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Export and download assets from design specs

  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 export and download assets from design specs.

Export assets from design specs

If you mark layers for export and include assets when publishing design specs, you can download them from the published design specs link. Vector assets are available in SVG, PNG, PDF, and JPG formats while bitmap assets can be exported in PNG, PDF, and JPG formats.

Mark layers for export

Layers marked for export are included as assets in design specs. To mark assets for export, select any layer on canvas, and use any of the following options: 

  • Click any artboard layer and click Mark for Export check box from the pop-up menu. 
  • Right-click the layer on the canvas and choose Mark for Export from the pop-up menu. 
  • Use the  keyboard shortcut in macOS and   keyboard shortcut in Windows OS.
  • Open the layers panel and click the   mark for export icon next to the layer name. 

To export multiple assets, select multiple layers within an artboard and click Mark for Export.

Mark for export option

Publish design specs with assets

When you include assets while publishing design specs and share the published link with developers, you provide them with a centralized location to download those assets.

  1. Mark layers for export in XD.

    Mark layers for export
    Mark for export

  2. Click Share to switch to the Share mode. Select Development.

    share-designs

  3. In the Design mode, select the assets that you want to export. In the Property Inspector, select the Mark for Export check box. The assets for export appear in the Share mode.

  4. In Share mode, Select the Downloadable Assets check box to mark your assets for export, and click Create link.

    Based on the platform you create the design for, each platform has a separate set of resolution settings:

    • Web: Assets are exported at 1x and 2x resolutions.
    • iOS: Assets are exported at 1x, 2x, and 3x resolutions.
    • Android: Assets are optimized and exported for the following Android screen densities:
      • ldpi - Low density (75%)
      • mdpi - Medium density (100%)
      • hdpi - High density (150%)
      • xhdpi - Extra high density (200%)
      • xxhdpi - Extra extra high density (300%)
      • xxxhdpi - Extra extra extra high density (400%)
  5. To open the published design specs in the browser, click the Open in Browser icon, and select an artboard to view the assets. The browser displays the selected assets along with other artboard details. 

    When you hover the pointer over the assets, contextual selection highlights the selected asset in blue.

Download assets from design specs

If you are a developer, you can download assets from the published design specs link shared with you. You can download all the downloadable assets on an artboard at the same time in the screen details view. You can also download assets individually in the layer details view.

Screen details view

When you click outside an artboard, you are in its screen details view. 

In the screen details view, you see all the downloadable assets categorized as images, video, animations, and audio in the Assets section of the Property Inspector.

Screen details view
Screen details view of an artboard with assets selected for download

To download assets, do the following in the Assets section:

1. Click to select the assets you want to download together:

  • To multi-select, you can use Shift.
  • To select all the assets of an asset category, click one asset, and then use Cmdor Ctrl+A.

The Assets Selected section appears, showing the number of selected assets, categorized as images, video, and audio.

2. Click Download.

Assets are downloaded as .zip files in the Downloads folder on your machine. When downloading images, you can change the format of vector images to SVG, PDF, PNG, and JPG, and the format of bitmap images to PNG, PDF, and JPG.

Things to watch out for

  • If you hover over video and audio assets in the Assets section, you see their file extension.
  • On an artboard, if there are multiple copies of a video, you will see only one instance of that video in the Assets section. When you hover over a video in the Assets section, you will see all the instances of that video highlighted on the artboard.
  • On an artboard, if multiple videos have the same cover image, you see each instance of that cover image in the Assets section.
  • When you download assets from different categories together, the downloaded .zip folder will have subfolders for those categories.
  • You can download video files only in the same format that designers have imported into their XD design document. To learn about supported video formats, see Work with videos.
  • In the screen details view, for a given component, only its last-inspected state or the active state will appear in the Assets section for you to download. To download assets for all states, select the component layer on the artboard and switch to the layer details view.

Layer details view

When you select a layer on an artboard, you switch to the layer details view. In the layer details view, you can download assets only for the selected layer.

Layer details view
Selected layer has a video, its poster image, and a linked audio file available for download

To download an asset in the selected layer, click Download next to the asset in the Assets section of the Property Inspector.

Video Download

When you select a video layer on an artboard:

  • You can download the video and the poster image.
  • If the video is wired to audio playback, you can also download that audio file.

Lottie Download

When you select a Lottie layer on an artboard:

  • You can download the Lottie animation as a JSON file.
  • If the Lottie is wired to audio playback, you can download that audio file.

Component download

To download assets for a component, select the component on canvas. Then, in the Property Inspector, switch to each state to download asset for it.

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.

Download experience for XD 44 and later versions

For links published from XD 44 and later versions:

When you click Download, you get a dialog showing the progress. Once the download completes, you can resume inspecting artboards or navigating from one artboard to another.

Dialog showing the download progress
Dialog showing the download progress in links published from XD 44 and later versions.

If you get an error when downloading assets, ask the designer to republish the link and share it again.

Error when downloading assets
Error when downloading assets

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