BeforeAfterPro templateLandscape 16:9Platform
Wide Dark
Platform category, on a 16:9 wide canvas, with Inter Bold labels reading Before and After, over a gradient ground. Drag the handle to see it work.
BeforeAfterThe job it is forLandscape 16:9 pack
What Wide Dark is for
Wide, near-black, a two point white rule, plain sans labels. The version for a dark site, a dark slide deck or a thumbnail that has to sit on a black player background without a visible edge. It also suits subjects photographed under lights: a workshop, a stage, a lit exterior, a garage floor.
Behind the pair sits a 2 stop gradient, #0A0A0A through #111111, drawn by the frame itself. 2 points of #FFFFFF hold the two photographs apart, with Inter Bold labels bottom centre. Corners are square, with no radius at all, on a 16:9 wide frame, and the default wording is Before and After.
The specificationExtracted, not typed
Every value in Wide Dark, as the build holds it
A stylised frame is mostly colour, and colour is the part of any record that reads badly as a column of hex values. So the diagram draws the frame at the scale the app renders it, letting the ground, the rule and the label corner arrive as a picture instead. The record's remaining words are in the panel beside it.
- Canvas16:9
- Rule2 pt
- LabelsBottom centre
- BandNone
- Canvas
- 16:9 wide
- Label face
- Inter Bold
- Label corner
- Bottom centre
- Rule
- 2 pt
- Corners
- Square
- Ground
- 2 stop gradient
- Branding
- Overlaid, no band
- Date stamp
- Off by default
- Default wording
- Before and After
- Pack
- Landscape 16:9
- Frame#0A0A0A
- Ground stop 1#0A0A0A
- Ground stop 2#111111
- Rule#FFFFFF
- Label#FFFFFF
Read out of the shipped app build by the catalogue extractor, not typed.
Shooting for itPlatform category
How to shoot a pair for Wide Dark
A stylised frame sets an expectation the pair has to meet. Neon on near-black flatters a subject with hard edges and hard light, and drowns a soft one. Gold on dark asks the photograph to be composed rather than snapped. The wide layouts show the sides of a subject that vertical crops away, which is what makes them the right shape for a driveway, a garden, a room or a workbench, and the wrong shape for a person.
In orderWritten for platform work
- 01Decide the surface first. The wide layouts are for a site, an embed or a video thumbnail, and they will letterbox badly inside a vertical feed.
- 02Match the subject to the treatment. Neon wants hard edges and contrast; the luxury frames want an even, composed photograph.
- 03Shoot wider than feels necessary for the wide layouts. Cropping in is free, and inventing the edges of a frame is not.
- 04Keep the labels short. Serif labels at small sizes and condensed caps at large ones both punish long wording, in opposite ways.
- 05Export at the ratio that matches where it lands, remembering the export sheet's ratios are chosen separately from the template's own canvas.
A frame with this much character will either flatter the pair or expose it, and rarely neither. The in-browser slider tells you which, on your own device, in about two seconds. The guide to unconvincing pairs covers the causes when the answer is the wrong one.
Honest limitsTwo of them, and both are real
What Wide Dark will not do
The wide layouts are the honest catch in this category. The export sheet offers vertical, square, portrait and the original ratio, so a wide canvas arrives at its shape through the original ratio option rather than through a wide preset of its own. Check the first export before you build a set on it. Beyond that, a strong look does not survive a weak pair: a neon frame around two mismatched photographs makes the mismatch look deliberate, which is worse than making it look careless.
On this template in particularThe export sheet offers vertical, square, portrait and the original ratio, and 16:9 is not one of the presets. This canvas reaches its shape through the original ratio option, so take one export and look at it before you build a set on this template.
If this one is not itFour questions, four answers
Without upgrading
BeforeAfterOpens on the free tier, on a 1:1 square canvas with Inter Bold labels.
Same pack, other end
BeforeAfterA lighter ground in the same pack, with a 1 point #AAAAAA rule.
Nearby in the catalogue
BeforeAfterclean category, 1:1 square, Free pack.
Nearby in the catalogue
BeforeAfterclean category, 1:1 square, Free pack.
After the frame, the pair and the captionFor landscape 16:9 work
Back up to every platform template, or to the whole catalogue. The free browser slider is at the slider tool, and the hashtag research by trade starts at the hashtag index.
Common questions
- Who is the Wide Dark template for?
- Wide, near-black, a two point white rule, plain sans labels. The version for a dark site, a dark slide deck or a thumbnail that has to sit on a black player background without a visible edge. It also suits subjects photographed under lights: a workshop, a stage, a lit exterior, a garage floor.
- When should I use something other than Wide Dark?
- Wide frames put a person's head in the middle of a lot of empty space. Anything with a single upright subject wants a portrait or vertical canvas, whatever surface it is going to.
- Is Wide Dark free?
- No, it is one of the Pro templates. The free tier opens 8 of the 100, and everything else in the editor is free with them: all four comparison modes, Ghost Camera, the filters, the stickers, the full label editor, and your own logo and business name.
- What shape is Wide Dark, and what will it export at?
- The template's canvas is 16:9 wide. The export ratio is a separate choice made in the export sheet: 9:16 and 1:1 on the free tier, plus 4:5 and the original ratio on Pro. 16:9 is not one of those presets, so this canvas reaches its shape through the original ratio option.
- Can I change the BEFORE and AFTER wording?
- Yes. Wide Dark starts with "Before" and "After", and every part of that is editable: the text, the typeface, the colour, the size, bold and italic, uppercase, a shadow, the background opacity, and the position, either one of five presets or dragged anywhere on the canvas.
- Can I compare two video clips with this?
- No. However stylised the frame, the input is two stills. The look is applied to a pair of photographs, and the export is a short reveal, a looping GIF or a single image.
Put your own pair in Wide Dark
Two photographs, one template, and a reveal that plays in about four seconds. Three exports a day are free, each behind a short rewarded ad.
Get the app freeiPhone, iOS 17 and later