- Where to find it
- Labelled Embed Aspect Ratio in the "Selected Component" section of the Modify drawer.
- Offered by
- The Embed component. Other components do not have this setting.
- Per device
- Yes — you can set one value for every screen, or separate values for phone, tablet, and desktop.
In plain English
An embed has no size of its own the way a photograph does, so something has to say what shape the box should be. This is that setting, expressed as a proportion rather than a height: 16:9 means "for every 16 across, 9 down". The advantage of a proportion is that it stays right at every screen width, so the embed does not need a separate height for phones.
You can usually leave this alone. Unset, each provider gets the shape its content expects — widescreen for a video, a boxier 4:3 for a map, and a plain height for a booking page, which has no natural shape at all.
Reach for it when the content is not the usual shape. A vertical video shot on a phone wants 9:16, and looks postage-stamp sized inside a widescreen box.
What each option does
| Option | What you will see |
|---|---|
16:9 | Widescreen. The shape of nearly all video, and the default for YouTube and Vimeo. |
4:3 | Boxier and taller. The default for a map, where showing more of the surrounding streets helps. |
1:1 | A perfect square. |
9:16 | Tall and narrow — a phone held upright. For Shorts and other vertical video. |
21:9 | A very wide letterbox, wider than a cinema screen. |
none | No fixed shape. The embed is 700 pixels tall until you set Height on the column. |
When you would use it
- A vertical video — a Short, a Reel, anything filmed on a phone — which needs 9:16.
- A map you want square, or shorter and wider than the default.
- A booking page or form that needs a specific height: choose "none", then set Height under "Selected Column".
How to change it
- Click the embed on the canvas.
- In the Modify drawer, open "Selected Component", then "Embed Aspect Ratio".
- Choose a shape, or "none" to set the height yourself on the column.
- Uncheck "Same value for all resolutions" to use a different shape on phones.
One value, or one per device? Every input in this setting sits under a “Same value for all resolutions” checkbox. Leave it checked for a single value everywhere, or uncheck it to give phones, tablets, and desktops their own. How per-device values work.
Watch out for
- A tall shape such as 9:16 fills the column width, so on a desktop it can end up enormous. Pair it with Max Width on the column — around 320 to 400 pixels reads like a phone screen.
- Choosing "none" without setting Height on the column leaves the embed at 700 pixels tall, which is right for a booking page and probably wrong for anything else.
- This changes the shape of the box, not the shape of the content inside it. A widescreen video in a square box gets black bars from the provider — RuleCMS is not adding them.
Related settings
Where to go next
- Back to the Embed component — everything else it can do.
- The Composer — the editing surface these settings live in.
- Publishing — how a change like this reaches your live site.