Marvel app

[jamesdellar (JD)]

Is anyone else having an issue of sharing screens to Marvel?

[dfmedrano (Jorge)]

Hey James,

I tested and the latest version of Marvel v11.4 (5109) works with Sketch Athens (2025.1.2)

There are some quirks in it that the Marvel team needs to polish. Here’s what I found during my testing:

• Updating didnt work from the version installed in my Mac. I had to download the app again from the Marvel Website
• After reinstalling and signing into your Marvel account, select some frames and sync them
• You’ll see an alert message that reads “You didn’t select an artboard” click OK and the sync process will begin

I hope this helps!

[jamesdellar (JD)]

Im currently unable to do any of this and prototyping didn’t work.
Did you try prototyping links as well?

[dfmedrano (Jorge)]

@jamesdellar

Im currently unable to do any of this and prototyping didn’t work.
Did you try prototyping links as well?

Just tested this James. Prototype links are not synced to Marvel, but you can create hotspots in the Marvel app.

I tested an earlier version of Sketch, v101.9, which still uses Artboards and prototype links weren’t synced either. This points to something that the Marvel team needs to fix.

If I may, have you tried the Sketch Web app? If you have, what are we missing so you can use it instead of Marvel? Thanks

[chad.omalley]

Hey there,

I’m not the OP but someone suffering from the same situation with Marvel. It’s absolutely something to do with their plugin and hopefully we’ll see an update from them eventually. I have a feeling Marvel, as a platform, isn’t their priority compared to their other product, Ballpark, so that patch probably won’t be for a while.

What I did want to reply with was the description of why we’re using Marvel:

I’m a director at an international B2B ecommerce agency that works with small to medium-sized companies. Many of these businesses are not exactly tech-savvy so it has been an ongoing struggle with providing them a clear, intuitive way to view and understand mockups. We tried sending them links to the artboards in the past (both from Sketch and Figma), but this led to confusion over what the ‘real size’ of a page is, what order to follow things in, how best to call out problems on specific pages, etc. Before Marvel we used Invision for this same reason — we didn’t care for their dated prototyping capabilities but rather as a concise way to showcase pages realistically and individually. Many of our clients continue to reference our designs through these platforms years later (we still get clients asking about specific page mockups on Invision years since it shut down).

What works about these presentation platforms is that we can share page mockups on an individual and group level via specific links that can be referenced again and again (attaching an example breakdown of how we typically use it and the application of links on a group/individual level). Slideshows unfortunately do not solve this problem as they’re often limited to either a specific set of artboards or .PDF — Marvel allows us to constantly sync updates to previously-established page/group links that a client can reference changes to in real time (and realistically fits within their browser).

Honestly, if Sketch was to implement the ability to provide simple page (or group of page) mockups that can be individually shared as links, we’d really have no other reason to use third-party tools. Well, no reason outside of the fact our Windows-based developers can’t see artboard grids via the browser handoff tools

[dfmedrano (Jorge)]

Hey Chad,

Thank you so much for sharing your use case. What you mention is already possible in Sketch! In brief, you can share at a group level (prototype) and also at an individual level (frame) with the Web app. Here’s the breakdown

Sharing at a group level

The key to share at a group level is to link your frames with prototype links. Once you’ve linked them in the Mac app, set a starting point and save your document to your Workspace. Each starting point in your document creates a new prototype on the web app.

Next, open the document in the web app and click on Pages > Prototypes or on the Info panel on the right side. This will open the prototype page and from there, you can copy the prototype link to share as a group.

Sharing at an individual level

You can share frames individually, even if they are not part of a prototype:

1. Open the document on the web app
2. Hover the frame you want to share, ⌘ click it and select Copy link

You can also share a frame that’s part of a prototype right from the prototype player:

1. Launch the prototype in the web app
2. navigate to the frame you want to share
3. Click the link icon on the toolbar to copy the link

Updating and sharing

Links remain the same when you update your document in the Mac app. You can keep referencing the same links as needed and any updates are synced to the same link.

You can also share a specific page. Open the page you want to share on the web app and copy the URL. This will get you a canvas view of the page you’re sharing, with all its contents.

Display modes for prototypes

There are three display modes available for prototypes: Fit, Fill Width and Actual Size. When you share a prototype link, it will include the display mode you’ve set.

From what you mention, Fill Width can work well to handle different screen sizes

Artboard Grids

This is also possible! Any user should be able to display Frame Grid/Layout columns

1. Select a frame on the web app
2. Ensure Inspect is on, press I on your keyboard
3. Click on the Zoom level on the bottom left corner to toggle Grid/Layout

Here’s a file to test with

Mockup sharing

I hope this helps and please feel free to share any feedback or questions.

[chad.omalley]

Thank you so much for this!

I never thought of using Prototypes in this fashion but it makes sense! We have a smaller project coming up and I think we’ll do a test run with this prototype approach.

Secondly, I don’t know when this came into effect, but I just confirmed our devs can access the grid/column layouts within the browser app’s inspect tool (I remember even last year testing if it worked and we didn’t have success then). This is wonderful news as I’d much rather our developers reference the core Sketch file we’re designing from instead of going through a third-party tool where the details may not be 1:1.

Thank you again for your help on all this! I’m excited to slowly transition to a new, Sketch-only process flow over the coming months.

[dfmedrano (Jorge)]

Hi Chad,

Thanks for your reply. Please let us know if you have any questions while you test with prototypes and sharing. We’ll be more than happy to help!