Creative Tag Cloud – WordPress Plugin

Make your WordPress site stand out with a stylish tag cloud. Display your tags in a spiral or in waves.

  • Two tag clouds: spiral and waves.
  • Easy to set up.
  • Usable as widget or shortcode.
  • Works with custom taxonomies.
  • Use multiple tag clouds of the same type on the same page.
  • Both tag clouds work out of the box but can also be customized with a variety of options.
  • Optionally black-and-white or colored.
  • Ready for your own custom color scheme.

 

The plugin Creative Tag Cloud is available at WordPress.org.

Chatty Mango Tag Cloud Icon

Spiral Tag Cloud

The spiral starts on the outside with the largest tag. The start point and the direction can be customized. The size depends on the number of cycles, the font size and the line spacing, all of which can be customized as well. You can also supply your own separator between tags and a custom text for the tooltip, visible when hoovering the mouse pointer over a tag.

The spiral tag cloud comes with an “auto” setting that tries to adjust the size to the amount of the available tags, but you still might need to fine tune the settings in order to minimize the free space in the center or prevent the cloud from being cut off at the edges if the total space is too small.

Wave Tag Cloud

The wave starts on the left side with the largest tag. If you have more than one wave, then the tags are distributed on all waves equally. You can customize the number of waves and tags, the frequency (tightness of waves), increasing opacity and more. You can also supply your own separator between tags and a custom text for the tooltip, visible when hoovering the mouse pointer over a tag.

The wave tag cloud comes with an “auto” setting that tries to adjust the number of tags to the length of the waves, but you still might need to fine tune the settings in order to achieve the best result.

Custom Colors

All tags with the same post count receive the same color. The plugin comes with a default color scheme, but you can easily replace it with your own stylesheet that determines these colors.

Screenshots

Screenshot - Chatty Mango Tag Cloud - Spiral Tag Cloud
Screenshot - Chatty Mango Tag Cloud - Wave Tag Cloud

Other Notes

  • Due to the amount of factors that determine the arrangement of tags, you often have to manually fine-tune the parameters of the settings. You can do that in the widget or through the shortcode parameters.
  • The tag order is always from largest to smallest (determined by post count).
  • For custom colors and other style customizations, you need to provide your own style sheet. Basic CSS skills and file access are required.
  • The last visible tags (in the center or at the right end) may be cut.
  • In some browsers, some fonts appear with incorrect letter spacing. You are therefore advised to test your font with various settings.
  • The plugin currently supports only left-to-right wave direction.

Compatibility

The tag clouds need to be viewed on a modern web browser.1

Check out my other plugins

Are your WordPress tags really helpful or are they just a big mess? Install the free plugin Tag Groups and organize your tags in groups – by topic, by year, by place, by anything.

Licenses and Credits

GNU General Public License version 3. This plugin uses jQuery and jQuery UI that come bundled with WordPress.

Tip Jar

Yes, this plugin is free but it takes much effort to maintain it and to provide support. Your donation is a great way to keep me motivated! If you travel, please book your hotel via this affiliate link so that I will receive a percentage.If you find this plugin useful, I would also appreciate a five-star-rating.

Footnotes

  1. Minimum versions are Internet Explorer 10, Chrome 32 or Firefox 23, and stock browser on Android 4.0+, Safari on iOS 7+. Older browsers may show the tags as simple list. Please note that Internet Explorer before version 11 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Check the demos with your favorite browser if you want to see how the tag clouds render. See the current browser version market shares if you are unclear about the significance of older browser versions.[]