The interface design of many background projects involves a large number of tables, and the output of each final draft must undergo repeated spacing, margin and alignment adjustments. The typography features that come with Sketch (in the upper right corner of the panel, don’t say you haven’t used 👻) are no longer enough. Paddy is one of the autotypesetting plug-ins that will increase your hourly salary if used properly.

  • The plugin’s website: https://github.com/DWilliames/paddy-sketch-plugin

  • Reading time: 3 minutes

    • Master the three core functions can be quickly started, the author here to a simple form for the production of 🌰.

    🌕 First, set margins

    First we’ll make a cell with 16px left, right, and top spacing. Just change the name of the background layer and add a format parameter after its name to automatically adjust the margins.

    The shortcut keys are: Control + Alt + P, and the naming rules of margin parameters are shown in the following table:

    Those of you who have a little bit of CSS background can learn it quickly

    🌖 Step 2, set the spacing

    We set the vertical spacing of the disordered cells to 0 and add a parameter after the original group name to automatically adjust the vertical or horizontal spacing.

    The shortcut keys are Control + Alt + Command + P. The naming rules of spacing parameters are shown in the following table:

    Note that both cannot exist at the same time

    🌗 Step 3, set alignment

    Left-align the spaced cells, and automatically align objects in the group by adding an alignment parameter after the group name. In the following table, l, C, R, T, M, and B are the first letters of left, Center, right, top, middle, and bottom respectively.

    The alignment parameter can be used either in combination with the spacing parameter or alone

    Of course, Paddy has plenty of other useful features.

    ⚽️ ignores specific items

    Using an “x” in a margin parameter causes Paddy to automatically adjust regardless of the corresponding margin.

    Adding a “-” to the name of the layer or group causes Paddy to ignore the object when it is automatically adjusted.

    ⚾️ Set boundaries

    Maximum and minimum margins can be set using “>=, >, <, <=, =” in margin parameters.

    🏐 support Symbol

    I have to say that this is a very handy feature that solves a lot of execution problems. More and more plugins are linked to Symbol, which is the essence of Sketch.

    The plug-in itself is free, if it works, might as well give the plugin author Dave Williames buy a cup of coffee (https://www.paypal.me/dtw/5).

    Let’s hope this cup of coffee from the mysterious East doesn’t keep him up at night 😂