Published August 8, 2026 · 6 min read · by the Fig2WP team

How to Export Multiple Layers as One PNG in Figma (Not Separate Files)

This is one of those Figma behaviours that feels like a bug the first time and obvious forever after. You select a logo, its wordmark and a background shape, you click export, and you get three files. Nothing you clicked suggested that would happen.

Why you got five files instead of one

Export settings belong to layers, not to selections. That single sentence explains the whole thing.

When you select five layers and click the + in the Export panel, Figma doesn't record "export this selection." It writes an export setting onto each of the five layers independently. Every one of them is now its own export target, and the export produces five files named after five layers.

It's the same mechanism that makes batch export so useful — mark fifty icons at once, get fifty correctly named icons — pointed at a job it wasn't meant for. Both behaviours come from the same rule. Batch export wants many files. You want one.

The fix, in four clicks

Give Figma exactly one thing to export.

1. Select the layers that should appear in the finished image.
2. Group them — Cmd+G on Mac, Ctrl+G on Windows.
3. Select the group itself, not its contents. One click on the group's row in the layer list. If you find the children highlighted individually, press Esc and click the parent row.
4. Add the export setting to the group — + in the Export panel, PNG, 2x — and click Export.

One file. Everything inside it, in the right stacking order, at the right position relative to each other.

Step 3 is where people slip. Figma's double-click drills into a group, so if you've been nudging things around inside it your selection may still be a child layer. The right-hand panel tells you which: it says Group when the container is selected.

And if the layers already sit inside a frame, component or section that contains all of them and nothing else you want excluded — skip the grouping. Mark that parent instead. Any parent works as an export target.

Group or frame? They export differently

Both give you one file. They give you different files, and picking wrong is the second-most-common way this goes sideways.

Group when you want the artwork and nothing else — a logo that has to sit on an unknown background. Frame when the canvas size is part of the requirement: a 1200×630 OG image needs to be 1200×630 whether or not the artwork fills it.

The frame default catches almost everyone once. You frame a cut-out logo, export a PNG, and it has a white box behind it — because frames are born with a white fill and that fill is real. Select the frame, delete the fill, export again. That and four other causes are in why your transparent PNG still has a background.

Don't use Flatten (Cmd+E)

Searching for how to merge layers in Figma turns up Flatten selection, Cmd+E. It is not the answer here and it will cost you work.

Flatten is a vector operation. It collapses a selection into a single vector path — permanently. Text stops being text. Effects, strokes and individual fills are baked in or discarded. Any bitmap in the selection is mangled. It's meant for cleaning up boolean shapes before handing off an icon, not for preparing an export.

Grouping produces exactly the same single PNG and changes nothing about your artwork. If you flattened before reading this: Cmd+Z, right now, before the file autosaves past your undo history.

Four things that go wrong

• Grouping reorders your layers. Grouping layers that weren't adjacent in the layer list pulls them together into one stack, which can change what sits in front of what. Check the canvas after grouping, not after exporting.
• Hidden layers stay hidden. A layer toggled off doesn't render, so it won't be in the PNG even though it's inside the group. Obvious in hindsight, invisible at export time.
• The group's name becomes the filename. Figma names the file after the export target, and a fresh group is called Group 47. Rename it before exporting — that name is also your first draft of the image's alt text.
• 1x is still the default scale. One file at the wrong resolution is no better than five. Export at 2x for anything going on a website; the reasoning is in why Figma exports come out blurry.

The opposite problem: one file per layer

Worth knowing which side of this you're on, because the two searches read almost identically:

• One combined image — a composition that has to travel as a single file. Group it, mark the group. This page.
• One file per layer, all at once — fifty icons out of a design system in one action. Mark all fifty, press Shift+Cmd+E. That's batch export.
• One multi-page document — several frames as pages in a single file, usually for review or print. Neither of the above: it's File → Export frames to PDF.

FAQ

How do I export multiple layers as one PNG in Figma?

Group them with Cmd+G (Ctrl+G on Windows), select the group, then add a PNG export setting to the group rather than to the individual layers.

Why does Figma export each layer separately?

Export settings attach to layers, not selections. Marking five layers creates five export targets. One container equals one file.

Group or frame — which should I use?

Group for a tight crop and a transparent background. Frame when you need an exact canvas size, padding, or a background colour.

Can I export a selection as one image without grouping?

Only by marking a parent that already contains everything you want. There's no "export selection as one file" command in Figma.

Does Cmd+E merge layers for export?

No. Cmd+E is Flatten, a destructive vector operation. Use grouping instead — same export result, no damage to the file.

Can I export several groups as one PNG each, in one go?

Yes, and this is where the two behaviours combine nicely. Mark each group with its own export setting, then press Shift+Cmd+E to export all of them at once — one flattened PNG per group.