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Prime DirectionBundle

Homepage Cover

The cover is the first block on the homepage. Wire ships four covers: one built from a page you write yourself, and three built from posts you mark as featured.

Customization Steps#

  1. Navigate to ⛭ Settings → Design
  2. Click Customize
  3. Click Theme
  4. Scroll to the Homepage section
  5. Select a Homepage cover
  6. Click Save

Available Covers#

CoverLayoutContent it uses
Hero (default)Your own headline, text and call to actionThe page with the slug home-hero
SliderCarousel, one post per slideUp to 12 featured posts
BillboardOne large post with a column of four smaller ones beside it5 featured posts
CinematicA single post across the full width, over its feature image1 featured post

Hero#

The Hero cover does not use posts at all. It is built from a page with the slug home-hero, so you control the headline, the supporting text, the background image and the call to action from the Ghost editor. See Hero for the full setup.

If that page does not exist, the hero falls back to your publication title and description.

Slider#

Shows up to 12 featured posts, newest first, one per slide. Each slide uses the post's feature image as the background, with the title and the excerpt on top. Readers move through the slides with the carousel controls.

Billboard#

Uses the five newest featured posts. The first one is the lead: feature image, title, excerpt and author. The next four sit beside it as compact items with a thumbnail, title, author and date.

With fewer than five featured posts, the side column simply shows however many are left. With only one featured post, you get the lead on its own.

Cinematic#

Uses the single newest featured post. The title, excerpt and date sit over the post's feature image, which fills the width of the screen, followed by an Open story button that links to the post.

Featuring Posts#

The Slider, Billboard and Cinematic covers only show posts that are marked as featured in Ghost.

  1. Open the post in the editor
  2. Open Post settings
  3. Turn on Featured
  4. Click Publish or Update

Featured posts are used newest first, so the most recently published featured post always leads the cover.

If nothing is marked as featured, the Slider, Billboard and Cinematic covers render nothing at all and the homepage opens with the tag carousel instead. The Hero cover is the only one that always has something to show.

Every cover uses the post's Excerpt from Post settings. When that field is empty, Ghost generates a short excerpt from the beginning of the post.

Related#

  • Hero — the page behind the Hero cover
  • Tag carousel — the section directly below the cover