What should site owners know before WordPress 6.5 arrives? WPwatercooler made me the episode’s expert for episode 478. I called 6.5 the biggest release in my mind since blocks, or at least since block themes, and walked the panel through it screen by screen. I described each screen aloud for listeners who can’t see the video.
🎙️ Episode details
- Show: WPwatercooler, episode 478, “6.5: It’s Alive! (Almost)”
- Panel: Jason Tuckercolleague, Sé Reedcolleague and Jason Cosperacquaintance
- Guest: me, Courtney Robertson, then a developer advocate at GoDaddy
- Date: March 15, 2024
- Topics: the WordPress 6.5 Font Library, patterns and templates, classic theme tools, and post formats
- Show notes: WPwatercooler episode 478, with links and a transcript
🔤 The WordPress 6.5 Font Library, finally
First, the Font Library needs a block theme. You can reach it two ways: Appearance, then Manage fonts in the dashboard, or the Site Editor’s Styles panel, under Typography. From there you can pull in Google Fonts or upload your own.
🧩 WordPress 6.5 patterns, templates and classic themes
Next, you could view patterns as a list or a table. The three dot menu on a pattern lets you duplicate and rename it, and the same works for templates.
Meanwhile, classic themes gained opt in support for some block theme design tools. You could add a border around a Group block of paragraphs, or a drop shadow on buttons, without switching themes.
The site icon also moved to Settings, General for every theme. Block theme users no longer had to dig through the site logo block to change the tiny icon in the browser tab.
📝 The post formats aside
However, the release punted post formats again. I said I loved how the Twenty Thirteen theme supported them 11 years earlier, and that I wanted a modern block version, which I was building myself because I wanted to and could.
🧪 What can you take from WordPress 6.5?
- Site owners: try the Font Library on staging and pick fonts you can host locally.
- Classic theme developers: check which block design tools your theme can now opt into.
- Agencies: decide which new controls clients should see before 6.5 lands.
🔭 Update, November 2026
I later released Post Formats for Block Themes, my first WordPress plugin in 11 years, in December 2025.
Also, more conversations like this one live in my podcast and speaking archive.
🗓️ Archival note
WPwatercooler’s episode page is dated March 15, 2024; a podcast directory lists March 28. Then I added this post on November 9, 2026, from the show notes and the publisher’s automated transcript. However, I reviewed the transcript, not the recording.