WordPress.com has ended the pricing experiment it began at the beginning of April. The company announced today that it is rolling back its pricing structure to the previous model, which offered five plans, including the free tier. A few months ago, WordPress.com pared back its pricing table from five to just two plans (Free and…
Meta contributors have turned on a new feature in WordPress.org theme listings that allows visitors to preview themes’ bundled patterns. A grid displaying the patterns is now shown underneath a theme’s description and tags. These are automatically fetched from any theme that registers patterns and works for both block and classic themes. Clicking on a…
Brian Gardner, founder of StudioPress and co-creator of the Genesis Framework, has a new block theme in the directory called Bright Mode. The theme features a vibrant color palette with tasteful gradients, 14 beautifully designed block patterns, and so many fun variations tucked into custom block styles. It’s difficult to nail down a niche for…
WordPress design contributors are cooking up a new idea for this year’s default theme release that would put the spotlight on style variations instead of the theme itself. The idea is rooted in comments that Twenty Twenty-Two designer Kjell Reigstad made last year when introducing the theme: Themes are in a transition period today, and…
The WordPress Themes Directory is sitting at 99 block themes today and will soon cross a major milestone. This momentum has been driven in part by independent designers like Brian Gardner, Anders Norén, and Rich Tabor, to name a few, who have fully embraced the new era of block themes and are leading the way…
If you have ever tried to upload an SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file for a logo or favicon in WordPress, you may have been astonished to find that it doesn’t work. There is no core support so users rely on plugins like SVG Support (900K+ installs) or Safe SVG (600k+ installs) to upload SVG files to the…
After years of planning and one canceled event, WordCamp Asia 2023 is just seven months away. The event is gaining momentum as organizers were selected earlier this year and the call for sponsors opened last month. Asia’s inaugural flagship WordCamp will be hosted February 17-19, at IconSiam in Bangkok Thailand with 1,500 attendees expected. It…
This week has been heavy with theme news, as the discussion around improving block themes’ visibility in the directory became heated before the Themes Team landed on a course of action. Meta contributors added a new “Block Themes” menu item to the filter menu on the directory homepage, a solution that some classic theme developers…
WordPress.org hasn’t seen a redesign since 2016, when it went from sketches to prototype to live in a matter of a couple weeks. In six years, the software has undergone a metamorphosis by adopting a new block paradigm that should be reflected in its website. Contributors are now looking at giving the homepage and download page a…
In the near future, WordPress may be able to provide better caching recommendations for site owners. Performance team contributors are proposing two new Site Health checks for Persistent Object Cache and Full Page Cache. The modules have been tested inside the Performance Lab plugin and version 1.2.0 has them both in a state the team says…
Axton is a beautiful new addition to the WordPress Themes Directory from the team at Catch Themes. Those who have been waiting for more full-site editing-enabled themes that go beyond a simple blogging layout should have a look at Axton, as it is suitable for a portfolio, photography showcase, or even a business website. The…
Seven weeks ago, WordPress Theme Team contributors proposed several ideas for improving block themes’ visibility on WordPress.org. These included the possibility of changing the popular themes algorithm to more prominently feature block themes, and/or adding a new “Block” menu item next to Popular and Latest on the themes directory home page. The directory is going…
In the latest episode of the WP Briefing, titled “Five for the Future’s True Intentions,” WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy responded to recent public criticism the program has attracted. She referenced a conversation she began in May where she sought to make a clear distinction between ecosystem contributions and core project contributions. More recently,…
Last month WPZOOM released a free plugin called Block Patterns for Food Bloggers that I finally got the chance to test. Food blogs commonly have a strong focus on category and tag-driven grid layouts with big featured images and multiple sections showcasing different types of recipes. Prior to the block editor, customizing these types of…
Gutenberg 13.6 was released this week with an expansion of full-site editing features and 26 bug fixes. One of the highlights includes the addition of the pattern modal for users when they create new content within a custom post type. WordPress 6.0 introduced the ability to display patterns in a modal when a user creates…