Reporting & research on Shopify and ecommerce
Merchants search Shopify Horizon theme documentation expecting a block catalog, but the actual answer is that Horizon's block architecture is organized around a handful of shared section files whose settings, not a count of 95, decide what a merchant can build.
A merchant types “shopify horizon theme documentation” looking for a list, expecting something like a catalog of 95 named blocks they can drop into a page. That number does not come from Horizon’s own files. What the theme actually ships is a small set of section and block files, each carrying its own count of settings and block types, and the real documentation work is reading those counts, not counting up to a round total that nobody’s codebase reports.
Horizon’s sections/_blocks.liquid, the section labeled t:names.section in the theme’s translation keys, has 28 settings but only 3 block types. That is measured at commit 8b42ace from August 31, 2026. Compare that to Dawn’s sections/main-product.liquid, measured at commit 258f00f from August 10, 2026, which has 13 settings and 18 block types. Dawn spreads its functionality across many named blocks. Horizon concentrates it into fewer block types with many more settings governing how each one behaves.
This matters for anyone trying to write or read documentation about either theme. A count like “95 blocks” implies a flat list, but the real structure is nested: a section file defines block types, and separate block files like blocks/_featured-product-gallery.liquid or blocks/_product-card-gallery.liquid define their own settings independent of the section that calls them.
blocks/_featured-product-gallery.liquid, labeled t:names.product_media, has 3 settings: a paragraph note, an image_ratio select with 4 variants, and a constrain_to_viewport select with 3 variants. That is a narrow block. It does one job, showing product media at a controlled ratio, and nothing else.
blocks/_product-card-gallery.liquid, labeled t:names.product_image, is broader, with 11 settings. Besides the paragraph and the same image_ratio select with 4 variants, it adds border controls: a border select with 2 variants, a border_width range from 0 to 4 in 1px steps, a border_opacity range from 0 to 100 in 1% steps, and a border_color color setting. None of these 11 settings touch typography, spacing between cards, or hover states. If a merchant wants those, the setting is not in this file, and no amount of searching the block’s own code will produce it.
| File | Theme | Settings | Block types | Commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sections/featured-product.liquid | Dawn | 12 | 13 | 258f00f |
| sections/main-product.liquid | Dawn | 13 | 18 | 258f00f |
| sections/_blocks.liquid | Horizon | 28 | 3 | 8b42ace |
| blocks/_featured-product-gallery.liquid | Horizon | 3 | 0 | 8b42ace |
| blocks/_product-card-gallery.liquid | Horizon | 11 | 0 | 8b42ace |
Reading this table straight, Horizon’s individual block files carry no block types of their own, they are leaf nodes, while its section file carries the bulk of the settings. Dawn distributes settings more evenly between its two measured sections, 12 and 13 respectively, but assigns far more block types to each, 13 and 18.
Across the tracked market of 329 themes, the median price is $300 with a range from $100 to $500, and the average rating sits at 4.53 out of 5 across 308 themes with a median of 23 reviews. None of that tells a merchant anything about block architecture specifically, and none of it should be read as a comment on Horizon or Dawn’s code quality. It is context for the price a merchant might pay before ever opening a single section file. Method note: these figures come from a single ranking snapshot taken on themescout.co and checked September 4, 2026, so they reflect one point in time, not a rolling average.
On the performance side, mobile storefronts across 247 themes with sufficient data pass all Core Web Vitals at a median of 85.5%, ranging from a low of 46.1% to a high of 98.6%. Desktop, across 199 themes, sits at a median of 86.2%, ranging from 30.3% to 99.2%. This is CrUX data for July 2026, meaning real visitor traffic, not a lab benchmark run once and reported as fact. Nothing here ties block count or setting count to speed outcome, so treat this paragraph as background, not as a verdict on whether Horizon’s 28-setting block section is fast or slow.
Ignore any documentation that quotes a single number of blocks for the whole theme, since that number does not correspond to how Horizon’s own files are organized. Instead open the specific section or block file, note the commit it was measured against, and check whether the setting you need, like border_width or image_ratio, exists in that exact file rather than assuming it carries over from a similarly named block elsewhere in the theme.
The phrase does not correspond to any category or file grouping found in the current measurement of Horizon's codebase. What exists instead is a set of individual section and block files, each with its own setting count and block-type count, such as `sections/_blocks.liquid` with 28 settings and 3 block types, or `blocks/_product-card-gallery.liquid` with 11 settings and no block types of its own. A round number like 95 is not something the theme's own files report, so treat any documentation page claiming that figure as unverified against the source commit.
Dawn's `sections/featured-product.liquid` has 12 settings and 13 block types, and its `sections/main-product.liquid` has 13 settings and 18 block types, both measured at commit 258f00f from August 10, 2026. Horizon's `sections/_blocks.liquid`, measured at commit 8b42ace from August 31, 2026, has more settings at 28 but far fewer block types at 3. That means Horizon concentrates configuration inside fewer, more flexible block containers rather than spreading it across many named block types the way Dawn does.
Yes, through `blocks/_product-card-gallery.liquid`, which exposes `border_width` as a range from 0 to 4 in 1px steps and `border_opacity` as a range from 0 to 100 in 1% steps, alongside a `border_color` color setting and a `border` select with 2 variants. The block also has an `image_ratio` select with 4 variants. There is no setting in this block for anything beyond border and ratio control, so cropping behavior or hover effects would need to come from a different file.
The market-wide mobile median for passing all Core Web Vitals is 85.5%, against 247 themes with sufficient data, and desktop sits slightly higher at 86.2% across 199 themes, both from CrUX data for July 2026 covering real visitors, not lab runs. Nothing in the measured facts ties Horizon specifically to either end of that range, so any claim that its block architecture helps or hurts Core Web Vitals is not something the current data can confirm or deny for this particular theme.
The file includes `content_direction` as a select with 2 variants, `vertical_alignment` as a select with 3 variants, and `horizontal_alignment` as a select with 4 variants, plus a separate `horizontal_alignment_flex_direction_column` select with 3 variants for when the direction is set to column. There is also a `vertical_on_mobile` checkbox and an `align_baseline` checkbox. Together these 28 settings govern how the 3 block types inside this section arrange themselves, but the file does not expose a way to set exact pixel offsets, only these named alignment options.