Token Types in Tokens Studio

The type is the anatomic part of a Design Token that defines the category of design property the decision belongs to, or when it can be applied.

You might recall from our Intro to Design Tokens Guide that the type determines what Values are acceptable.

In this infographic, the Token examples on the right side highlight the Type. Both code blocks have coloras the Token Type.

Tokens Studio (TS) supports 24 unique Token Types.

Before you jump into the technical docs for each Token Type, you may want to review the common terms and concepts below that will help strengthen your knowledge.

Select the Token Type card below to jump to its guide.

Color

Layer fill and stroke.

Opacity

Defines layer transparency.

Box Shadow - Composite

X, Y, Blur, Spread, and Color.

Border - Composite

Stroke color, width and style.

Asset

URL hosted images and assets.

Boolean

Controls layer visibility.

Number

Unitless numeric value.

Dimension

Numeric value with pixel or rem units.

Border Radius

Unofficial Token converted to a Dimension Token.

Border Width

Unofficial Token converted to a Dimension Token.

Sizing

Unofficial Token converted to a Dimension Token.

Spacing

Unofficial Token converted to a Dimension Token.

Text (string)

Strings of text for copy and content.

Typography (composite)

All text and font styling properties combined.

Font Size

Define in pixel or rem values for responsive design.

Font Family

Works with Font Weight as a pair in Figma.

Font Weight

Works with Font Family as a pair in Figma.

Line Height

Define in percentage for responsive design in Figma.

Letter Spacing

Define in percentage for responsive design in Figma.

Paragraph Spacing

Matches Figma's text property.

Paragraph Indent

Defined as a Dimension Token.

Text Decoration

Define underline or strike for additional emphasis.

Text Case

Define caps or title case to change text.

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Common Terms

These terms are not the only way to describe Token Types; they are the labels the Tokens Studio team uses for simplicity across our documentation.

If your team uses different descriptive terms, that's totally okay!

Official

Official Token Types are listed in the W3C Design Tokens Community Group (DTCG) Specifications for Design Tokens

For example, Dimension Token is an official type.

Unofficial

Unofficial Token Types were created by Tokens Studio before the W3C DTCG Specs defined an alternate Token Type.

For example, Border Width Token is an unofficial type defined by the spec as a Dimension Token.

Tokens Studio will continue to support unofficial Token Types for now. We've already built a conversion into our SD-transforms script; more details are below ↓.

Any Token Types we are planning to deprecate will be listed as legacy.

Composite

When elements are styled by composing many related design decisions together, they are combined into a Composite Token Type.

For example, a Typography Token is composed of 9 independent text-related properties.

Property

Each design decision that is a part of the Composite Token is referred to as a property of their respective Composite Token in our guides.

For example, fontFamily and fontWeightare unofficial Tokens we created to independently define the properties that Compose a typography Token.

They may be included in the DTCG Specifications in the future, in which case they would be official property Tokens.

Compatible

A Token Type with properties that is compatible with another Token Type.

For example, the dimension Token Type is compatible with fontSize when referenced within a typography Composite Token.

Compatible Token Types are visible by default when defining Token Values which reference another Token in the plugin. This becomes important when creating and maintaining Tokens in the plugin.

→ Read the Token Values with References guide for more details

Token Values with References

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Working with Token Types

In the Plugin, you select which Type of Token you'd like to create using a no-code interface. Under the hood, Tokens Studio will write the Token as properly formatted JSON files so they can be used in code.

The Tokens page of the Tokens Studio Plugin shows all Token Types supported. The list is quite long, so the page is scrolled and shown side-by-side to capture them all.

You might recall that Design Tokens are platform agnostic, written in a common language so they can shared across different tools and technologies.

This means that engineers working with Design Tokens have to transform them from JSON files into whatever specific programming needs they have before they can work with them.

The Geko in this infographic represents Style Dictionary.

Transforming Tokens

Engineers typically transform Tokens used in code with Style Dictionary, which is tool-agnostic. Tokens coming from Tokens Studio require an additional step: @Tokens-studio/sd-transforms, an npm package that prepares Tokens for Style Dictionary.

Some Tokens we create in Tokens Studio (TS) have subtle differences in how the Token type is written compared to the DTCG specifications. In the case of unofficial Token Types, which don't exist in the DTCG spec, we have to transform the TS Type into something Style Dictionary is prepared to work with.

The SD-Transforms package's preprocessor will transform the TS Token Type to the Style Dictionary Type, as described in the table below.

→ SD-Transforms Read-Me Doc, Using the preprocessor

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Available Token Types

Each Token Type has unique properties and specifications, which are documented in detail. Select the common name of the Token Type in the table below to access its docs.

Common Name	W3C DTCG Official	Composite	TS JSON Type	SD Type	DTCG Type
Color Token	✓	Can be a Property of border, shadow	color	color	color
Typography Token	✓	Composite	typography	typography	typography
Font Family Token	✓	Property of typography	fontFamilies and fontFamily	fontFamily	fontFamily
Font Weight Token	✓	Property of typography	fontWeights and fontWeight	fontWeight	fontWeight
Font Size Token	✓	Property of typography	fontSizes and fontSize	fontSize	fontSize
Line Height Token	✓	Property of typography	lineHeights and lineHeight	lineHeight	NA
Letter Spacing Token	✓	Property of typography	letterSpacing	dimension	dimension
Paragraph Spacing Token	X	Property of typography (in TS, not DTCG)	paragraphSpacing	dimension	dimension
Text Case Token	X	Property of typography (in TS, not DTCG)	textCase	textCase	NA
Text Decoration Token	X	Property of typography (in TS, not DTCG)	textDecoration	textDecoration	NA
Dimension Token	✓	Can be a Property of border, shadow, typography	dimension	dimension	dimension
Number Token	✓		number	number	number
Border Token	✓	Composite	border	border	border
Box Shadow Token	✓	Composite	boxShadow	shadow	shadow
Border Radius Token	X		borderRadius	dimension	dimension
Border Width Token	X		borderWidth	dimension	dimension
Spacing Token	X		spacing	dimension	dimension
Sizing Token	X		sizing	dimension	dimension
Asset Token	X		asset	asset	NA
Boolean Token	X		boolean	boolean	NA
Text Token	X		text	content	NA
Other Token	X		other	other	NA
Opacity Token	X		opacity	opacity	NA
Composition Token	X		composition	each type in the composition is added individually	NA

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Resources

Mentioned in this doc:

• SD-Transforms - Read Me
• Style Dictionary - https://styledictionary.com/
• Design Tokens Community Group - W3C Draft
• Design Tokens Community Group - 8.0 Token Types

Community resources:

• None yet!

💡 Something to share? Submit it here!

Known issues and bugs

Tokens Studio Plugin GitHub - Open issues for Transforming Token Types

Tokens Studio Plugin GitHub - Open issues for Token Type Support

• Remove composition tokens #2800

🐞 If you are experiencing an issue not listed here, please reach out to us on the Troubleshooting channel of our community Slack, submit it on our feedback tool, or send us an email [e-mail]

Requests, roadmap and changelog

• Expand Token Types - Feature request

💌 Visit https://feedback.tokens.studio/ to contribute or subscribe to updates.