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A frame is a box that holds other layers. It has its own size and look, and it can stack its contents for you. Reach for a frame when a part of the design needs a background, needs to hide overflow, or has to grow with its text.

Frame or group

	Frame	Group
Size	Has its own size	Fits around its layers
Fill and stroke	Yes	No
Hides what overflows	Yes, with Clip content	No
Layout flow	Yes	Only after Add layout flow, which turns it into a frame
When resized	The frame changes, and the layers inside follow their Resizing and Constraints	Everything inside scales

Use a group to move a few layers together. Use a frame for anything with a background, a clip or a layout flow. The page itself behaves like a frame.

Draw a frame

Choose the Frame tool

Press F, or choose Frame in Design tools.

Click or drag

Click for a 400 x 400 frame with its corner at the pointer, or drag the size you want. Hold Shift while dragging for a square. It starts with a white fill and Clip content on. The tool returns to Move.

Put layers in it

Draw inside an existing frame and the new layer goes into it. To move a layer in, drag it onto the frame on the canvas, or drop it on the frame's row in Layers. Double-click a frame, or press Enter, to step into it.

Wrap layers you already have

Select layers and press Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+G for Frame selection. The frame fits around them, with no fill and no clipping, so nothing changes on screen. Press Shift+A for Add layout flow to wrap them in a frame that stacks them. See Group, frame and arrange.

What a frame offers

Select a frame and the Design tab shows Position, Layout flow, Appearance, Fill, Stroke and Effects.

Layout flow sets how the contents stack: Direction, Gap, Align and Padding. Clip content hides anything that overflows. See Layout flow.
Resizing shows on a frame that has a layout flow, or sits inside one. It is Fixed or Hug. A frame inside a layout flow can also Fill. See Fixed, Hug and Fill.

Frames matter for bulk work. A price and a was price in one row frame stay side by side however long each value is. That is how a layout survives any row of a sheet.

Try it

On the sale card, select the Title, the Price and the Was Price and press Shift+A. A frame with a layout flow appears around them. Kalpana picks the Direction from how the layers are spread out. In Layout flow, check it: stacked layers give Column, side-by-side layers give Row. Change it if it is wrong. Rename the frame Text block in Layers.

Frames