I've been using a neat little tool called jquery-isotope to create a masonry style layout for the blog posts on my website. It's set up with two columns, showcasing two different post types - long form articles and image-only posts.
The masonry feature is running smoothly overall, but I'm encountering some challenges when it comes to the arrangement of elements. The image-only posts are much shorter in height compared to the long-form content. Isotope organizes the elements based on the positions of previously placed items, which can cause issues in how they are displayed.
The problem arises when multiple short image-only posts appear before a long article, resulting in one column being significantly longer than the other. This leads to skewed layouts like the following:
My main concern isn't necessarily ordering the posts by date, author, or category. What matters most to me is achieving an aesthetically pleasing layout. Ideally, I'd like Isotope to position elements in a way that minimizes white space and creates a visually compact design. In an ideal scenario, the layout would look something like this:
Is there a method to customize Isotope or any similar masonry library to achieve this desired effect?