Download Drupal 9.4.0

Version 9.4.0 of Drupal has been released. Drupal is a PHP-written, user-friendly and powerful content management platform, with which, for example, websites can be created. It’s simple enough for a novice user, but powerful enough to build a more complex website as well. Drupal includes a content management platform and a development framework. In version 9.4, the Olivero theme is now used as the default for a fresh install, and the Claro theme is the new default for the backend.

Drupal now uses the Olivero frontend theme by default

When you install Drupal 9.4.0, it will look quite different from previous releases because it uses the new modern Olivero frontend theme. While the theme looks beautiful, it also has superb accessibility and adapts well to various display sizes.

The theme is named after Rachel Olivero (1982-2019). She was the head of the organizational technology group at the National Federation of the Blind, a well-known accessibility expert, a Drupal community contributor, and a friend to many.

Drupal now uses the Claro backend theme by default!

The Claro backend theme has been in the works for a while. It became stable and the default administration theme in Drupal 9.4.0. The new theme brings a modern look to the backend interface of Drupal. It has been available as a core experimental theme for some time, so it is well-tested with contributed projects and real-world sites.

New experimental Starterkit theme and theme generator

Drupal 9.4.0 ships with a new experimental Starterkit theme and theme generator. The new Starterkit theme is used as a basis to generate new standalone themes, rather than being extended at runtime like the Classy core base theme. Currently, the markup provided by the Starterkit theme is the same as Classy’s, but its markup can be improved in future minor releases (whereas Classy’s can’t), so once it becomes stable, Starterkit will replace Classy. For more information, read the blog post on how the new starter kit will change theme creation in Drupal 10†

New lazy loading configuration option added to image fields

A new lazy loading configuration option is added to image fields in 9.4.0 and most image fields shipped in core are now configured to lazy load. This helps browsers to delay downloading and displaying them until they become visible, which speeds up general page display.

Easier permission management for content types, vocabularies, etc.

When editing content types, vocabularies, and so on, site administrators previously had no way to control permissions in context for these entity bundles in the same interface. With Drupal 9.4.0 a new “Manage permissions” tab displays the permissions that depend on the given type, making them easier to configure correctly.

Improvements to drupal/core-recommended for security update management

The drupal/core-recommended metapackage now allows patch-level updates for Composer dependencies† This means that site owners using drupal/core-recommended can now install most Composer dependency security updates themselves, without needing to wait for an upstream release of Drupal core that updates the affected package.