A picture on a page is usually just a picture.
The Advanced Image block adds the things people normally reach for a second plugin to get: a lightbox, a shaped mask, a reveal on scroll, a hover scroll and a parallax drift.
Before You Start
- Edition: Freemium — the Advanced Image block is in the free plugin, and some of its effects need Nexter Blocks Pro.
- Block to enable: Advanced Image, switched on under Nexter > Blocks in your WordPress dashboard.
- Your image in the Media Library, at a size large enough for where it will sit.
Steps
- Add the Advanced Image block to your page and click Design from Scratch.
- In the Content panel, upload or choose your image, then set Image Size and Alignment.
- Open Special Options and switch on the effect you want. They can be combined.
- Publish and check the page — several of these effects only show once the page scrolls or the visitor hovers.
What Each Panel Controls
| Panel | What you set there |
|---|---|
| Content | The image, its link, alignment, maximum width, float and image size |
| Caption | A caption under the image |
| Special Options | The five effects — reveal, hover scroll, mask, parallax and lightbox |
The Five Effects, and What They Need
| Effect | What it does | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Scroll Reveal Image | A coloured panel sweeps off the image as it comes into view | Pro |
| Scrolling Image | A tall image travels inside a fixed box while hovered | Pro |
| Mask Image Shape | The image is cut to the shape of another image | Free |
| Scroll Parallax | The image drifts as the page scrolls | Pro |
| FancyBox | Clicking opens the full-size image in a lightbox | Free |
The free plugin shows these toggles too, with no Pro marker. Scroll Reveal Image, Scrolling Image, Scroll Parallax and Enable Caption all appear in the free editor and simply do nothing on the published page — measured by rendering the same block with Pro active and deactivated.
How It Behaves
- Image Size is honoured — choosing Large served the 1024px file rather than the original.
- FancyBox always opens the full-size image, whatever size you display, so the lightbox stays sharp.
- A URL beats the lightbox. With both a link and FancyBox set, the image became an ordinary link and clicking it navigated away — the lightbox never opened. Use one or the other.
- The effects can otherwise be combined. FancyBox and Scroll Parallax together both worked, for example.
- Alignment, Max Width and Float Align are plain layout controls and apply in both editions.
Limitations
- Four settings do nothing on the free plugin and are not marked as Pro in the editor: Scroll Reveal Image, Scrolling Image, Scroll Parallax and Enable Caption.
- Drop Shadow and Filters cannot both apply. They write to the same CSS property, and with both set only the drop shadow survives — the brightness and contrast are silently dropped. Drop Shadow is Pro-only.
- Scrolling Image produces no real image element. It paints the picture as a CSS background, so it carries no alt text and does not count as an image to search engines. Keep it for decoration.
- The scroll-based effects need a page long enough to scroll. Test on a page long enough to actually scroll. On a short page there is no scrolling for the effect to respond to, and a working setting looks broken.
Troubleshooting
I switched an effect on and nothing changed
Check your edition first. Scroll Reveal, Scrolling Image, Scroll Parallax and the caption all need Nexter Blocks Pro and do nothing without it, even though the toggles are visible.
The lightbox does not open
There is a link in the URL field. Clear it — a link takes priority over FancyBox.
My colour filters disappeared
Drop Shadow is on. Turn it off and the filters come back.
The block is missing from the inserter
Switch Advanced Image on under Nexter > Blocks in your dashboard.
