WordPress 5.3 introduces WordPress’ most refined user experience with the improved block editor

With the release of WordPress 5.3 the software sees expansion and refinement of the block editor introduced in WordPress 5.0 with new blocks, more intuitive interactions and improved accessibility. New features in the editor increase design freedoms and provide additional layout options and style variations to allow designers complete control over the look of a site.

This release also introduces the Twenty Twenty theme giving the user more design flexibility and integration with the block editor. Creating beautiful web pages and advanced layouts have never been easier.

The news from WordPress

Block editor improvements

This enhancement focused update introduces over 150 new features and usability improvements, including improved large image support for uploading non-optimised, high resolution pictures taken from your smartphone or other high quality cameras. Combined with larger default image sizes, pictures always look their best.

Accessibility improvements include the integration of block editor styles in the admin interface. These improved styles fix many accessibility issues: colour contrast on form fields and buttons, consistency between editor and admin interfaces, new snackbar notices, standardising to the default WordPress colour scheme and the introduction of Motion to make interacting with your blocks feel swift and natural. For people who use a keyboard to navigate the dashboard, the block editor now has a navigation mode. This lets you jump from block to block without tabbing through every part of the block controls.

Expanded design flexibility

WordPress 5.3 adds even more robust tools for creating amazing designs.

• The new group block lets you easily divide your page into colourful sections
• The columns block now supports fixed column widths
• The new predefined layouts make it a cinch to arrange content into advanced designs
• Heading blocks now offer controls for text colour
• Additional style options allow you to set your preferred style for any block that supports this feature

Introducing Twenty Twenty

As the block editor celebrates its first birthday, we are proud that Twenty Twenty is designed with flexibility at its core. Show off your services or products with a combination of columns, groups and media blocks. Set your content to wide or full alignment for dynamic and engaging layouts. Or let your thoughts be the star with a centred content column!

As befits a theme called Twenty Twenty, clarity and readability is also a big focus. The theme includes the typeface Inter, designed by Rasmus Andersson. Inter comes in a variable font version, a first for default themes, which keeps load times short by containing all weights and styles of Inter in just two font files.