Horizon Media Blocks: Slideshow, Video and Editorial Layouts

Most people typing “shopify horizon theme customization” into a search box assume the answer is a tour of the theme editor, a list of toggles with screenshots. That’s the wrong layer. The actual limits and capabilities of Horizon’s slideshow, video and gallery layouts live in the section and block files themselves, in the setting ids, their types and how many options each select actually offers. Screenshots change with every Shopify update. The setting counts measured directly from the code, at commit 8b42ace for Horizon and 258f00f for Dawn, don’t.

The hero section carries two independent media slots, not one

Horizon’s sections/hero.liquid file, tagged internally as t:names.hero, has 36 settings and 8 block types. The two that matter most for anyone asking about slideshow or video behavior are media_type_1 and media_type_2, both select settings with 2 options each, paired with image_1, video_1, image_2 and video_2 fields. That structure means a single hero can hold two separately configured media slots, each choosing independently between an image and a video. It does not mean unlimited media slots. If a merchant wants a third slot, that requires either a different section or custom block work, because the file as measured defines exactly two numbered media pairs.

Dawn, by comparison, has no hero.liquid in this measurement at all. Dawn’s media logic for products sits in sections/main-product.liquid, which has 13 settings and 18 block types, including media_size as a 3-option select, media_fit as a 2-option select, and gallery_layout as a 4-option select. So the two themes aren’t offering the same feature under different names, they’re structured around different sections entirely, and a request for “Horizon hero customization” cannot be answered by looking at Dawn’s product page settings.

The product gallery’s spacing control is a pixel range, not a preset

Horizon’s blocks/_product-media-gallery.liquid, labeled t:names.product_media, has 22 settings. The one that actually governs spacing is image_gap, a range setting running from 0 to 100 with a step of 1px. That’s a direct pixel value a merchant sets, not a small-medium-large dropdown. The same block includes media_presentation and media_columns as 2-option selects, a large_first_image checkbox, an icons_style select with 4 options, and a slideshow_controls_style select with 3 options.

That last one is worth stating plainly: the slideshow controls skin is limited to 3 defined options in this file, as measured in commit 8b42ace. There is no fourth style hidden in a nested setting. If the visual result a merchant wants isn’t one of those three, the theme editor cannot produce it, and the request has to move to code.

What Dawn’s product sections do that Horizon’s gallery block doesn’t

Dawn splits featured product logic into its own file, sections/featured-product.liquid, with 12 settings and 13 block types, including a product picker, a secondary_background checkbox, and the same media_size, constrain_to_viewport and media_fit pattern seen in main-product.liquid. Horizon takes a different approach and pushes gallery-specific settings into a dedicated block rather than folding them into a single monolithic product section. Neither approach is more settings overall, they’re organized differently, and that organization is the real answer to “how do I customize this.”

Layout flexibility comes from the layered slide block, and it has real limits

Horizon’s blocks/_layered-slide.liquid, tagged t:names.slide, has 20 settings and 10 block types. It repeats the media_type_1, image_1, video_1 pattern seen in the hero section, plus content_direction as a 2-option select and vertical_on_mobile as a checkbox that forces stacking on small screens regardless of the desktop direction chosen. Combined with sections/_blocks.liquid, which has 28 settings and includes horizontal_alignment as a 4-option select and vertical_alignment as a 3-option select, a merchant building an editorial slide layout is working within a fixed grid of alignment choices, not a freeform canvas.

None of this connects to the layout’s visual polish score or review count, because those numbers describe the market around the theme, not the section code. Across 308 themes carrying enough reviews to average, the market rating sits at 4.53 out of 5, with a median review count of 23. That context matters for choosing a theme in the first place, but it has no bearing on what image_gap or content_direction can do once Horizon is already installed.

What this means for a build decision

A merchant who wants two independently switchable media slots in a hero should look at Horizon’s 36-setting hero.liquid, not at Dawn, which has no equivalent section. A merchant who wants precise pixel control over gallery spacing should use the image_gap range in _product-media-gallery.liquid and accept that slideshow control styling stops at 3 options as measured in commit 8b42ace. Check those two files directly in the theme’s code before promising a client a layout the editor cannot produce.

Open the theme editor only after checking the section file, because the editor shows what’s exposed, not what the code allows. Confirm the option counts against the commit named here before telling a client a layout is or isn’t possible.