Figma on Linux as a desktop app
Figma's desktop apps exist for macOS and Windows only, so on Linux Figma runs in a browser, and the supported way to give it its own window is to install it as an app from Chrome or Microsoft Edge, both on Figma's browser list. Pake on Linux draws pages with WebKitGTK, which is not on that list, so a Pake build of Figma is an unsupported setup. Pake's Linux user agent also identifies the system as Linux, which per a community project's notes stops Figma from asking for your local fonts.
What Figma offers on Linux
Figma's downloads page lists desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Windows Arm, and does not mention Linux. Figma's system requirements article says the same thing in other words: Linux is supported through the web app, on "any Linux OS that supports the browsers mentioned above", and the desktop app is for macOS and Windows.
The browsers it lists, as of November 2026, are Chrome 120 or later, Firefox 128 ESR or later, Safari 17.4 or later and Microsoft Edge 121 or later. WebGL 1.0 is the minimum, and Figma's shader features list a higher bar (WebGPU, not in compatibility mode, plus newer minimum versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari). The numbers move, so check the page before you build.
Where a Pake window fits
Pake wraps the site's own web client in the system WebView. On Linux that is WebKitGTK, the engine behind GNOME Web, not Chromium and not Firefox. WebKitGTK's site says it supports WebGL and can use the GPU for compositing, and its 2.40.0 release switched WebGL to ANGLE and enabled WebGL 2. The version you actually run is whatever your distribution ships; see how Pake works for why that matters.
None of this makes WebKitGTK a Figma-supported browser; neither Figma's requirements nor WebKitGTK's pages mention the other, and Figma ties its requirements to WebGL and the graphics card. A Pake build of Figma is something you can try in one build, not something to commit a team to.
A window gives you what a browser tab does not: an entry in the app launcher, a place in the alt-tab list, and room that is not shared with other tabs. It adds nothing to Figma itself. Anything the Mac and Windows apps do that the web client does not stays out of reach.
Build it with the CLI
The CLI works on any distribution that has WebKitGTK. It needs Node.js 20.9 or later and Rust 1.85 or later, covered in the getting started guide, plus the WebKitGTK development packages the CLI FAQ lists.
npm install -g pake-cli
pake https://www.figma.com --name Figma --width 1440 --height 900--width and --height set the starting window size; the defaults are 1200 by 780, small for a design canvas. For a single package format, pass --targets with deb, rpm or appimage, or zst on Arch based systems, as listed in the CLI options. The first build compiles dependencies and takes several minutes. Install the package the way you install any local package, for example sudo apt install ./figma.deb on Debian or Ubuntu.
Build it with the Pake desktop app
If you run Arch or Omarchy on x86_64, the Pake desktop app builds the same thing without Node.js or Rust. Install it as described in Install Pake, type Figma on the Create tab to pick it from the gallery or paste its address, and click Create App; the steps are in Create an app. On Ubuntu, Fedora and other distributions the desktop app is not available, so use the CLI.
What to check in the window
Open a real file, not an empty one, and check these in order.
- Does Figma load the editor. Figma's requirements page does not say what an unsupported browser sees; if the editor does not open, see the section on unsupported browsers below.
- Canvas speed. Pan and zoom a large page with many frames and images. Compare with the same file in Chrome or Firefox on the same machine. A visible gap is the engine, and no Pake flag changes it.
- Text rendering. Check that headings and body text look the way they do in the browser.
- Sign-in. Sign in with email if you can. Google blocks sign-in inside embedded web views, which is covered in the Google sign-in guide.
- Copy, paste and drag. Paste an image from the clipboard and drag a file onto the canvas.
If the window opens blank or clicks do nothing under Wayland, the CLI FAQ suggests PAKE_LINUX_WEBKIT_SAFE_MODE=0 when clicks and typing do not reach the page and =1 when the window is blank, for example PAKE_LINUX_WEBKIT_SAFE_MODE=1 ./figma.AppImage.
Local fonts
On macOS and Windows, Figma's downloads page offers a font installer for each, and notes that the desktop app includes it. It lists none for Linux. Figma's help article on uploading custom fonts to an organization says this "also allows Chromebook and Linux users to access custom fonts", with no local install.
The community fills the gap. The Figma-Linux font helper runs a small local server that answers Figma's request with a list of the fonts installed on your system. Its README warns that Figma changed its web app so that, with a browser user agent that identifies as Linux, the request for local fonts is not made at all. Pake's default Linux user agent starts with X11; Linux x86_64, so by that README the helper gets no request from a Pake window, and it is a third-party project Figma does not support.
When Figma says the browser is not supported
Pake CLI 3.17.8 sends this user agent on Linux by default, a Safari 26 string on an X11 Linux system: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/26.0 Safari/605.1.15. If Figma rejects the window, you can rebuild with a string copied from a browser Figma lists:
pake https://www.figma.com --name Figma --width 1440 --height 900 --user-agent "<paste a current user agent here>"Changing the user agent explains how to copy one. The string is a label, not an engine. If Figma checks for features rather than names, or the canvas runs poorly, a different string will not fix it, and it may send code the engine cannot run.
At that point use a supported browser. In Chrome, open the More menu, then Cast, save, and share, then Install page as app..., per Chrome's help page. In Edge, which Microsoft offers for Linux as a .deb, the route is Settings and more, More tools, Apps, Install this site as an app, per Microsoft's help page. Either gives Figma its own window on a Chromium engine, and PWA vs desktop app compares the two routes.
The unofficial Figma-Linux app
Figma-Linux is a community project, labelled unofficial on its page, that packages Figma as an Electron desktop app. It is distributed as a Snap, AppImage, deb, rpm, AUR packages and a NixOS option, and is GPL-2.0 licensed. Its README describes a symlink so the Snap version can see your local fonts. It bundles Chromium, so its size and engine differ from Pake's; Tauri vs Electron covers that trade-off. Figma does not endorse it, so judge it as you would any third-party client that handles your account.
Update
Figma updates itself on each load. The Pake runtime around it does not, so to pick up a newer one, update pake-cli and run the same command again with the same URL and name.
FAQ
Is there an official Figma app for Linux?
No. Figma's downloads page lists macOS, Windows and Windows Arm, and its requirements article says Linux is supported through the browser.
Will Pake make Figma faster?
No. Pake draws Figma in the system WebKitGTK, which Figma does not list as a supported browser, so speed depends on that engine, your GPU drivers and the file. Chrome or Edge is the supported choice.
Can I use my installed fonts?
Probably not for fonts installed on your computer. Figma offers a font installer only for macOS and Windows, and a community font helper exists, but its README says Figma skips the local-font request when the user agent says Linux, which Pake's does by default. Fonts uploaded by your organization work without it.