Design tokens: the shared language for Figma & Penpot

The W3C's Design Tokens format is becoming the standard way colour, spacing and type values move between tools. If you use both Figma and Penpot, tokens are how your work stays portable.

Design Systems News keeps tracking how design tokens — colour, spacing, type stored as structured data instead of hardcoded values — have become the standard way design systems talk to code, and increasingly, the way they talk between design tools too. The W3C Design Tokens Community Group format aims to be that shared language. This matters practically: Figma has native variables/tokens support, and Penpot has been building out token support to interoperate. If a studio runs both, or migrates between them, tokens are the bit that survives the switch. Calling this **established**, not hype — tokens have been standard design-system practice for a few years; what's newer is the cross-tool format settling down.

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