Build Design Systems With Penpot Components — Smashing Magazine

If you’ve been following our Penpot series, you’re already familiar with this exciting open source design tool and how it’s revolutionizing collaboration between designers and developers. Previously we explored Penpot’s Flex layout And Grid layout Features that bring the power of CSS directly into the hands of designers.

Today we’re tackling another crucial aspect of modern web design and development: Components. This feature is part of Penpot’s major release 2.0, which introduces a variety of new features to further bridge the gap between design and code. Let’s explore how implementing components through Penpot can speed up your design workflow and promote even better collaboration between teams.

About components

Components are reusable building blocks that form the basis of modern user interfaces. They encapsulate a piece of user interface or functionality that can be reused in your application. This concept of composability – building complex systems from smaller, reusable parts – is a cornerstone of modern web development.

Why is composability important? There are several key advantages:

• A single source of truth
  Changes to a component are reflected wherever it is used, ensuring consistency.
• Flexibility with simpler dependencies
  Components can be easily replaced or updated without affecting the entire system.
• Easier maintenance and scalability
  As your system grows, components help manage complexity.

In the field of design, this philosophy is best expressed in the concept of design systems. When implemented correctly, design systems help bring design and code together, reduce ambiguity, and streamline processes.

However, this is not so easy to achieve when your designs are created using logic and standards that are very different from the code they refer to. Penpot is working to solve this challenge through its unique approach. Instead of creating visual artifacts that just mimic real-world interfaces, user interfaces in Penpots are built using the same technologies and standards as real work products.

This provides much better parity between media and allows designers to create interfaces that are already expressed as code. It facilitates collaboration as designers and developers can speak the same language when discussing their components. The end result is more maintainableto. Changes made by designers can be propagated consistently, making large systems easier to manage.

Now let’s take a look at how the components in Penpot work in practice! As an example, I will use the following fictional product page and recreate it in Penpot:

Components in the penpot

Create components

To create a component in Penpot, simply select the objects you want to include and choose “Create Component” from the context menu. This will convert your selection into a reusable item.

Create component variants

Penpot allows you to create variants of your components. These are alternative versions that have the same basic structure but differ in certain aspects such as color, size or condition.

You can create variants by using slashes (/) in the component name, for example by naming your buttons Button/primary And Button/secondary. This allows you to easily switch between the different types Button Component later.

Nesting components and using external libraries

Components in Penpot can be nested, allowing you to create complex UI elements from simpler parts. This reflects how developers often structure their code. In other words, you can place components inside each other.

Additionally, the components you use don’t have to come from the same file or even the same organization. You can easily share component libraries across projects, just as you would import code from different dependencies into your codebase. You can also import components from external libraries, such as: B. UI kits and icon sets. Penpot claims a growing list of such resources for you to choose from, including everything from the major design systems like Material Design to the most popular symbol libraries.

Organize your design system

The new major version of Penpot comes with a redesigned Assets panel.where your components live. The Assets panel makes it easy to access your components and drag and drop them into designs.

For better maintenance of design systems, Penpot allows you to do this Save your colors and typography as reusable styles. Just like components, you can name your styles and organize them into hierarchical structures.

Configure components

One of the main benefits of using composable components in front-end libraries like React is prop support. Component props (short for properties) allow you a high degree of flexibility in configuring and customizing your components based on how, where, and when they are used.

Penpot offers similar functionality in a design tool with variants and overrides. You can switch variants, hide elements, change styles, swap nested components within instances, or even change the entire layout of a component, providing flexibility while maintaining connection to the original component.

Creating flexible, scalable systems

I allow you Modify Flex and Grid layouts in component instances This is where Penpot really shines. However, the power of these layout features goes beyond the components themselves.

Flex Layout and Grid Layout allow you to create components that are much more consistent with your code and easier to modify and maintain. But if you have these powerful features at hand, you can also place your components in other grid and flex layouts. This is a big deal because it allows you to test your components in scenarios that are much closer to their real-world environment. Right in a design tool, you can see how your component would behave if you placed it in different places on your website or app. This allows you to fine-tune how your components fit into a larger system. It can dramatically reduce friction between design and code and streamline the handover process.

Generate component code

Because Penpot’s components are web-ready code only, one of the biggest advantages is how easily you can export code for your components. This feature, like all Penpot features, is completely free.

Penpot’s Inspect panel allows you to quickly get all layout properties and styles, as well as full code snippets for all components.

Documentation and notes

To make design systems in Penpot even more maintainable, it includes annotation features to help you document your components. This is crucial to maintaining a clear design system and ensuring a Smooth handover to developers.

Summary

The implementation of components and support for real CSS layouts make Penpot an outstanding tool for designers who want to work closely with developers. By adopting web standards and providing powerful, flexible components, Penpot empowers designers to create More developer-friendly designs without sacrificing creativity or control.

All of Penpot’s features are completely free for both designers and developers. As open source software, Penpot allows you to fully utilize your design tool and makes it accessible to everyone, regardless of team size and budget.

Ready to dive in? You can explore the file used in this article by downloading it and importing it into your Penpot account.

As the design tool landscape continues to evolve, Penpot takes on the task of bringing designers and developers closer together. Whether you’re a designer looking to understand the development process or a developer looking to streamline your workflow with designers, Penpot’s component system is worth exploring.

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