Bring work in

Start a new file

In your library, click New at the top right and choose New file. Or click Search at the top of the sidebar (or press ⌘K) and pick New file. Kite opens it straight away, named Untitled; click the name at the top to rename it. If a folder is open, the file goes into it. A new file you leave without doing anything in it isn't kept, so trying one costs nothing.

An empty page offers four ways to start:

• Desktop: a 1440 × 1024 frame.
• Phone: a 390 × 844 frame.
• Draw a frame: picks the Frame tool on the toolbar so you draw your own size.
• Ask your agent: shows how to connect an agent and start it on this file. See Working with agents.

In Kite for Mac, the File menu in the Mac menu bar has New File, which makes a new file in its own tab, and New Tab (⌘T), which opens the new tab page: it can make a file, import one, or reopen a recent one.

Open a .kite file

A .kite file is a whole Kite file in one download: its pages, layers, pictures and the design system it uses. Opening one makes a new file of your own, in your current workspace. The original is left as it was.

• In the library, choose New → Import .kite file… and pick the file.
• On the new tab page, choose Import .kite.
• In Kite for Mac, double-click a .kite file in Finder, or drop it on Kite in the Dock. It opens in a new tab.

The file's design system comes with it as a copy in your workspace, linked to the new file. A .kite file can be up to 50 MB; a bigger one says That file is over 50 MB, too large to open.

Import a Figma file

To bring a whole Figma file across, every page of it:

1. Open the new tab page. In Kite for Mac, choose File → New Tab in the menu bar.
2. Choose Import from Figma.
3. Paste the Figma file's link and choose Import. If you haven't connected Figma yet, a Figma window opens to connect it first.

The file comes in as a new Kite file. A big one can take several minutes. Import from Figma is only on the new tab page, not in the library's New menu. See Figma for what comes across, and Move a Figma file to Kite for a walkthrough.

Paste from other apps

Copy something in another app, then in a Kite file right-click the board and choose Paste here (or press ⌘V). Kite recognises where it came from and makes the most of it.

From Figma

Copy layers in Figma and paste them into Kite: they arrive as Kite layers you can edit, with their variables and styles joining the file's design system. Their pictures come too once Figma is connected: the first time a paste needs it, Kite asks you to Connect Figma. Choose Not now and nothing is pasted. Details are on Figma.

From Paper

Copy layers in Paper and paste them into Kite. A pill says Pasting from Paper while the pictures come across, then Pasted from Paper. Paper's variables join the file's design system, and its SVG drawings become vector layers. Two things don't come across exactly:

• A picture Kite can't fetch shows as a grey box, and Kite says how many.
• Paper's shaders come in as still pictures: Kite doesn't run them.

Web pages and text

Copy part of a web page, or HTML from anywhere, and the paste becomes layers you can edit. Copy plain words and they become one text layer.

Where a paste lands

• A paste with a frame selected goes into that frame; with another layer selected, beside it in the same frame. With nothing selected, it goes on the board. Layers copied in Kite land where they were, if that's in view.
• Right-click and choose Paste here to drop it at the pointer, inside the frame under it.
• Paste over selection, in a layer's right-click menu, puts it in front of the one layer you have selected, in the same place.
• Paste to replace, in a layer's right-click menu, swaps that layer for what you copied.

Pictures

Three ways to add a picture:

• Paste one you copied, or a screenshot.
• Drop files from your computer onto the board. Dropped on a frame, they go inside it.
• Click Place a picture on the toolbar, the picture button beside Comment, and pick one or several.

Pictures appear at once, at their own size (up to 1600 pixels wide), and you can move them straight away while they upload. With several, the pill counts them up (Adding 5 pictures). You can add up to 20 at a time; any more in the same drop are left out.

PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP go in as they are. iPhone photos (HEIC) work too, as do other formats your browser can open. A picture over 4 MB is made smaller to fit, at most 4096 pixels on its long side, so you rarely need to resize anything first. The exception is a GIF: one over 4 MB can't be shrunk without losing its movement, so Kite says GIFs can be up to 4 MB.

To use a picture as a layer's fill instead, see Fills, strokes and text.

SVG files

An SVG file, dropped, pasted or picked with Place a picture, becomes vector layers you can edit, not a flat picture. A single drawing is named after its file.

Missing fonts

If a paste uses a font that isn't on Google Fonts or in your workspace, Kite says so and draws its text in a fallback font until you choose another. With nothing selected, the right panel then shows Missing fonts:

• Replace fonts… swaps each missing font for one you pick, across the file.
• Under On this computer, Add uploads a missing font you have installed to your workspace, so everyone sees it. This needs a browser that can read your fonts, such as Chrome or Edge, or Kite for Mac.
• Upload fonts… adds font files (TTF, OTF, WOFF or WOFF2) to your workspace.

Workspace fonts are listed under Settings → General → Fonts. See Workspaces and people.

Take a file elsewhere

To move a file to another workspace or another account, open it and choose Download a .kite file from the file menu (the Kite logo at the top left), then open that file wherever it should go. Only the file's owner and its workspace can download it. See Export and copy.

Limits