Editorial conventions
The internal tags, flags, and visibility rules Meridian uses to change rendering. Read this first — these conventions touch most of the other advanced features.
Meridian uses a small set of internal tags and Ghost's native Featured flag to change how posts render. None of these affect what readers see in tag archives — internal tags (those whose name starts with #) are Ghost-internal by convention and don't appear on public tag pages.
This page is the single reference for every Meridian-specific tag. If a feature page elsewhere in the docs mentions a #tag, the full behaviour is documented here.
Internal tags don't show up on public archives
Ghost treats tags whose name starts with # as internal — they exist for editorial workflow but are hidden from tag archive pages, the public tag list, and reader-facing post chrome. They still trigger theme behaviour, which is exactly what we want for these.
Article-level tags
These tags change how an individual article renders.
#dropcap
Posts tagged #dropcap get a drop cap on their first paragraph — an enlarged decorative first letter (5.2em on desktop, 4.4em on mobile). Posts without the tag render normally; there's no site-wide toggle.
Newsprint (Default)
Mist
Homepage section tags
Seven tags pick the layout for a homepage section row. Crucially, they go on a Ghost page (a "recipe page"), not on individual posts. The page's primary public tag is what selects the posts that fill the row — its layout is whichever #home-* tag you attach.
| Tag | Layout |
|---|---|
#home-feature-package | Cinematic hero with large feature image |
#home-briefing | Image-less morning bulletin / digest |
#home-briefing-carousel | Briefing thumb-row cards in a horizontal scroll-snap track |
#home-asymmetric-lead-list | Lead post + secondary list (Markets-style) |
#home-opinion-hedcut | Opinion columnists with portrait cards |
#home-tag-columns | N parallel columns, one per public tag on the page |
#home-standard-3-column-grid | Standard 3-column grid (carousel) |
Row order on the homepage follows the recipe page's publish date, newest first. See Homepage sections for the full anatomy of each layout and the page-creation walkthrough.
One layout tag per recipe page
If a recipe page is tagged with two #home-* layouts, the first match in the precedence chain wins. Stick to one layout tag per recipe page.
Footer legal links
Meridian renders a small dot-separated row of legal / utility links under the footer's social icons — Privacy, Terms, Imprint, Cookie policy, anything you need to surface for compliance without cluttering primary navigation. The row is driven by Ghost pages tagged with the internal #footer-legal-link tag.
How it works
- Every Ghost page tagged
#footer-legal-linkbecomes one link in the row. - The page title is the link text; the page URL is the destination.
- Links render in publish-date order, newest first, separated by a
·dot character (text-ink-faint,aria-hidden="true"— pure visual rule, not announced by screen readers). - The row wraps to multiple lines on narrow viewports and self-removes when no
#footer-legal-linkpages exist.
Adding a legal link
Create the page
In Ghost Admin, go to Pages → New page. Title it after the link's label ("Privacy", "Terms of service", "Imprint").
Tag it #footer-legal-link
In Page settings → Tags, add #footer-legal-link. The leading # makes it internal — it won't appear in public tag archives.
Author the page body
Write the legal copy normally — this is the page readers land on when they click the footer link, so the body content matters here (unlike #home-* recipe pages where the body is unused).
Publish
Click Publish. The link appears in the footer immediately, with a · separator if there are sibling legal pages.
Reorder by republishing
Order follows page published_at date, newest first. To move "Privacy" ahead of "Terms", edit the Privacy page and republish so its date is more recent.
Hiding a link
To temporarily pull a link out of the footer, set the page to draft in Page settings → Publish status. The link disappears until you re-publish. Delete the page to remove it permanently.
The Featured flag
Ghost has a built-in Featured flag on every post (toggle in the Post Settings panel — not a tag). Meridian uses this flag to populate the Editor's Picks strip on the homepage.
- Up to 8 featured posts appear in the strip, newest-first.
- The strip silently disappears when no posts are featured.
- An optional View all → link auto-renders if you've published a Ghost page with slug
featured.
See Editor's Picks for the full workflow.
Visibility & paywall
Meridian honours every Ghost visibility tier. The post hero displays a "visibility chip" so readers know upfront whether they need to be logged in or paying.
| Ghost visibility | Chip text | Reader behaviour |
|---|---|---|
| Public | (no chip — hidden) | Anyone can read the full story. |
| Free members | "Free members" | Anyone signed in (free or paid) can read. Logged-out visitors see a signup CTA. |
| Paid | "Paid" | Only paying members can read. Free members see an upgrade CTA. |
| Specific tiers | "Subscribers only" | Only members on the named tier(s) can read. |
The Member CTA at the end of every article switches based on the reader's state — signup for logged-out, tier-aware upgrade for free-on-paid, hidden for paid-or-public.
For the post-page CTA copy: see Site wide settings.
For the homepage Membership CTA band: see Membership CTA.