its multiple states. 
  • To view the different states of the selected component in the artboard, click the options under the Component list in the Property Inspector.  
  • From the Interactions section, view the interactions associated with the active state of the selected component. 

  • Click the inactive state of the component from the list to view the states on the artboard and its interactions.
  • If the component name is lengthy and you can read only a part of it, select the name in the Property Inspector to copy it.
Note:

You can download all the states of a downloadable component. In the XD app, if the designer marks multiple instances of a component for export, only the last instance in the Layers panel will be exported.

Hidden layers

Hidden layers

  • Hover and right-click over the specific area to display the list of layers and its contextual details at that pixel point. 
  • If the name of the group is lengthy and you can read only a part of it, select the name in the Property Inspector to copy it.

Learn more

To learn more about inspecting design specs in XD, watch this video.
Viewing time: 8 minutes

What's next?

We've got you started on how to view and inspect design specs. Take a step forward and learn how to review design specs and extract assets from design specs.

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