A gallery is a layout choice, not a page you build
The vendor's description spends its most practical paragraph on a three-step loop: upload photos through the Media Uploader, select a layout for that page, click publish. Images are then rendered in the chosen layout, and the vendor says there are no extra steps.
That describes a different habit from themes where each gallery is composed piece by piece. Here the layout list becomes the site's design vocabulary, and much of the work happens before anything reaches WordPress — cropping, file size and image order are decided in your own files. The 12 layouts are covered below; the point here is that choosing one is the main editorial decision on a gallery page.
The vendor also advertises a drag-and-drop builder, but describes it as a menu and photo gallery builder, not a tool for composing whole page layouts.
Twelve layouts, seven transitions, and why the numbers differ
The vendor lists 12 gallery layouts and says they support an unlimited number of galleries across a site, so different sections can reuse different layouts. Separately, a fullscreen photo gallery can use one of seven effects: fade, slide top, slide right, slide bottom, slide left, carousel right or carousel left.
Those are two different controls. Twelve counts how a gallery can be arranged; seven counts how it moves between images. The version 1.2 changelog records the ability to set a unique effect for each fullscreen gallery, which means the transition is chosen per gallery rather than once for the whole site.
In practice, varying layouts between bodies of work and keeping transitions consistent tends to read better than mixing motion styles within one visit, since a left slide followed by a right carousel is harder to follow than one repeated pattern.
What sits behind the photographs on a page
Each page can carry a fullscreen photography slideshow, a fullscreen video, a fullscreen single image, or background music, according to the vendor. The feature list states the audio option as background audio while viewing images, which points at listening during browsing rather than a track that fires on load.
A slideshow background can also pull from a Flickr photo stream, which suits an opening page you do not want to update by hand. The version 1.2.8 changelog adds the ability to link individual images to videos on YouTube, Vimeo or a self-hosted file, so a gallery item can open into motion rather than a still.
Background media is also the part of this theme that has needed patching most often. The changelog records a background video autoplay fix for a Chrome release in 1.5, an Error 2035 fix for video backgrounds in 1.3.2, and a background audio fix for WordPress 5.5 in 2.2. Those entries are vendor change records, not a statement about how the theme behaves now, but they show where browser and WordPress changes tend to land. A large self-hosted background video also spends your own bandwidth, which is a hosting cost rather than a theme setting.
Post types and category albums organise the work
Vernissage registers custom post types for Photo Gallery, Portfolio and Slideshow, so separate sets of photographs exist as their own entries instead of one long page of images.
Version 2.3 added the ability to display galleries and projects in albums by category. That is the layer above the layouts: work is filed by category, and an album collects it. For a photographer running parallel strands — weddings and portraits, editorial and personal — albums are what keep the site navigable once the gallery count passes a handful.
There are also three blog layouts — right sidebar, left sidebar and no sidebar — and version 1.2 added per-post sidebar position, so written posts do not have to match the gallery pages' full-width presentation.
Settings live in the Customizer, and the contact form does not ship
Version 2.0 is the release that reshapes how you configure the theme: a new gallery management system, a new backend interface, a new lightbox, adaptive image support, and all settings moved into the native WordPress Customizer. Older documentation that refers to a separate admin theme panel predates that change; the current path for options is the Customizer.
The same release deprecated the built-in contact form and pointed users to plugins. The compatibility attributes name Gravity Forms, so an enquiry form is something you add and configure separately.
Colour is handled through quick accent changes and pre-defined styles. The changelog shows this area has been fragile: 2.1.5 fixed custom accent colour options broken by 2.1.4, and 2.1.2 fixed a menu issue when a dark scheme was combined with a custom accent. Testing your intended combination on a staging copy is more useful than assuming it is covered.
What the listing declares about WordPress, the editor and the files
The marketplace lists Vernissage at version 2.4.3, with the vendor's update timestamp at 11 April 2024, and the compatibility attributes name WordPress versions from 4.9.x upward, ending at 6.9.x. Those entries record what the vendor declared, not tests against your plugin stack or a promise about releases after that date. The changelog's last separate version note is 2.4, so the detail for 2.4.1 to 2.4.3 is not spelled out there.
Gutenberg Optimized is listed as yes, and the 2.1.4 changelog records improved Gutenberg compatibility plus a fix for metabox images being cleared when post content changed in the block editor. Files included are PHP, CSS, Sass and JavaScript.
The listing also mentions WP Multisite support and translate-ready sample .po and .mo files. These are vendor claims from the description; the practical check for a multilingual or network install is your own staging setup.
Questions & answers
Do I need Elementor to build galleries in Vernissage?
No. The vendor describes galleries as Media Uploader uploads plus a layout choice for that page, and since version 2.0 the settings sit in the WordPress Customizer. Elementor and Elementor Pro appear in the compatibility list, but the gallery workflow the vendor documents does not depend on them.
What is the difference between the 12 gallery layouts and the 7 effects?
Layouts are the arrangements photographs are displayed in — the vendor counts 12. Effects are the transitions inside a fullscreen gallery: fade, four slide directions and two carousel directions. The changelog records per-gallery effect selection, so two galleries can move differently.
Does Vernissage include a contact form?
No. The built-in contact form was deprecated in version 2.0, and the update notes say to use plugins instead. Gravity Forms is named in the compatibility attributes, so the enquiry form is a separate choice you configure yourself.
