Steps cover stair, Pattern Paste Canonical: https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-cover-stair.html Library (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) How it works (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/steps/) Catalogue access Standard # Steps cover stair A full-bleed cover with a heavy veil of your theme's contrast colour over the photograph, a display headline at the top left and three numbered steps set as a stair: each step a huge numeral, a short title and one line under a hairline rule, every column starting lower than the one before, so the steps descend down and to the right across the photograph. On a phone they stack in order and the stair flattens. 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. The signature moment ## The steps descend the photograph Each step is a huge numeral, a short title and one line, hung from a hairline rule. The three columns share a row but not a top: the second starts about a step lower than the first, the third lower again, so the rules and numerals read as a stair going down and to the right beneath the headline. The process moves forward and the eye moves down with it. It is composition alone, so it holds in greyscale. On a phone the columns stack in order and the stair flattens into a ruled list. Theme handoff ## What comes from where ### Theme and pattern Inherits: every colour (veil contrast, type and rules base), the typeface, the spacing scale. Decides: the veil's opacity, the type ramp, the headline measure and the depth of each step. The cover states its own text colour chain so core's :where() rule that paints cover text #fff never applies. 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 full-bleed core/cover that carries a three-step process: a heavy veil of your theme's contrast colour over the photograph, a display headline at the top left, and three numbered steps set on a descending diagonal across the rest of the cover. ### The signature moment: the steps descend the photograph Each step is a huge numeral, a short title and one line, hung from a hairline rule. The three columns share a row but not a top: the second starts about a step lower than the first, the third lower again, so the rules and numerals read as a stair going down and to the right beneath the headline. The process moves forward and the eye moves down with it. It is composition alone, so it holds in greyscale. On a phone the columns stack in order and the stair flattens into a ruled list. Make it yoursVariations and the edits to make first ### Variations - Paper veil: the veil is base at 80% and every word and rule contrast, the photograph a pale ghost behind ink. Theme behaviourInheritance, fixed decisions and contrast ### What it inherits, what it decides Inherits: every colour (veil contrast, type and rules base), the typeface, the spacing scale. Decides: the veil's opacity, the type ramp, the headline measure and the depth of each step. The cover states its own text colour chain so core's :where() rule that paints cover text #fff never applies. Technical notesBlock mechanics, responsive behaviour and constraints ### Type on the photograph Type sits on the image only because the veil makes the ground a known quantity: contrast at dimRatio 80 under base type. The one-line descriptions are body size, so they need the full 4.5:1, not the 3:1 allowed to large display type; the checker composites the veil over a white and a black photograph and the worse ground has to pass. Lower the veil below 80 and that stops being true. ### Type and hierarchy - The headline is display: a bare clamp(2.75rem, 6.5vw, 8.5rem), off the theme's ladder, because its size is the composition; at 1920 it is 136px, held to a measure of clamp(18rem, 52vw, 56rem). - The numerals are paragraphs at a bare clamp(4.5rem, 10vw, 11rem), line height 0.9: display marks, not headings. - Step titles are h3 at a bare clamp(1.5rem, 2.2vw, 2.5rem), off the ladder, so they hold their own against the numerals and never read as captions; the lines under them are body copy on medium, held to a 26rem measure, one line wherever the column allows it; "How it works" is a label with its own clamp() floored at 15px. - Hierarchy comes from size and the rules alone: nothing is set in capitals. - Every heading states its size and colour chain and nothing else. ### Layout - The cover keeps its default layout and position; its height comes from its content, never vh. - The steps are a core/columns row aligned to the top on the row and on every column. The stair is each column's padding-top: min(clamp(3rem, 8vw, 10rem), max(0rem, calc((100vw - 782px) * 100))) on the second and twice that on the third. Below 782px, where core stacks columns, the second term is zero and the offsets vanish. - Every gap is a spacing preset. Rules are currentColor, so they are always the colour of the type. ### What a buyer changes first The photograph: choose Replace on the cover. Then the headline and the three steps, each title about three words and each line under ten. ### The hand-off row A short row on your theme's paper under the cover, a label and one paragraph at a 34rem measure, so the cover reads as a section and shows where it ends. ### Included images The copied markup includes a WordPress Photo Directory example photograph. The public image URL keeps the example visible after pasting. Select the cover and choose Replace to use your own Media Library file. See image credits (https://patternpaste.com/image-credits/) for the source and license. Pasting an image URL does not import a Media Library attachment. 12KB of core-block markup, 6 blocks (column, columns, cover, group, heading, paragraph), and nothing else: paste it into the block editor and it becomes editable blocks wearing your theme. Start free trial to copy (https://patternpaste.com/account/#plan) What you copy is yours forever. Cancel whenever. Back to the library (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/) Catalogue access ### £70 a year Save £50 Or £10 a month All patterns, variations and theme downloads. What you copy is yours forever. Cancel whenever. Start with three days of full access on sign-up, no card. Start free trial (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. Cancel any time; access runs to the end of the period you have paid for, and there is no pro-rata refund. 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 Features Feature alternating Four feature rows, each a 4:3 frame set against its copy, with the seam flipping side to side down the page. The hairline that closes each row runs only under the text half, so the rule changes sides with the picture and the section never squares up on one edge. Example images are included and can be replaced in the editor. States no colour and no font of its own. (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/feature-alternating.html)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)Timeline Timeline ahead A timeline that runs forward: six dated entries hung on one continuous currentColor hairline, three of them behind and three still to come, with the current entry set on an inverted plate so the reader can see at a glance where the work stands. The entries ahead carry the same rule and shorter copy, so the section visibly thins out toward the future. It is a history with an open end rather than a process: nothing is numbered and nothing asks the reader to act. States no colour and no font of its own. (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/timeline-ahead.html) #### Before you paste Requires a block theme on WordPress 6.7 to 7.0. 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/). #### What's inside Blocks column, columns, cover, group, heading, paragraph Core only yes Chains 34, deepest 3 rungs currentColor yes color base, black, contrast, role-label, white spacing 20, 30, 50, 60, 70 font-size medium Continue exploring ## Next in How it works Explore all 5 How it works patterns (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/steps/)Also in Cover (https://patternpaste.com/patterns/cover/) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five How it works How it works Standard ### Steps cards Four photographic process cards with level tops and descending feet. 4 blocks · 1 variation Open preview (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-cards.html) Ruled stair (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-cards.html#variant=stair-ruled) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five How it works How it works Standard ### Steps ledger A process set as a printed schedule: a ruled column-head row (No., Stage, What happens) and then five full-width rows, each one a display numeral, a title and a short description in three columns, hairlines in currentColor between them and a closing rule under the last. 5 blocks · 1 variation Open preview (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-ledger.html) Night schedule (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-ledger.html#variant=night-schedule) Shot in Twenty Twenty-Five How it works How it works Standard ### Steps run A process as one horizontal run: three display numerals across the band, each over a short title and a packed line of copy, with a single hairline threading the gaps between the numerals at numeral height so the row reads as a sequence rather than as three separate cards. 6 blocks · 1 variation Open preview (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-run.html) Night run (https://patternpaste.com/pattern/steps-run.html#variant=night-run)