# 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. Includes replaceable example images. States no colour and no font of its own. Canonical: https://patternpaste.com/pattern/frame-quartet.html Section: Gallery Access: Included in Pattern Paste access. Needs: 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. Blocks: column, columns, group, image, paragraph Keywords: gallery, grid, four up, framed, mat, square, portfolio, caption ## Variations (3) ### Ruled mats (the default) Identical markup in every theme. Each plate is drawn with a 1px hairline in your theme's own text colour, and the photograph sits well inside it with a caption line below. The mats stay transparent, so the section keeps your band's ground; on a phone the columns stack and the four become a vertical run of framed prints. ### Cobalt and chalk This variation states its own colours and states its own type: identical in every theme. States a chalk ground, cobalt frame rules and Avenir Next for the opening and print captions. ### Filled mats Identical markup in every theme. The mat becomes solid instead of ruled: each plate takes your contrast colour as its ground and your base colour as its caption type, and the hairline is dropped. Same four frames, same mat, same proportions; the photographs now sit on dark card. --- ## The signature moment: the mat, not the tile Every other gallery in the library runs its photographs to the edge of their cell; here each one is inset inside a ruled plate with real white space around it, so the section reads as four framed prints on a wall rather than four tiles in a grid. The mat is made of two things and only two: a `style.border` on each plate group (`currentColor`, `solid`, `1px`, written in both the block's settings and the rendered `style=` in the order the style engine emits them, `border-color` then `border-style` then `border-width`) and `var:preset|spacing|40` of padding on all four sides. **It survives colourlessness** because the frame is a `currentColor` hairline. `currentColor` cannot blank, needs no chain and follows whatever text colour the theme puts on the band, so the rule is always exactly as dark as the caption beside it: in a light theme it is a fine ink line on paper, in a dark one a fine pale line on ink, and in both it is the same idea. The white space inside it is the band's own ground, which is a `base` chain, so the mat is never painted and never needs to be. **It survives 390px** because the mat is padding, not layout. Below 782px core stacks the two `core/columns` rows, each column becomes its own flex line, and the four plates become a vertical run of four. Each one keeps its padding and its rule at full strength, so a phone shows the same framed print at a different rhythm: one wide mat after another down the page, instead of two beside two. Nothing is dropped and nothing collapses; only the number of prints per line changes. ## What it inherits, what it decides Inherits: every colour (the band is a `base` chain with `contrast` type, the captions are `contrast` chains, the frame is `currentColor`), the typeface, and the spacing scale (`spacing|80` above and below the band, `spacing|60` between the intro and the grid, `spacing|50` as the grid's gutter in both directions, `spacing|40` as the mat, `spacing|30` between a photograph and its caption). Decides: the mat itself, the 1:1 crop on all four images (`aspectRatio: "1"` with `"scale":"cover"`, so whatever the buyer uploads is cropped square rather than letting four different shapes ruin the grid), the 1240px measure and the `clamp(1.25rem, 4vw, 4rem)` gutters that make it a full-bleed section rather than a cramped column, the 34rem intro measure held by a nested constrained group, and the type proportion: a 13px tracked caption against a 15px to 17px lede at 1.55. Every heading-weight line in this pattern is a paragraph, and every one of them states its own text colour, so no theme's element style can repaint it to match its ground. ## What a buyer changes first The photographs. **All four image blocks include example photographs**; choose Replace to select an image from your media library, and the square crop is already set. The captions are the second thing. They are set in caps at 13px with 0.2em tracking, which is a glanced label rather than a read line, so keep each one under about 30 characters or it stops being incidental type. If the mat feels too wide or too tight for the pictures, change the plate group's padding preset: `spacing|30` for a narrower mat, `spacing|50` for a gallery wall. The rule is `currentColor`, so it needs no change in any theme; if you want it heavier, raise the width in two places, in the block's settings and in the `style=`, or the block stops matching itself. ## Variations - **Filled mats** (`quartet-filled`): the mat becomes solid instead of ruled. Each plate takes a `contrast` chain as its ground and a `base` chain as its caption type, and the border is dropped entirely. The four frames, the `spacing|40` mat, the square crops and the grid are identical; only the mat's treatment changes, which is one axis. The photographs now sit on dark card, which suits a set that is mostly light, and the section reads heavier without reading louder. - **Cobalt and chalk** (`cobalt-and-chalk`). States a chalk ground, cobalt frame rules and Avenir Next for the opening and print captions. ## 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](/image-credits/) for the sources and licenses. Pasting an image URL does not import a Media Library attachment.