Sketch Fu: copy paste position size

Sketch Fu is a series of articles that aim to help you — product designer and Sketch user— work faster, smoother, and better.

Copy Paste Position Size is one of my all time favourite Sketch Plugins because it elegantly smoothens rough edges in my workflow.

Here’s how it works:

1. Select a target layer and copy its position and size with Ctrl+Shift+C.
2. Choose a desired layer, and paste the target’s properties.

It’s less about doing new things, and more about doing routine things faster

Copy Paste Position Size shines with its keyboard shortcuts, and using the keyboard exclusively lets me work faster and be more precise. This goes beyond design tools — just ask any programmer who uses Vim.

Unpacking the plugin

I find these features the most useful:

1. Copy Properties (Ctrl+Shift+C)
2. Paste Size (Ctrl+Shift+V)
3. Paste Position (Ctrl+Shift+P)
4. Paste X Position (Ctrl+Shift+X)
5. Paste Y Position (Ctrl+Shift+Y)
6. Paste Width (Ctrl+Shift+W)
7. Paste Height (Ctrl+Shift+H)

And here’s how I supercharge my workflow with them:

Replacing objects

Say I’m working on contact cards.

I had chosen a circular display picture, but I now want to explore a rounded rectangle. My rounded rectangle is ready on the side, and only needs replacing.

Normally, I’d use my mouse to drag the rounded rectangle into position and then resize it, like this:

But this soon gets tiring, and slowly saps away my productivity.

Let’s try a better way.

1. Ctrl+Shift+C will copy the circular picture’s properties.
2. Then, I’ll choose the rounded rectangle and use Ctrl+Shift+P to snap it into the circular picture’s position.
3. And finally, Ctrl+Shift+V will match their sizes.

This works brilliantly for Slices too. When you want to overlay a Slice on top of an icon asset, simply copy the icon asset’s properties, and paste its position and size on to the Slice.

The less I have to reach for the mouse, the faster I get.

Better tidying

I have some scattered cards, and I want to align them all to the orange target card.

1. Ctrl+Shift+C on the orange card will copy its properties.
2. Select all the cards and align them.
3. While the cards are still selected, use Ctrl+Shift+X. This will bring them all to the same X position as the orange card.

Matching width

I’ve laid my cards out neatly, and I’m looking to insert a separator.

1. Ctrl+Shift+C on any card. The card doesn’t matter, because we’re looking for the X position and width, which is common to all these cards.
2. Select the separator, and use Ctrl+Shift+X to scoot it into place.
3. Then, use Ctrl+Shift+W to match the width of other cards.

These are just a few of the myriad use cases for Copy Paste Position Size. Use the keyboard for simple tasks like aligning and resizing, and watch your workflow get supercharged.

Get Copy Paste Position Size here.

Check out other articles in the Sketch Fu series:

Sketch Fu: Exporting Artboards in Sequence

Sketch Fu: custom keyboard shortcuts