Salient 16 is now available, bringing one of the most significant updates ever introduced to the theme. This release concentrates on practical improvements that matter in real-world builds: stronger layout tools, expanded dynamic content options, smoother performance, deeper animation control, and the ability to fine-tune areas of a site that were previously fixed.
Alongside a new theme demo and fresh templates, users will find major enhancements across Global Sections, the Post Loop Builder, the header system, animation tools, and more. The update aims to give designers and developers a more versatile and efficient workflow while opening new creative possibilities.
New Magazine Installable Demo
A new editorial-style demo is now available, offering a clean and modern foundation for magazine sites, high-volume blogs, and content-driven layouts. It showcases many of the new capabilities introduced in this release.
Expanded Global Section Functionality
Global Sections have received a comprehensive upgrade, including:
- New Display Locations that hook into almost every key area of the theme
- Special display locations for formerly uneditable areas such as the blog archive loop and 404 template
- Display Conditions for controlling when and where sections appear
- New theme hooks
- Visual Hook indicators and a “Display Salient Hooks” toolbar option
These updates substantially increase the level of structural customization possible without custom code.
Advanced Animation Controls
The animation system now allows:
- Full beginning and ending transform values (x, y, scale) and opacity
- New scroll position advanced animation settings
- Custom viewport triggers
- A new Curved Arrow Animation for call-to-action elements
- New scroll-reveal text animation styles
- Additional easing options and refined performance
The result is a much more expressive and controllable animation toolkit.
Visual Hook System
- Locate and attach global sections to hooks with one click.
- Create custom 404 templates, footers, archives and more.
- Utilize both Salient & Core WordPress hooks.
Completely Enhanced Post Loop Builder
Formerly known as the Post Grid, the Post Loop Builder now includes:
- Four new Masonry variants
- A full Carousel display with responsive controls
- A content next to image layout
- Category style options
- Author settings with Gravatar support
- Excerpt display, reading time, responsive font sizing, clamp sizing
- New animation and parallax options
- Mobile column and typography controls
- A tooltip-style mouse indicator
This turns the builder into a robust system for structuring dynamic post layouts.
New Salient Studio Templates
Twenty new templates have been added to Salient Studio, providing more ready-made starting points for landing pages, sections, and full layouts.
New “Contained” Header Navigation Style
A new header navigation style has been introduced, offering a clean, centered, and well-structured layout. Additional easing controls for header entrance animations have also been added.
Delayed JavaScript Execution
JavaScript execution delay has been refined to run more smoothly on desktop environments, helping improve load times, interactivity, and Core Web Vitals scores.
In Conclusion
Salient 16 brings meaningful improvements across the board, with a focus on giving users more control, better performance, and a smoother workflow. The additions in this release strengthen both the creative and structural capabilities of the theme, making it easier to build sites that are visually refined, efficient, and adaptable to a wide range of needs. With the expanded toolset now in place, Salient continues to offer a solid and forward-focused foundation for modern WordPress development.
