Giving the Gutenberg gallery a go

Posted on 15 Dec 2018 by Laura Bloomsbury

Something alliterative for Debbie’s six word Saturday – and a chance to test drive the new Gutenberg gallery ‘block’. It is not as daring as sky riding but be warned it is not a pretty sight. [It’s even worse when browsed in the WordPress reader so please ‘visit site’!]

3 Column width – random orientations & captions

Peacock or partridge?
Trippy Wonderland
Mistletoe decor

What the Gutenberg Gallery does

you can add ‘caption’ texts directly to image in the gallery block as well as in image edit mode or even directly on media upload. Text can be emboldened, italicised or linked.
you can choose the number of columns (slide button on right side edit menu)
you can also auto opt to ‘crop’ images to fit – something that may be applicable to same orientation of different sizes. Also if you alter number of columns and want a neater line.

Where the Gutenberg Gallery disappoints

the Gallery does not have a ‘mosaic fit’, thumbnail or square format option. Instead landscape and portrait will not fit neatly together unless they are put in rows of the same orientation
if you have auto crop on and alter the columns, images will be cut to fit not just re-sized
in random mixed presentation, where captions are added they are given grey space below the landscape orientations which makes the images even less presentable
the caption text is too visible. I would prefer an opacity reduction and the appearance only on mouseover. No longer an option
And last but not least – click on an image to view and the Gallery slideshow presentation always begins at the beginning so you have to scroll through to the one you wanted to view closer.

3 column gallery – aligned orientations & absent captions

My photography of late has mostly taken a nose dive and so the poor presentation of the Gutenberg Gallery is not the only problem with visuals. Were I a serious photographer I would only want to display images as singles anyway – especially now.

Did you blink and miss it? Yes December 6th was the rollout for WordPress 5.0 and for now the Classic Editor is being kept as Gutenberg block editor is still very glitchy -even uploading an image can freeze so a ‘way to go’ is the verdict so far.

Category: Images, London life, Photo essayTags: blocks, gallery, Gutenberg editor, six word saturday, WordPress

10 Comments on “Giving the Gutenberg gallery a go”

Debbie Smyth
15 Dec 2018

I love the colour and light in your sky ride image.
As for the gallery, if it isn’t improved I’ll be sticking to single images.

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- Laura Bloomsbury
  15 Dec 2018
  
  not sure why image presentation would be made worse – I do not often use a gallery but no motivation with Gutenberg now
  
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Tish Farrell
15 Dec 2018

Many thanks for being the path finder and doing a test drive, Laura. Think I will be sticking to my old ways.

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- Laura Bloomsbury
  15 Dec 2018
  
  I know am resistant to change so decided to suck it and see but really I can only say that sticking with the old is the only option when the new is not good for end users. I think Gutenberg is being driven by what is easier for developers.
  
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Kiki
15 Dec 2018

Great to have you test-driving Gutenberg, Laura! As with the new photo blog I mainly post single images it won’t be too much of a problem, but for my “month in pictures” where I use the square format gallery it looks like Gutenberg will be messing that up 😦 . I’m not usually resistant to change, but the most recent WP changes seem to have brought nothing to improve user experience, so I am definitely resistant to Gutenberg and will stick with the classic editor for as long as possible.

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- Laura Bloomsbury
  16 Dec 2018
  
  Yes the Gutnberg blog gallery in WordPress will surely make a dog’s dinner of your month in pics – would not even be able to select the one your viewer wants to see closer without starting from the slidehow beginning
  
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jillys2016
15 Dec 2018

Thank you for being the trail-blazer! I haven’t posted pix in months, so I’ll just let them work out the bugs.
Really enjoy your photos of the entertainment locations; the mistletoe one is a personal fav – that bulb reflection is a marvel. We live near Disney and have taken so many unique shots in and around the parks. These places make for chaotic and outlandish images. Glad you shared them – they give me a glimpse of your city 🙂

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- Laura Bloomsbury
  16 Dec 2018
  
  thank you Jilly – this is the city at Christmas with me in point and shoot mood! I should go and get more low light practice as the days are closing in fast now but instead I draw the curtains and stay in – especially now as have my annual, full on cough and cold. Even so this gallery is not encouragement for photo improvement!
  
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Robin
15 Dec 2018

Your images are beautiful, with wonderful colors that are brightening up my grey day (it’s been raining all day).

Thank you for experimenting with and posting about the new editor. I’ve been playing with it in private and I don’t care for it at all, especially with images. I take the time to resize the images before I upload them, and the editor decides to make them any old size it wants (usually bigger which tends to make them look pixelated). I try to fix that with the editor but it’s been inconsistent and uncooperative.

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- Laura Bloomsbury
  16 Dec 2018
  
  Robin – you should be able to dictate the size of single images with the right hand edit buttons. On top of that, the theme itself will have its own idiosyncrasies with image size so its worth reading up on your theme’s info. In short, it’s hard to get any control around here!!
  
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