Hype check: Adoption
Design tokens are now a baseline skill
Design systems coverage keeps circling back to tokens as the link between design files and code — not a nice-to-have anymore.
designsystems.news
Practice brief · Design systems
Component parity is Penpot's next design-system hurdle
Published 19 August 2026 · Source dated 1 November 2025
Used for: Alpha assumption; Design-system tidy; Portfolio proof; Tool experiment. Practice brief for the gate you are in — not an industry digest dump.
Hype check: Adoption. Teams are using this — still check the source date (1 November 2025).
Saves the claim and source date (1 November 2025) on this device. No account.
A hands-on evaluation found Penpot still lags Figma on variable handling in components, key for scalable design systems, plus rougher real-time collaboration.
A detailed side-by-side test of Penpot against Figma found gaps in how each tool handles component variables — the backbone of any scalable design system. Real-time co-editing also lagged behind Figma's near-instant sync in the same test. None of this is fatal, and Penpot's team is actively working on a new rendering engine aimed at closing the gap. If you're building or maintaining a design system as a junior, this is a useful reminder: token and variable structure matters more than which tool you happen to use, and understanding the underlying logic — not just the UI — is the transferable skill. Label: adoption — the direction is clear, but the tooling isn't fully there yet.
Coach
Audit one component in your current Figma or Penpot library and check whether its variables/tokens would survive being rebuilt in the other tool — it'll show you what a design system actually depends on.
Source: community.penpot.app ·
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Related in Design systems
More practice briefs on the same topic — not today's five from UCD Coach.
- Hype check: Established
Design tokens are now the default, not a nice-to-have
Design Systems News' ongoing coverage shows tokens (colour, spacing, type as data, not just styles) are now standard practice, with tools syncing them across Figma, Penpot and code.
designsystems.news
- Hype check: Established
Design tokens are now the default, not the extra
Token-based systems — colours, spacing, type as reusable variables rather than hardcoded values — have moved from 'nice to have' to baseline practice in design systems work. If your portfolio still hardcodes hex values, that's a gap worth closing.
designsystems.news