Gutenberg 24.1 is out. The Gutenberg plugin is where new WordPress editor features are tested before they reach core. According to the release notes, this version is about consistency in design tools, with about 140 pull requests behind it.

The same styling options on more blocks

Until now, a block might let you change a background but not a border, while a similar block did the opposite. Version 24.1 closes many of those gaps.

Background image, size and gradient, shadow, borders, link colors, heading and button colors, typography, and text columns now reach almost every core block. Accordion, Tabs, Comments, and Post blocks all get the same set of background and color tools.

Some blocks get specific additions:

  • Group, Post Author Biography, and Terms List blocks gain column support.
  • Tabs and Tab Panel blocks gain typography controls.

Text shadow gets its own panel

Text shadow was first introduced in Gutenberg 23.5. It is now fully supported by theme.json, the file that holds a block theme’s design settings. It also has its own panel in Global Styles, where you set design rules for your whole site. The Paragraph and Heading blocks can use it.

Easier media picking

The Cover and Media & Text blocks now let you choose and manage media from the block’s sidebar. The Image and Site Logo blocks already worked this way, so you no longer need to hunt for controls on the canvas.

Smaller changes worth knowing

  • Start page patterns can be filtered by category and searched.
  • The Add Template window shows each template’s description.
  • Wide and full alignments that a block can’t use now show as unavailable instead of vanishing.
  • Position settings can be set per viewport, meaning per screen size.
  • The last 238 icons in the editor’s icon redraw are now converted to strokes.

What to do

Gutenberg ships as a plugin first, and its features usually reach WordPress core in a later release. If you want to try these tools now, install the plugin on a staging site, not your live one. Otherwise, no action is needed.

This follows Gutenberg 24.0, which added a Gallery grid layout two weeks ago.

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