WordPress 6.5 “Regina” shipped on April 2, 2024, codenamed in honor of jazz violinist Regina Carter. Release lead Matt Mullenweg and a global team of around 700 contributors (including 150+ first-time contributors) delivered more than 2,500 enhancements and fixes across Core and Gutenberg.
6.5 is best remembered for three things: the Font Library finally consolidated typography management into a single Core feature, the Interactivity API and Block Bindings API gave developers structured ways to build dynamic content, and the post-editor loading time roughly doubled in speed compared to 6.4.
The Font Library
The headline user-facing feature of 6.5 was the Font Library, a new Core screen for installing, removing, and activating fonts across any Block theme. Before 6.5, font management was fragmented between theme settings, theme.json edits, and a patchwork of plugins. The Font Library moved it all into one place: install local fonts by upload, pull in Google Fonts directly, build custom typography collections, and apply them to specific elements through Styles.
For agency teams handing finished sites to clients, this was the first version where “font management” became a UI task instead of a developer one.
Revisions Everywhere
Revisions in 6.5 grew beyond the post editor. The Style Book gained revision support, so you could see how a color or typography change rippled through every block. Templates and template parts also got revisions for the first time. Each revision shows a timestamp, a quick summary, and a paginated list, with the option to roll back to any earlier version of a template just like you would a post.
Enhanced Design Tools
Three design controls got meaningful upgrades:
- Background images for Group blocks. Size, repeat, and focal point controls landed on the Group block, so you could finally put a real background image behind a content section without dropping to custom CSS.
- Cover block aspect ratios + image color overlay. Set explicit aspect ratios on Cover blocks, and have the overlay color automatically sample from the image.
- Box shadow support. Extended box shadow controls to more block types so depth and personality became standard design tools, not custom-CSS work.
Data Views
6.5 introduced Data Views for pages, templates, patterns, and template parts. Each gets a table or grid view with toggleable fields and bulk actions. This was the first piece of the broader Data Views/Data Forms architecture that later releases would build on, but even in its initial 6.5 form it made managing dozens of templates or patterns far less painful than the prior list screens.
Smoother Drag-and-Drop and Better Link Controls
Two small but constant-use improvements: drag-and-drop in the editor and List View got visual cues for displaced items and dragging anywhere in the workspace, and the link-builder UI got streamlined with a shortcut for copying links. Together these are the kind of changes you notice every editing session even if they didn’t make any release-day headlines.
What’s New for Developers
6.5 was a strong developer release with two new APIs and a long-awaited plugin-dependencies feature:
- Interactivity API. A standardized way to build interactive front-end experiences with blocks, with fewer dependencies on external tooling. Use cases: live search results, real-time content interaction, anything that previously required custom JS bundles.
- Block Bindings API. Connect core block attributes to custom fields or any dynamic data source. A few lines of code lets a Paragraph or Heading block pull from a custom field, an option, or any registered source.
- Appearance tools for Classic themes. Classic themes (without theme.json) can opt in to spacing, border, typography, and color controls from the modern design experience. Bridge step for sites with mature classic themes who don’t want to fully migrate to block themes.
- Plugin dependencies. Plugin authors got a
Requires Pluginsheader for declaring required plugins by slug. Users see prompts to install and activate dependencies before activating the parent plugin.
Performance and Accessibility
6.5 shipped with 110+ performance updates. The most-cited stat: Post Editor loading was over 2x faster than 6.4, and input processing was up to 5x faster. AVIF image format support landed, translated sites saw up to 25% load-time improvements via Performant Translations, and block variation registration got more efficient.
65+ accessibility improvements landed too, including a fix to admin submenu access for screen readers and keyboard users, color contrast adjustments in admin focus states, and various cursor focus improvements.
Wrapping Up
WordPress 6.5 “Regina” is the release where Block themes got their typography story straight, the editor got significantly faster, and the developer toolbox grew two of the APIs that the rest of the 6.x and 7.x series would build on. Worth remembering as the first version where “this is how you build with Block themes” started to feel coherent instead of in-progress.
For the broader release history, see the WordPress version history. For what shipped next, see WordPress 6.6 “Dorsey”. The current major release is WordPress 7.0 “Armstrong”.
Official references: the official WordPress 6.5 announcement, the 6.5 Field Guide for developers, and the 6.5 release notes.
