Drift columns: WordPress Block Pattern, Pattern Paste Canonical: https://patternpaste.com/pattern/drift-columns.html Core Patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) Gallery (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/gallery/) Catalogue access Standard # Drift columns Six portrait frames in three columns of two, each column started lower than the one before it, so the frames read as a descending diagonal. A tracked label sits above the first column and one short line of type sits in the space the offset opens at the top of the third. Includes replaceable example photographs cropped to 4:5. ## All patterns Search patterns Loading patterns… The signature moment ## The baseline drifts across the columns There is no decoration in this pattern at all. The design is the staircase of unequal starting heights and nothing else. Column one begins at the top of the band, column two is pushed down 4rem, and column three is pushed down about the same again, so the tops of the six frames trace a descending diagonal from the top-left corner to the middle of the right-hand edge. Theme handoff ## What comes from where ### Theme and pattern Inherits: every colour (the band is a base chain, all type a contrast chain, and there is no third colour anywhere), the typeface, and the spacing scale (spacing|70 above and below the band, spacing|50 between the label and the row, spacing|40 between the two frames in a column and between the columns once they stack). Decides: the 4:5 portrait proportion of all six frames and the cover scale that crops the buyer's uploads to it, the constant offset step and its rem values, the 1240px measure with clamp(1.25rem, 4vw, 4rem) gutters, the clamp(1rem, 2vw, 2rem) gap between the columns, and the proportion of the two pieces of type: a 13px to 14px label at 0.22em tracking in caps, and a 15px to 17px line at 1.5. 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 Six portrait frames in three core/columns of two, on a full-bleed band of your base colour. Each column starts lower than the one before it, so the six frames step down across the section instead of sitting on one shelf. A tracked caps label sits top-left above the first column, and one short line of type sits in the space the last step opens at the top of the third. Nothing else is on the band: no rule, no plate, no caption under a frame. ### The signature moment: the baseline drifts across the columns There is no decoration in this pattern at all. The design is the staircase of unequal starting heights and nothing else. Column one begins at the top of the band, column two is pushed down 4rem, and column three is pushed down about the same again, so the tops of the six frames trace a descending diagonal from the top-left corner to the middle of the right-hand edge. Two things stop that reading as a mistake. The step is constant, so the eye gets a rule rather than three arbitrary positions; a single odd column reads as a broken layout, three evenly spaced ones read as a decision. And the type occupies the void the last step creates: the short line sits in the empty space at the top of the third column rather than leaving it blank, so the offset is doing work instead of merely existing. It survives colourlessness because it is made of offset alone. Take every colour away and the diagonal is still there, since it is built from padding-top on the columns and from nothing that a palette can carry. That is the point: a pattern whose signature is a coloured wash has no signature in a theme that resolves that wash to something else. What happens below 782px. Core stacks core/columns into a single vertical run, and the three columns become three full-width groups one under another. The diagonal cannot survive that, and it is not asked to: the padding-top on each column stays where it is and becomes vertical space above that column's pair of frames, on top of the spacing|40 block gap between the columns. So on a phone the section reads as three pairs of frames separated by a growing rhythm of gaps, first pair tight, second pair set apart, third pair set apart with the line of type in the space. The drift changes axis rather than disappearing, and no frame moves sideways, because no negative margin is used anywhere. Make it yoursVariations and the edits to make first ### Variations - Rising drift (drift-rise): the staircase climbs instead of falling. The first column carries the largest offset and the third carries none, so the six frames step UP from the bottom-left to the top-right. The label moves with it, to the top-right above the column that now starts at the top, and the line of type moves into the void the reversal opens at the top of the first column. Same six frames, same 4:5 proportion, same colours, same values: only the composition mirrors, which is a change of one axis and not a dial. It reads differently because a falling diagonal settles and a rising one lifts, and a portfolio that ends high is a different sentence from one that ends low. Theme behaviourInheritance, fixed decisions and contrast ### What it inherits, what it decides Inherits: every colour (the band is a base chain, all type a contrast chain, and there is no third colour anywhere), the typeface, and the spacing scale (spacing|70 above and below the band, spacing|50 between the label and the row, spacing|40 between the two frames in a column and between the columns once they stack). Decides: the 4:5 portrait proportion of all six frames and the cover scale that crops the buyer's uploads to it, the constant offset step and its rem values, the 1240px measure with clamp(1.25rem, 4vw, 4rem) gutters, the clamp(1rem, 2vw, 2rem) gap between the columns, and the proportion of the two pieces of type: a 13px to 14px label at 0.22em tracking in caps, and a 15px to 17px line at 1.5. Technical notesBlock mechanics, responsive behaviour and constraints ### How the offsets are built The offset is style.spacing.padding.top on the core/column itself, in rem. A column is not a direct child of a constrained band, so padding on it is safe: nothing centres a column inside the columns row, so the padding stays inside the column's own box instead of pushing the block out of the layout's max-width (the failure content-columns shipped, recorded in the authoring skill). Negative margins are not used, so there is no margin collapse to reason about. The third column's offset is split in two, and deliberately: 2.5rem of padding, then the line of type, then a 2.25rem bottom margin under it. With the line's own two lines of body copy that lands the third column's first frame at roughly 8rem, the same step again, while putting the type inside the void rather than above it. Every value is rem, never vh: the preview on this page sizes its frame to the pattern, and a viewport-relative height would size the pattern to the frame in turn. ### What a buyer changes first The photographs. All six image blocks include example photographs; choose Replace to select an image from your media library, and the 4:5 crop and the whole composition are already set. The frames read best as a sequence, so use six pictures that belong together; the drift is what makes them one thing rather than a grid of six unrelated ones. The two pieces of type are the second thing. The label is set in caps with wide tracking and reads best under 30 characters. The line wants to run to about two lines in the column, roughly 80 to 100 characters, because it is holding open the space the last step created; one short clause leaves that space looking abandoned. To change the depth of the drift, change the padding-top on the second and third columns together, keeping the two steps equal. Making them unequal is the one edit that breaks the signature. ### 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 ## Drift columns: common questions Does Drift columns need a plugin? No. It is built only from core WordPress blocks (column, columns, group, image and paragraph), so it pastes into the block editor with nothing to install. Will Drift columns 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 Drift columns have? 2: Falling drift and Rising drift. 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 Drift columns free? It is included with a subscription, with every Core Pattern and variation. 62 Core Patterns are free to copy without one. 5.4KB of core-block markup, 5 blocks (column, columns, group, 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, image, paragraph Presets color 5, spacing 3, font-size 1 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 ### Cover trio Three photograph frames in a row, each a cover with a small caption plate in its bottom-left corner, and the middle frame raised above the other two. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/cover-trio.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Duo weight Two photograph frames at deliberately unequal weight: a tall 3:4 portrait across 64% of the width and a small square at 36%, sitting on the same bottom line. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/duo-weight.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Frame quartet Four square photographs in a two-by-two grid, each one inset inside its own ruled plate with a generous mat of white space around it and a small tracked caption underneath, so the four read as framed prints rather than tiles. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/frame-quartet.html)