Glossary
Plain-English definitions for every term these docs use.
A
Ajax — fetching content from the server without reloading the page. It's how Ajax Pagination loads more images and how filtering re-pages a gallery.
Alt text — a short written description of an image, read out by screen readers and shown if the image fails to load. Editable per gallery in the Edit Gallery modal.
Attachment — WordPress's word for a file in your Media Library.
B
Block — a ready-made piece of content you drop onto a page in the WordPress editor. Shaped Gallery ships exactly one: the gallery block.
Block editor — WordPress's standard editor (often called Gutenberg), where pages are built from blocks.
Breakpoint — a screen width at which the layout changes. Shaped Gallery's responsive controls have three: desktop, tablet, phone.
C
Category — a label you attach to images within one gallery, so visitors can filter by it. Not a WordPress taxonomy, and not shared between galleries. More →
Classic — the content display style that puts titles and descriptions below the image, as opposed to Overlay.
Click action — what happens when a visitor clicks a tile: open the lightbox, follow a custom URL, or nothing.
D
Derivative — a generated copy of an image. Watermarking works by creating derivatives with the mark composited in, and serving those instead of your originals.
Duotone — a two-colour treatment of a photograph. Part of the per-state Image Filter controls in Image & Video Settings.
E
External media — images or videos hosted somewhere other than your Media Library, added to a gallery by URL. More →
G
Gallery — a set of media items plus the settings that decide how they're shown. It can live on a page (as a block) or on its own (as a reusable gallery).
I
Infinity Load — the pagination mode that fetches the next batch automatically as the visitor scrolls, instead of waiting for a click.
Inspector — the settings sidebar on the right of the block editor, visible whenever a block is selected. Where nearly every gallery setting lives. Full reference →
Item — one entry in a gallery: an image, a video, or an embed.
J
Justified — the layout that balances image widths so every row fills the container at a shared height.
L
Layout — which of the seven arrangements a gallery uses. It's a setting on the block, not a separate block. More →
Lazy load — deferring an image's download until the visitor scrolls toward it. More →
Lightbox — the full-screen viewer that opens when a visitor clicks an image. More →
M
Masonry — the layout that packs images into columns of uneven height with no vertical gaps.
Media Library — WordPress's store of uploaded files, under Media in the admin menu.
Metro — the mosaic layout built around oversized featured tiles.
Module — a large feature that can be switched on or off for the whole site, under Settings → Modules. There are six. More →
O
Overlay — the content display style that puts titles and descriptions on top of the image, as opposed to Classic.
P
Pagination — showing a gallery a page at a time rather than all at once. More →
Perspective Scrolling — the 3D marquee layout.
Pattern — a ready-made gallery design you can import from the Ready Patterns library.
Post type — WordPress's word for a kind of content. Reusable galleries are stored in a hidden post type called shaped_gallery.
R
Ready Patterns — the in-editor library of pre-built gallery designs. More →
Rendered on the server — the gallery's HTML is built in PHP and arrives with the page, rather than being assembled by JavaScript afterwards.
Resolution — which registered WordPress image size a gallery serves: Thumbnail, Medium, Large or Full. Also caps which responsive candidates the browser may pick. More →
Responsive — adapting to screen size. Most Shaped Gallery size controls carry separate desktop, tablet and phone values. More →
Retina — a high-density display, where the browser can use a sharper file for the same on-screen size. Controlled by Settings → Advanced Controls → Retina Images.
Reusable gallery — a gallery stored on its own with a permanent shortcode, so it can be placed in several pages at once. More →
S
Shortcode — a short piece of text in square brackets, like [shaped_gallery id="42"], that WordPress swaps for real content on the page. More →
Staggered — the layout with alternating offset columns.
T
Thumbnails — the layout with one main image and a synced strip of small ones. Also, the small images themselves.
Tile — one item as rendered in a gallery: the image (or video) plus anything drawn on or under it.
Transient — a WordPress cache entry with an expiry. Most of the plugin's caching uses these. More →
W
Watermark — a mark composited into copies of your images. More →