Work on WordPress 6.4 is kicking off with a post from Editor Triage Co-Lead Anne McCarthy that highlights everything the team has planned for the release. This will be the third major release of 2023, and is unique in that it’s being led by an underrepresented gender release squad.
Although WordPress is moving into Phase 3 of the Gutenberg project, which focuses on collaboration, 6.4 will primarily extend existing features in the block and site editors.
“Initial explorations for phase 3 will continue in the Gutenberg plugin, and any early wins will be added alongside the foundational work already planned in this major release,” McCarthy said.
WordPress 6.4 is anticipated to introduce typography management features, including a Font Library and server-side @font-face CSS generation and printing. This means users will be able to browse a library of fonts in the admin, similar to how they manage media. It will not be dependent on the theme that is activated but will be a library that is extensible for plugin developers.
Other new functionality planned for 6.4 includes the following:
- Revisions for templates and template parts
- New blocks: Table of Contents, Time to Read, and Scrolling Marquee
- Lightbox functionality for individual image blocks
- Auto-insert blocks
- Post formats in block themes
- Improvements to the writing experience and link control UI
- Updates to interfaces and tools – top toolbar, distraction-free, command palette, list view, and more
- Refinements and enhancements to Site Editing, Global Styles, and design tools
- Updates to Patterns: add the ability to set categories, update inserter experience, explore possibly including partially synced patterns
- Improvements to navigation customization and management
- Expand design tools available for Footnotes, ensure compatibility for Custom Post Types
WordPress 6.4 will also ship with a new Twenty Twenty-Four default theme that will showcase the latest capabilities of block themes.
McCarthy emphasized that the features published in the roadmap are “being actively pursued” but may not represent what actually lands in the final release.
WordPress 6.4 is anticipated to be released on November 7, 2023, with Beta 1 expected on September 26.
