Ghost Editor: Complete Guide to Cards, Formatting and Publishing

Ghost Editor Overview

Ghost’s editor produces clean, semantic HTML — no shortcodes, no proprietary markup, no database serialization. If you ever leave Ghost, your content exports as standard HTML that works anywhere.

The editor uses a card system: type / on an empty line to insert content blocks (images, galleries, callouts, embeds, code). Each card is self-contained, which means you can rearrange content by dragging blocks. This is simpler than WordPress’s Gutenberg (fewer options, less configuration) and more capable than Medium’s editor (more card types, full code access).

One thing that surprises new users: your theme controls how cards render. A gallery card in Shiro displays differently than in Luno. Your content is portable; the presentation is theme-controlled. This matters — the same post can look amateur or professional depending on your theme’s card styling.

Text Formatting

Ghost’s text formatting is intentionally minimal. You get what you need for professional publishing without the clutter.

Inline Formatting

Select text to reveal the formatting toolbar:

• Bold — Ctrl/Cmd + B
• Italic — Ctrl/Cmd + I
• Link — Ctrl/Cmd + K
• Heading (H2, H3, H4) — select text and choose heading level
• Quote — blockquote styling
• Strikethrough — crossed-out text
• Highlight — colored background
• Superscript — small raised text
• Code — inline monospace formatting

Block-Level Formatting

Type at the start of a new line:

• ## → Heading 2
• ### → Heading 3
• #### → Heading 4
• > → Blockquote
• - or * → Unordered list
• 1. → Ordered list
• ``` → Code block
• --- → Horizontal divider

Headings

Ghost supports H2 through H4 in the editor. H1 is reserved for the post title — using H1 in your content creates duplicate heading hierarchy, which hurts SEO.

Structure your headings logically:

H1: Post Title (set in post settings)
  H2: Major Section
    H3: Subsection
      H4: Detail
  H2: Next Major Section

Themes like Luno automatically generate a table of contents from your H2 and H3 headings, giving readers a clickable navigation sidebar.

Editor Cards

Cards are Ghost’s content blocks. Access them by typing / on a new line or clicking the + button. As of Ghost 6, there are 30+ card types.

Visual Cards

Image — single image upload with alt text, caption, and width options (regular, wide, full). Always add descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO.

Gallery — multiple images in an auto-layout grid. Upload 2-9 images and Ghost arranges them in a responsive mosaic. Themes like Nio render galleries using PhotoSwipe for a lightbox experience.

Video — upload video files directly. Ghost creates an HTML5 video player with play/pause, volume, and fullscreen controls. No external hosting required for short clips.

Audio — upload audio files for podcasts, interviews, or music. Creates a native HTML5 audio player.

File — upload any file for reader download. Shows filename, size, and a download button.

Content Cards

Callout — highlighted text box with an emoji icon. Customize the emoji and background color. Callouts break up long text and draw attention to key points — use them for tips, warnings, or “TL;DR” summaries. Overusing them dilutes their impact; one or two per post is the sweet spot.

Toggle — collapsible content section with a clickable header. The most underused card in Ghost. Toggles are excellent for FAQs, technical reference sections, and supplementary details that would otherwise bloat your post. Collapsed content is still indexable by search engines (rendered in HTML, hidden via CSS), so it counts for SEO.

Product — showcase a product with image, title, description, star rating, and a CTA button. Essential for reviews, affiliate content, and recommendation lists. The star rating and button give it a commercial feel that regular text can’t match.

Header — large text with background color, button, and optional subheading. Creates a visual section break. Use it to separate major content sections or to create an inline call-to-action mid-post.

Embed Cards

Bookmark — paste a URL and Ghost fetches the page’s title, description, thumbnail, and favicon to create a rich link preview card. Works with any URL.

Embed — paste URLs from supported services for rich embeds:

• Twitter/X — displays the full tweet with media
• YouTube — embedded video player
• Spotify — track or playlist player
• CodePen — interactive code demo
• Vimeo, SoundCloud, TikTok — native embeds

Ghost supports 30+ embed providers via oEmbed. Just paste the URL on a new line.

Advanced Cards

HTML — inject raw HTML into your post. Use for custom widgets, third-party embeds, or anything Ghost’s cards don’t cover natively. Note: JavaScript in HTML cards runs on the published page but not in the editor preview.

Markdown — write Markdown within a card block. Useful if you prefer Markdown syntax for specific sections but want to use the visual editor for the rest.

Email content — content that appears only in the email version of your post, not on the web. Insert subscriber-only calls-to-action or bonus content within a publicly visible post.

Email CTA — a call-to-action button that only appears in the email version. Useful for directing subscribers to specific pages without cluttering the web version.

Paywall — marks the point where content becomes gated. Everything above is public; everything below requires the access level you set in post settings. See our membership guide for details on content gating.

Embeds and Integrations

Supported Embed Providers

Paste any of these URLs on a new line for a rich embed:

Bookmark Cards vs Embeds

If Ghost doesn’t recognize a URL as an embeddable service, it falls back to a bookmark card — a rich preview with title, description, and thumbnail. Bookmark cards work for any URL and are a reliable way to link to external content with visual context.

Publishing Workflow

Post Settings

Click the gear icon in the top-right corner to open post settings:

• Title and slug — the URL-friendly version of your post title
• Publish date — set or schedule a future publication date
• Tags — categorize your post (primary tag determines URL structure)
• Featured image — the hero image shown in post lists and social shares
• Excerpt — custom description for post lists and SEO
• Authors — assign single or multiple co-authors
• Access — Public, Members, Paid, or Specific Tier
• SEO settings — custom meta title and description
• Social cards — custom images and text for Twitter and Facebook shares
• Code injection — per-post custom CSS or JavaScript

Publishing Options

When you click Publish, Ghost shows a confirmation panel with options:

• Publish and send — post goes live on your website and is emailed to your selected audience
• Publish only — appears on your website with no email
• Send only — email-only delivery, no web publication
• Schedule — set a future date and time for automatic publication

Drafts

Ghost auto-saves your work continuously. Close the editor at any time — your draft is preserved. Access drafts from the post list by filtering for “Drafts” status.

Drafts are invisible to readers. Only published posts appear on your site. This means you can work on multiple posts simultaneously without worrying about accidental publication.

Revisions

Ghost maintains post revision history — view previous versions and restore if needed. This saves you when you accidentally delete a section or want to compare current content with an earlier draft. Access revisions from the post settings sidebar.

Editor Keyboard Shortcuts

How Your Theme Affects Editor Content

Ghost themes control how every card renders. This isn’t cosmetic — it affects whether readers engage with your content or bounce.

Galleries are the most theme-dependent card. The default Casper theme renders them in a basic grid. Themes with lightbox support (like Nio with PhotoSwipe) let readers click to view full-size images with swipe navigation. If your content is image-heavy, your theme’s gallery implementation matters more than almost any other feature.

Code blocks render as plain monospace text unless your theme includes syntax highlighting. Shiro includes Prism.js for colored, language-aware code display. For themes without it, you can add highlighting via code injection.

Table of contents is not a built-in Ghost feature — themes must implement it. Luno auto-generates a sidebar TOC from your H2/H3 headings with active section highlighting. For other themes, you can add one with our table of contents snippet.

Toggle cards look functional in most themes but animate smoothly (with transition effects on expand/collapse) only in themes that add custom CSS for the .kg-toggle-card element.

The takeaway: write your content once, but test how it looks in your actual theme. What looks good in the editor preview may look different on the published page.

Common Questions

Can I use Markdown in Ghost’s editor?

Yes, in two ways. First, Markdown shortcuts work inline — type **bold** and it converts automatically. Second, insert a Markdown card for sections where you prefer pure Markdown syntax. Ghost’s editor also supports pasting Markdown content, which it converts to visual blocks automatically.

Can I write in Ghost and publish elsewhere?

Ghost posts can be exported as JSON or HTML. You can also use the Content API to pull your posts into any frontend. See our headless CMS guide for decoupled architectures.

Can multiple people edit the same post?

Ghost doesn’t support real-time collaborative editing (like Google Docs). If two people open the same post, the last save wins. For team workflows, use post assignments and the “Draft” → “In review” → “Published” status progression.

How do I add custom CSS to a single post?

Use the per-post code injection in post settings (gear icon → Code injection). Add a <style> tag with your CSS. It only applies to that specific post. For site-wide custom CSS, use Settings → Code injection.

Can I import content from WordPress or Substack?

Yes. Ghost has built-in importers for both platforms. For WordPress, export your content as XML and use Ghost’s importer. For Substack, use Ghost’s dedicated Substack migration tool. Both handle content, images, and redirects.