Layout styles

The four styles

Style	Best for
Grid	Even rows of cards. Images are cropped to the Image shape you choose so every row lines up.
Masonry	Photo-heavy posts. Every image keeps its own proportions and cards pack into columns, Pinterest-style.
List	News and blogs. The image sits beside the text — as a thumbnail on the left, or large with the text on the left. One or two rows across.
Slider	Featured posts. One card at a time with arrows and dots; Pro adds carousels and effects. See Sliders and carousels.

Layout settings

Setting	What it does
Columns	1 to 6. On tablets the grid drops to 2 columns and on phones to 1. With Pro you set the tablet and phone columns yourself.
Gap	Space between cards, 0–80 px.
Corner radius	Rounded corners on cards and images, 0–40 px. 0 gives square corners.
Image shape	Original proportions, Square 1:1, Standard 4:3, Photo 3:2, Wide 16:9, Cinematic 21:9, Portrait 3:4 or Tall 2:3. Images are cropped from the centre to fit.
Max width	Caps the display’s width and centres it. 0 fills the space it is placed in.
Image	Show images, or No images for text-only cards.
No featured image?	What a card shows when a post has no featured image: the site setting, the first image found in the post, a placeholder (the first letter of the title on a purple tile), or a text-only card.
Click opens	The post or page, the post in a new tab, or nothing.
Image position / Rows across	List style only — see above.

The first image in the post

When a post has no featured image and the display (or the site setting under Settings → Images) says to use the first image in the content, Content Layouts looks in this order: images in the post content (block or classic editor, galleries), images in an Elementor design, the real image behind a lazy-load placeholder, images uploaded while editing that post, and finally images that only appear once shortcodes run. The answer is remembered until the post is next edited, so it costs nothing on later page views.

Copy the look of another display

Copy the look of at the top of the Layout section takes another display’s layout, card text and visitor controls — never its items — so a set of displays can share one style. Click Save display to keep it.

Pro: card styles and colours

Next: Card text