Banded pairs: WordPress Block Pattern, Pattern Paste Canonical: https://patternpaste.com/pattern/banded-pairs.html Core Patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) Gallery (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/gallery/) Catalogue access Standard # Banded pairs Three full-width bands stacked with no gap between them, alternating between your base and your contrast colour, each holding a pair of 3:2 photograph frames with a tracked caps label, a short heading and a caption under each frame. The hard edge where one band meets the next is the only rule in the design. Includes replaceable example images. ## All patterns Search patterns Loading patterns… The signature moment ## The gallery is striped, and the stripe is the structure Nothing separates the three pairs but a change of ground. There is no rule, no gutter, no card and no border anywhere in the section; the only mark in the design is the line where one band's ground stops and the next one's starts. That is what makes six photographs read as three chapters rather than as a grid of six: the eye groups the pair that shares a ground, and the edge below it says the next pair is a different subject. Theme handoff ## What comes from where ### Theme and pattern Inherits: the typeface and its weights, the resolved value of base and contrast, the spacing scale behind presets 20 to 70, and the stacking threshold for core/columns. Decides: the striped structure and its phase; the 3:2 crop on all six frames with scale: cover, so whatever the buyer uploads is cropped to the proportion the pairs need; the 13px tracked caps label at 0.22em; a heading ramp of clamp(1.625rem, 3vw, 2.5rem) at -0.025em and line-height 1.08; and captions at clamp(0.9375rem, 1.05vw, 1.0625rem), whose floor is 15px so the lines stay above the responsive floor on a phone. Contrast is claimed at 4.5:1 throughout: every string in the section is a label, a caption or a heading set on its band's own ground, which is a base chain under a contrast chain or the inverse. Nothing in the pattern sits on a photograph, and there is no accent slug anywhere in it, in any rung. Full pattern notes ## Why it works, and how it is built Open a topic for the complete design reasoning, editing guidance and implementation notes. Design rationaleComposition, intent and nearest alternatives ### Overview A gallery of six photographs filed as three chapters. Three full-width horizontal bands are stacked with nothing between them: band one on a base chain, band two inverted onto a contrast chain, band three back on base. Each band carries a 13px tracked caps label, one short heading, and a pair of 3:2 frames side by side with a caption under each. The bands butt directly against one another, so every colour change is a hard edge running the full width of the viewport. ### The signature moment: the gallery is striped, and the stripe is the structure Nothing separates the three pairs but a change of ground. There is no rule, no gutter, no card and no border anywhere in the section; the only mark in the design is the line where one band's ground stops and the next one's starts. That is what makes six photographs read as three chapters rather than as a grid of six: the eye groups the pair that shares a ground, and the edge below it says the next pair is a different subject. It survives colourlessness because it is made of the only two colours every theme has. base and contrast are the sole universal slugs in the preset contract, and alternating between them is the one colour move that always arrives: a theme cannot resolve it to nothing, and it cannot resolve it to two colours that look alike, because a theme that made its ground and its ink alike would be unreadable everywhere else too. Every other colour device in a pattern depends on a slug that may or may not exist and may land at any luminance. This one is guaranteed by construction, which is why the stripe is the structure and not the decoration on top of it. It survives 390px because the stripe is made of ground rather than layout. Below 782px core stacks each band's core/columns, so the two frames sit one above the other, each still carrying its caption; the band simply gets taller. The band's own ground grows with it, the padding does not stack, and the two hard edges stay exactly where they were, full width. On a phone the section reads as three tall chapters instead of three wide ones, which is the same argument at a different aspect. Make it yoursVariations and the edits to make first ### Variations Inverted bands (variations/bands-inverted.html). The stripe phase flips. Bands one and three go on the contrast chain with base type, and band two onto base with contrast type, so the section reads dark, light, dark instead of light, dark, light. The composition, the six frames, the proportions and the copy are identical; the only thing that changes is the colour relationship, and that is deliberate: the base and the variation are the two answers to how the section joins whatever sits above it on the page. Where the base's first edge is soft against a light page, the variation's is the edge itself. Theme behaviourInheritance, fixed decisions and contrast ### What it inherits, what it decides Inherits: the typeface and its weights, the resolved value of base and contrast, the spacing scale behind presets 20 to 70, and the stacking threshold for core/columns. Decides: the striped structure and its phase; the 3:2 crop on all six frames with scale: cover, so whatever the buyer uploads is cropped to the proportion the pairs need; the 13px tracked caps label at 0.22em; a heading ramp of clamp(1.625rem, 3vw, 2.5rem) at -0.025em and line-height 1.08; and captions at clamp(0.9375rem, 1.05vw, 1.0625rem), whose floor is 15px so the lines stay above the responsive floor on a phone. Contrast is claimed at 4.5:1 throughout: every string in the section is a label, a caption or a heading set on its band's own ground, which is a base chain under a contrast chain or the inverse. Nothing in the pattern sits on a photograph, and there is no accent slug anywhere in it, in any rung. Technical notesBlock mechanics, responsive behaviour and constraints ### How the bands are butted, and the traps that are avoided - The parent adds no gap. The outer core/group is align: full, layout default, blockGap: "0" and zero padding on all four sides, so WordPress's flow-layout gap rule between its children resolves to nothing and the bands touch. A core/separator cannot do this job at all: it is a line between two things, not the absence of a space, and Twenty Twenty-Four narrows any separator that is not is-style-wide to a centred stub. - Each band owns its own edges. Every band is its own align: full group with its own ground, its own spacing|70 top and bottom padding and its own clamp(1.25rem, 4vw, 4rem) gutters, with a nested constrained layout at 1240px. The colour therefore runs to the viewport edge while the content stays on the measure, which is the only way the hard edge reads as full width. - The inverted band states its type on every block inside it, headings included. A theme's heading element style beats a colour inherited from a wrapping group, so a heading left to inherit lands the same colour as its own band at ratio 1.0, invisible and with nothing to flag it. So the label, the heading and both captions in band two each carry an explicit base chain, and the same is true of whichever bands are inverted in the variation. - Vertical rhythm is inline, not inherited. The heading states margin-top: var(--wp--preset--spacing--20) and margin-bottom: 0, and the core/columns states margin-top: var(--wp--preset--spacing--50) and margin-bottom: 0, so the spacing inside a band does not depend on which layout gap a theme happens to apply. ### What a buyer changes first The six photographs. Every image block includes an example photograph, with the 3:2 crop and cover setting already set. Select a frame and choose Replace to use your own file. After that, the copy: three labels (keep them short, they are tracked caps and are meant to be glanced at rather than read), three chapter headings, six captions. The pattern will take a fourth band if the story needs one, but the phase has to keep alternating: duplicate a band, swap its ground chain and its type chain, and change the four colours in it so the stripe stays honest. Last, the phase itself, which is the variation below. ### Included images The copied markup includes WordPress Photo Directory example photographs. The public image URLs keep the examples visible after pasting. Select an image or cover and choose Replace to use your own Media Library files. See image credits (https://patternpaste.com/image-credits/) for the sources and licenses. Pasting an image URL does not import a Media Library attachment. Questions ## Banded pairs: common questions Does Banded pairs need a plugin? No. It is built only from core WordPress blocks (column, columns, group, heading, image and paragraph), so it pastes into the block editor with nothing to install. Will Banded pairs match my theme? Yes. It names no colour or font of its own: every colour, size and space is a preset from your theme, so it takes your theme’s palette and type when pasted. How many variations does Banded pairs have? 2: Light, dark, light and Inverted bands. Each is its own markup; choose one in the toolbar above the preview before you copy. Can I use my own images? Yes. Sample images stay in the copied blocks. Replace them in WordPress; pasting does not upload them to your Media Library. Is Banded pairs free? It is included with a subscription, with every Core Pattern and variation. 62 Core Patterns are free to copy without one. 13KB of core-block markup, 6 blocks (column, columns, group, heading, image, paragraph), and nothing else: paste it into the block editor and it becomes editable blocks wearing your theme. Subscribe to copy it, £49 a year (https://patternpaste.com/account/#plan) What you copy is yours forever. Not for you? We refund within 14 days. Back to Core Patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) Catalogue access ### £49 a year All patterns, variations and theme downloads. What you copy is yours forever. Not for you? We refund within 14 days. Subscribe, £49 a year (https://patternpaste.com/account/#plan) Sign in (https://patternpaste.com/account/) Everything you copy is yours to keep, forever, on any site; access to the rest of the library runs while you subscribe. Not for you? Tell us within 14 days of a payment and we refund you. After that, cancelling stops the next renewal and access runs to the end of the year you have paid for. Prices are in pounds and are the full price in the UK, the US and eleven other countries; elsewhere the checkout adds your local VAT or sales tax. The terms name every country. #### Pair with Hero Hero aperture An opening section on your theme's own paper: a tracked line, a display headline, one short paragraph on a reading measure, and then a picture that stops short of the edge on every side. The signature is the margin: the image is a window cut in the page rather than a band across it, and the paper around it is what you notice. A small opaque plate in the picture's bottom-right corner carries the caption, so no type ever sits on the photograph. The still-image version includes an example photograph; select your own clip for the video version. States no colour and no font of its own. (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/hero-aperture.html)Editorial Article footer The close of an article: a portrait of the author beside their name, the biography under both inside a currentColor slip held to the middle half of the measure, and the previous and the next post hanging off the two outer edges so the section reads as a doorway rather than a footer. The name, the biography and the two neighbours are dynamic core blocks, so they are the post's own and the preview here is sample data; the portrait is an ordinary image block you swap for your author's own. The previous and next links only resolve on a single post template, which is where this pattern belongs. (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/article-footer.html)Contact Contact cover ledger A full-bleed contact cover: a display heading in the top left, and a ruled ledger of address, hours, phone and email in the far lower-right corner, label left and value right between hairline rules, with the photograph running between them. A heavy veil of your theme's contrast colour keeps every line legible whatever photograph you choose. The ledger drops under the heading on a phone. Includes a replaceable example photograph. States no colour and no font of its own. Ships with a short hand-off row on your theme's paper below it. (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/contact-cover-ledger.html) #### Before you paste Requires a block theme on WordPress 7.0 to 7.1. Classic themes and page builders are outside our supported setup. Adaptive patterns use the block theme’s colour, spacing and typography presets; styled variations declare their own colours or type. How we test patterns (https://patternpaste.com/how-we-test/) Sample images stay in the copied blocks. Replace them in WordPress; pasting does not upload them to your Media Library. Video variations need your own clip. Image credits (https://patternpaste.com/image-credits/). ## Specifications Section Gallery Access Subscription Plugin None, core blocks only Variations 2 Colour From your theme Type From your theme Motion None Blocks column, columns, group, heading, image, paragraph Presets color 5, spacing 5, font-size 2 WordPress 7.0+ Continue exploring ## Next in Gallery Explore all 30 Gallery patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/gallery/) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Wall labels Five portrait frames hung in one row at deliberately unequal widths, bottom-aligned so their tops are ragged and their bases sit on one line, each with a small museum wall label beneath it: a tracked uppercase title and a line of medium and year. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/wall-labels.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Before and after change spine Two equal square photographs frame a narrow record of three interior styling decisions. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/before-after-change-spine.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Before and after pairs Recent work for a builder, a landscaper or a decorator, shown as three static before and after pairs. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/before-after-pairs.html)