Half and half: WordPress Block Pattern, Pattern Paste Canonical: https://patternpaste.com/pattern/half-and-half.html Core Patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) Gallery (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/gallery/) Catalogue access Standard # Half and half A fifty-fifty split in which one frame equals four: a single square on the left and a two-by-two of four squares on the right, at a tight gutter, so the two halves occupy the same rectangle. A tracked caps label and one short line sit above the pair. Includes replaceable example images. ## All patterns Search patterns Loading patterns… The signature moment ## One frame against four, at the same area The design is an equation. One aspectRatio: "1" frame at 50% of the measure and a 2x2 of aspectRatio: "1" frames at the same 50% occupy the identical rectangle, so what the section shows is not two galleries side by side but the same space spent once and spent four times. Nothing else is doing any work: there is no rule, no tint, no border and no caption on the images. Theme handoff ## What comes from where ### Theme and pattern Inherits: every colour (the band is a base chain, its type a contrast chain, and nothing else in the pattern is coloured at all), the typeface, and the spacing scale for the band's own air (spacing|80 top and bottom, spacing|60 between the intro and the pair, spacing|30 inside the intro). Decides: the 1240px measure and the clamp gutters, the 50/50 split, the 1:1 crop on all five frames, the 2rem outer gap and the 0.5rem inner gutter, which are literal lengths rather than presets because the equation depends on the two being equal to each other and a preset is a different number in every theme, the 34rem measure the intro is held to, and the type proportion: a 13px tracked caps label against a 15px to 17px line at 1.55. 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 band split down the middle. The left half is one square photograph running the full half-width; the right half is four square photographs in a two-by-two at a tight gutter. Both halves are the same rectangle, so the section is a single square divided two different ways. A 13px tracked caps label and one short line sit above the pair, on the band's own ground; nothing a visitor reads goes anywhere near a photograph. ### The signature moment: one frame against four, at the same area The design is an equation. One aspectRatio: "1" frame at 50% of the measure and a 2x2 of aspectRatio: "1" frames at the same 50% occupy the identical rectangle, so what the section shows is not two galleries side by side but the same space spent once and spent four times. Nothing else is doing any work: there is no rule, no tint, no border and no caption on the images. The numbers, at the 1240px measure. The outer core/columns carries a blockGap of 2rem, and neither column states a width, so each is (1240 - 32) / 2 = 604px. The left frame is 1:1, so it is 604px tall. The right half is where the arithmetic has to be watched. A true quarter of 604px would be 302px, and four of those at any gutter at all would overflow the half. Core does not overflow it: each nested column is flex-basis: 0; flex-grow: 1, so the two squares in a row share 604 - 8 = 596px and are 298px, not 302px. Each square is therefore 4px short of a true quarter, and a naive 2x2 built from true quarters plus an 8px gutter would be 612px tall against a 604px neighbour, 8px out. The gutter is what closes it, and it closes it exactly. The vertical gap between the two rows is the same 0.5rem (8px) as the gutter between the columns, stated as margin-bottom on the first row rather than left to a block gap. So the 2x2 is 298 + 8 + 298 = 604px tall against a 604px left frame. The residual is 0px at 1240px, and it is zero at every width, not by luck: a 2x2 of squares whose row gap equals its column gutter is 2w + g wide and 2w + g tall, which is the same number. The one way to reopen the mismatch is to give the rows a different vertical gap from the horizontal one: a 1rem row gap against a 0.5rem gutter puts the 2x2 8px below the single frame's bottom edge. That figure is arithmetic on core's own flex behaviour, not a reading taken off a render in this pass. Two things could move it on a buyer's site and both are guarded here: a theme's own .wp-block-columns margin, which is why both nested rows state margin-top and margin-bottom inline, and sub-pixel rounding at a measure that does not divide evenly, which can leave the two halves half a pixel apart and is invisible. It survives colourlessness because it is pure proportion. There is no colour in the device at all: take the palette away and the left square and the right 2x2 still occupy the same rectangle, because that is a fact about widths and gutters rather than about hue. The band's ground is a base chain, its type a contrast chain, and neither carries any part of the idea. Make it yoursVariations and the edits to make first ### Variations - Swapped halves: the single frame moves to the right and the 2x2 to the left, and the label and the line move with it to the right edge (the intro group's justifyContent becomes right and both paragraphs take align: "right"). Same five frames, same 1:1 crops, same gaps, same chains; the composition is the only thing that moves, which is what makes it a variation rather than a second pattern. At 390px it stacks in its own order, four then one, so the phone reading mirrors the desktop one there too. Theme behaviourInheritance, fixed decisions and contrast ### What it inherits, what it decides Inherits: every colour (the band is a base chain, its type a contrast chain, and nothing else in the pattern is coloured at all), the typeface, and the spacing scale for the band's own air (spacing|80 top and bottom, spacing|60 between the intro and the pair, spacing|30 inside the intro). Decides: the 1240px measure and the clamp gutters, the 50/50 split, the 1:1 crop on all five frames, the 2rem outer gap and the 0.5rem inner gutter, which are literal lengths rather than presets because the equation depends on the two being equal to each other and a preset is a different number in every theme, the 34rem measure the intro is held to, and the type proportion: a 13px tracked caps label against a 15px to 17px line at 1.55. Technical notesBlock mechanics, responsive behaviour and constraints ### What happens at 390px The outer core/columns stacks, as core does below 782px, and the two halves become two full-width objects: the single frame first, at the full column width, and the 2x2 beneath it, also at the full column width. The 2x2 does not stack with it. Both nested rows carry isStackedOnMobile: false, which serialises to is-not-stacked-on-mobile, the class core's own .wp-block-columns:not(.is-not-stacked-on-mobile) > .wp-block-column {flex-basis: 100% !important} rule is testing at 0-3-0. Without that attribute the four would collapse into a single column and the section would be five photographs in a row down the page, which is any gallery. So the equation survives as one-then-four in a column: one big square, then four small ones in a block of the same width. At a 350px content width each small square is (350 - 8) / 2 = 171px, so the four together are still the same square as the one above them, and the reading is unchanged; only the direction of the comparison turns from across to down. ### What a buyer changes first The photographs. All five image blocks include example photographs; choose Replace to select an image from your media library, and the 1:1 crop and object-fit: cover are already set, so nothing distorts whatever shape the upload is. Which photograph goes on the left is the second decision and the one that matters, because the single frame is four times the area of any of the other four. Put the one picture the section is about there and let the four be detail, texture or sequence. The label reads best under about 24 characters and the line under about 80, since the intro is held to a 34rem measure. If you want the pair to sit tighter or looser as a whole, change the outer 2rem gap; if you change the 0.5rem inner gutter, change it in three places, on both nested rows' blockGap and on the first row's margin-bottom, or the two halves stop finishing level. ### 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 ## Half and half: common questions Does Half and half 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 Half and half 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 Half and half have? 2: One and four and Swapped halves. 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 Half and half free? It is included with a subscription, with every Core Pattern and variation. 62 Core Patterns are free to copy without one. 5.5KB 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 ### Gallery thank-you tile A thank-you gallery where the words take one photograph's place: a six-cell grid of 4:5 frames with short captions, the second cell an inverted tile of the same size holding a short thank-you heading, three lines and two links, to the full album and to add your own. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/gallery-thank-you-tile.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Index strip A carousel standing still: one wide 3:2 lead frame at the full measure, a tracked label and a position counter under it, and a strip of five square thumbnails at equal width, the first one marked as current by a hairline rule beneath it. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/index-strip.html) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five Gallery No plugin needed ### Lead and rail One wide 16:9 lead frame with a vertical rail of three square thumbnails beside it, tuned so the rail finishes level with the bottom of the lead, and a two-part caption row under the pair. Gallery Preview pattern (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/lead-and-rail.html)