After a year in the works, we’re excited to unveil Salient Version 18 — our major release of 2025. This update brings a wide collection of new features, design options, and workflow improvements that make building with Salient smoother and more expressive.
From creative additions like Content Trail element and new sticky scrolling effects, to expanded layout controls, fluid typography, local font handling, and a refreshed theme options UI, Version 18 focuses on meaningful upgrades that support how you design and refine your website every day.
Content Trail Cursor Effects
The new Content Trail element delivers an expressive, highly interactive visual moment on your site. Inspired by modern “image trail” techniques, this effect allows images, or even fully customizable text strings, to gracefully follow the user’s cursor.
Use it to add playful branding, spotlight creative work, or introduce subtle UI flair that feels distinctly modern and uniquely yours.
Responsive Flexbox
Responsive Flexbox controls have arrived for Columns, Sections, and Carousel Items. This unlocks “Bento Grid” style layouts where you can fine-tune:
- Alignment and distribution per breakpoint
- Direction (row / column) responsively
- How items grow, wrap, and stack
You also get Responsive Height and Min Height controls for both Rows and Columns, making it easier to design full-screen heroes, equal-height stacks, and precise composition across devices.
New Theme Options UI + Search
The entire Theme Options panel has been redesigned with clarity and speed in mind. It’s easier than ever to find what you need and fine-tune your global site setup. The new UI introduces:
- A cleaner, modern layout
- Search across all settings
- Faster navigation with improved categorization
Smarter global styling & social management
- New social icon handling UI – reorder networks and upload custom icons for Header, Footer, and Off-Canvas areas
- Global light text color option for dark backgrounds
- New Page Transition theme option for polished route changes
Dynamic Background Colors
Version 18 introduces dynamic background color capabilities that let your sections shift tone with elegance. These subtle transitions create a polished, atmospheric feel that brings depth to your layouts—perfect for storytelling, brand expression, or guiding the user’s attention.
New Demos + Templates
Salient 18 ships with three new carefully made demos:
Plus, you’ll find 28 new Salient Studio templates ready to drop into your pages.
Fluid Typography
Version 18 adds theme-level fluid typography controls. Your type can now scale smoothly between viewport sizes, delivering more balanced reading on mobile and more expressive headings on larger screens — all without additional breakpoints. You can also work in your preferred units (rem, em, px) across all typography fields.
- Larger, more expressive type on desktop
- More readable, balanced text on mobile
- Less manual breakpoint tweaking
Sticky Scrolling Effects
Bring stories and product showcases to life with the new Sticky Scrolling Effects added to the Sticky Content Sections element. These include all-new horizontal scrolling and stacking behaviors that transform simple sections into dynamic, presentation-style narratives. With these patterns, you can craft immersive sequences that hold attention, highlight key moments, and guide visitors effortlessly through your content.
Performance-focused Controls
Version 18 includes new performance options in the theme options panel for improving loading speed, privacy compliance, and overall control of your typography and images.
- Local Google Fonts – host fonts locally for better performance and privacy.
- Optimize Top Level Images – new options to ensure hero images are handled efficiently.
