Gutenberg Times: WordPress 6.9 is coming, moar plugins, Query block and fonts—Weekend Edition 342

Hi there,

I send you greetings from Gdynia, a polish port city on the East Sea, with some pirate roots, maybe. My only clues are pirate theme of the WordCamp Gdynia, with the Wapuu, the harbor cruise on a pirate ship, and the branding assets of the WordCamp. For one of my slides, I had Gemini create a background image to celebrate the Site Editor the pirate way.

Enjoy the weekend edition and have a fantastic weekend!

Yours,
Birgit

Table of Contents

WordPress 6.9 is coming into focus.

I almost missed it; Anne McCarthy commented on the Roadmap post that some priorities changed for WordPress 6.9:

• “Added in a “New blocks” section under “Refining Content Creation” after there’s been a shift in momentum there.
• Removed “An initial experimental version is planned in the Gutenberg plugin, where contributors can opt-in and offer feedback” under “New WordPress Admin experience” as that’s no longer planned based on the current state of work.”

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McCarthy is also Exploring work in progress for WordPress 6.9 v2 on her personal blog. You’ll find videos and links to all the pertinent information. It’s a lot; you probably have to be selective to digest it all. She updates us all about:

• Ability to hide blocks: The first version will just be a hide/show menu item. Don’t get rid of the Block Visibility plugin just yet.
• Command Palette everywhere: It is already available in GB 21.5. Additional work is done on the back end to solidify the API.
• Block commenting has received a myriad of updates, and the UI is still refined.
• New block: summarizes work around already merged Accordion and Post Term query blocks and work on the way for the Page breakcrumbs, Icons, Stretchy, Tabs, Time to read, and Table of Contents blocks.
• Simplified site editing: Two different experiments are pursued, one more Write/Design mode and the other is a Pattern ContentOnly idea. Videos and more details are in the post.
• Expanded template management: work around duplicate templates, switch which one’s active, disable theme templates & keep your custom ones, and use the new “Active templates” view.
• Various dev updates—standardized UTF-8 support, Abilities API, Interactivity API, Block bindings.

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Jamie Marsland gave a sneak peak on WordPress 6.9 in 250 seconds and covers Block-level commenting, improved template management and portability across themes, block hiding, and more powerful editing controls.

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Last month, Justin Tadlock already published a tutorial on how to register custom social icons in WordPress 6.9 on the WordPress Developer Blog. With the new WordPress version to be released on December 2, 2025, developers will be able to create block variations using JavaScript for editor registration and filter the block_core_social_link_get_services hook for frontend display. The tutorial demonstrates building a plugin that adds Ko-fi, IMDB, Letterboxd, Signal, and YouTube Music icons, including proper brand color styling for both logos-only and standard variations, making social media integration more flexible and customizable.

Plugins, Themes, and Tools for #nocode site builders and owners

During their latest WPCafe #128 show, Keith Devon and Mark Wilkinson of Highrise Digital shared how they use the block editor to support their sales effort.

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Ajit Bohra, Lubus, released the BlaBlaBlocks Formats plugin that adds custom RichText formats, like highlights and tooltips, to your WordPress site. You can review the documentation on GitHub.

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Justin Tadlock, developer advocate at Automattic, announced the release of a new Breadcrumbs Block plugin version. It now supports the built-in Layout and Block Gap (Spacing) features, and developers can extend the block with custom code. Checkout the Changelog notes for information on styling this block in your themes.

Troy Chaplin updated his Block Accessibility Checks plugin. Version 2.1 brings a mix of accessibility improvements, developer-focused enhancements, and a much cleaner user experience. Chaplin recorded a short demo video walking through the plugin in action, including validation of both core and custom blocks right in the editor, as well as a tour of the brand-new settings page. A demo of version 2.1 of the Block Accessibility Checks plugin for WordPress

Theme Development for Full Site Editing and Blocks

Mitch Canter just wrapped up an awesome online workshop for the WordPress training team on Mastering the Query Loop block in WordPress. The recording is now up for you to check out! You’ll dive into how the Query Loop block works and turn it from something that seems super complicated into your new best friend for creating dynamic and eye-catching content. You’ll discover how to tell WordPress exactly what content to grab and how to make it look good… all without having to write a single line of code.

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Bud Kraus looked into variable fonts in WordPress themes, explaining how these fonts can hold different weights and styles all in one file, making them faster than regular web fonts. With the update in WordPress 6.1 that adds theme.json support, variable fonts can load quicker, offer more design options with custom weights, and adjust nicely for different screen sizes. Kraus shows how to use fonts like Vollkorn in child themes, create simple plugins for controlling weights, and add fonts through the Font Library, highlighting how variable fonts are both efficient and versatile in design.

“Keeping up with Gutenberg – Index 2025”
A chronological list of the WordPress Make Blog posts from various teams involved in Gutenberg development: Design, Theme Review Team, Core Editor, Core JS, Core CSS, Test, and Meta team from Jan. 2024 on. Updated by yours truly. The previous years are also available: 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

Building Blocks and Tools for the Block editor.

In his post, Telex Turns Everyone into a WordPress Block Developer, Nick Diego explores Telex, Automattic’s experimental AI tool that converts natural language prompts into functional WordPress blocks. Unlike traditional block development requiring React, JavaScript, and PHP expertise, Telex democratizes the process for site owners, agencies, and developers. Users simply describe desired functionality, and Telex generates working blocks within minutes using WordPress Playground. The tool supports iterative refinement through follow-up prompts or direct code editing, making WordPress block creation accessible to everyone regardless of technical background.

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You can also review the discussion on Reddit r/WordPress space: Did you try WordPress Telex? it’s awesome!

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Ryan Welcher continues his Blockdevelopment Cook Book series on YouTube with Customizing the WordPress Build Process Made Easy! He explained how to customize the @wordpress/scripts build process to bundle a plugin with a single custom block, a JavaScript file that registers a block variation, and a CSS file to style it. “We’ll keep things neat by organizing the block code in a blocks directory and the JS/CSS in a resources directory—a clean and tasty setup for your project! ” he wrote.

Need a plugin .zip from Gutenberg’s master branch?
Gutenberg Times provides daily build for testing and review.

Now also available via WordPress Playground. There is no need for a test site locally or on a server. Have you been using it? Email me with your experience

Questions? Suggestions? Ideas?
Don’t hesitate to send them via email or
send me a message on WordPress Slack or Twitter @bph.

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For questions to be answered on the Gutenberg Changelog,
send them to [email protected]

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