Rubik Variant Images Theme Compatibility

Rubik Variant Images on Krown Themes: Local, Combine, Borders, Highlight, Split & Kingdom (2026)

Q: How much does Rubik Variant Images cost?

Flat pricing: Free ($0, 1 product), Starter ($25/month, 100 products), Advanced ($50/month, 1,000 products), Premium ($75/month, unlimited). Every plan includes AI credits.

April 17, 2026

Rubik Variant Images on Krown Themes: Local, Combine, Borders, Highlight, Split & Kingdom (2026)

Krown Themes builds some of the best-designed themes on Shopify. Six themes, each with its own gallery layout, each with its own quirks when it comes to variant images. Local, Combine, Borders, Highlight, Split, Kingdom. If you run one of them and your product page shows every image at once regardless of which variant the customer picks, you are not alone. Shopify’s default behavior is to show all media in one giant gallery. That is a problem when your products have 8 colors and 4 photos each.

Rubik Variant Images has detection code for every Krown theme. It assigns multiple images per variant, filters the product gallery when a customer picks a color (or size, or material), and replaces the default variant picker with visual swatches. No code editing. No theme file changes. Works through Shopify’s app embed system.

Krown is based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, not Paris (a common mix-up). They have powered over 30,000 brands and won a 2024 Shopify Build Award. Their themes range from $280 to $380. All six are fully supported by Rubik.

Quick overview of all 6 Krown themes

We have tested and verified Rubik on every Krown theme. Each one uses a different product gallery layout, which means each one needs its own detection logic. That work is already done on our end. You install the app, toggle the embed, and it just works. But the themes themselves differ significantly in how they display product images, so here is what to expect from each one.

Quick context on why this matters: Krown themes are not lightweight starter themes. They are premium, design-heavy themes with custom JavaScript gallery implementations. Many variant image apps struggle with premium themes because the gallery code is non-standard. We built specific handlers for each Krown theme, which is sort of the whole reason this post exists.

Local ($380, food and beverage)

Local is designed for food and beverage brands. It uses a clean gallery layout with vertical thumbnails on desktop and a swipeable carousel on mobile. The theme emphasizes large product photos with plenty of white space around them.

Where Rubik filters images: the main product gallery and thumbnail strip. When a customer picks a flavor or size, only the relevant photos stay in the gallery. The thumbnail strip updates too. No leftover images from other variants cluttering the view.

Recommended swatch type: Image swatches work especially well on Local. For food products (think protein powders with 6 flavors, or coffee bags in different roasts), an image swatch showing the actual packaging gives shoppers an instant visual cue. Color circles don’t communicate “Vanilla Bean” vs “Chocolate Mint” very well, do they?

Real use case: A supplement brand with 12 flavors and 3 sizes. That is 36 variants. Each flavor has a front shot, a back shot showing nutrition info, and a lifestyle image. Without variant filtering, that is 36 images in one gallery. With Rubik, a customer selecting “Chocolate, Large” sees exactly 3 images. Clean.

Combine ($380, home and beauty)

Combine targets home goods and beauty stores. It features a grid-style gallery on the product page (not a slider), which makes image filtering visually dramatic. When you switch variants, the entire grid updates with the correct images.

Where Rubik filters images: the grid gallery. Combine’s grid layout shows multiple images at once in a mosaic pattern. Rubik replaces the grid contents with only the images assigned to the selected variant.

Recommended swatch type: Color swatches for beauty products (lipstick shades, foundation tones, nail polish colors). The solid color circle maps directly to the product shade. For home goods with patterns or textures (throw pillows, curtains), image swatches work better because a pattern cannot be reduced to a single color.

Real use case: A candle brand selling 8 scents, each in 2 sizes. Each scent has unique packaging photography. 16 variants, 3 photos per variant, 48 images total. Without filtering? A mess. With Rubik on Combine’s grid layout, you see 3 images per selection. The grid looks intentional instead of chaotic.

Borders ($380, fashion)

Borders is Krown’s fashion-focused theme. It uses full-bleed product imagery with minimal chrome around it. The product gallery is large, often taking up most of the viewport. This is where variant image filtering matters most, because the bigger the gallery, the more painful it is to scroll through irrelevant images.

Where Rubik filters images: the full-width gallery and any thumbnail navigation Borders renders. On mobile, Borders uses a swipeable carousel, and Rubik controls which slides appear in that carousel.

Recommended swatch type: Color swatches for clothing (solid colors) or image swatches for patterned fabrics. Mix types across option groups: color circles for Color, pill buttons for Size. Each option group can have its own swatch type. We built that flexibility specifically because fashion stores always have multiple option types that need different visual treatments.

Real use case: An apparel brand with a jacket available in 10 colors. Each color has a front shot, back shot, detail shot, and on-model shot. 40 images. A customer interested in the navy version should not see 36 other images. Borders’ bold layout amplifies this problem because every image is huge. Rubik fixes it.

Highlight ($280, boutique)

Highlight is the more affordable Krown option for boutique stores. It has a standard slider gallery with dots or thumbnails for navigation. Less visually aggressive than Borders, but the same variant image problem applies.

Where Rubik filters images: the slider gallery. When a customer picks a variant, the slider resets to show only the assigned images. The navigation dots update to reflect the correct image count. No phantom dots pointing to images that are not there.

Recommended swatch type: Image swatches for boutique products where each variant looks very different (handmade items, artisan goods). Color swatches for straightforward color variants. Pill buttons if your option is something like “Style” or “Material” where neither color nor image makes sense.

Real use case: A jewelry store with rings in gold, silver, and rose gold. Each metal has 4 photos (close-up, on hand, in box, flat lay). 12 images total. Highlight’s slider handles this fine visually, but without filtering, a customer looking at the gold ring sees silver and rose gold photos in the slider too. That creates doubt. “Wait, is this the gold one?” Rubik removes the doubt.

Split ($280, storytelling)

Split is built for brands that want to tell a story on the product page. It uses a split-screen layout: images on one side, product details on the other. The gallery is typically a vertical scrolling stack of images on the left half of the screen.

Where Rubik filters images: the left-side image stack. When variants change, Rubik updates the scrolling image stack to show only the relevant media. This is important on Split because the vertical stack layout means customers scroll through images top to bottom. If there are 20 irrelevant images in that stack, the customer has to scroll past all of them.

Recommended swatch type: Depends entirely on your products. Split attracts lifestyle brands, editorial brands, and direct-to-consumer brands that invest heavily in photography. For these stores, image swatches often work best because they show the actual product variant at a glance. But honestly? Try both color and image swatches and see which one your customers respond to.

Real use case: A skincare brand with a serum available in 4 formulations (Brightening, Hydrating, Anti-Aging, Calming). Each formulation has its own packaging design and 5 lifestyle shots. 20 images total. Split’s storytelling layout is perfect for this, but only if the customer sees the right 5 images for the formulation they selected. Rubik makes that happen.

Kingdom ($280, classic)

Kingdom is Krown’s classic theme. Traditional layout, standard gallery with thumbnails, proven structure. It is the most “normal” of the six Krown themes, which means it also has the most predictable gallery implementation. Rubik’s detection code works smoothly on Kingdom.

Where Rubik filters images: the standard gallery and thumbnail strip. Kingdom uses a conventional gallery layout that most Shopify merchants are familiar with. The variant filtering works exactly as you would expect (select a variant, see only that variant’s images).

Recommended swatch type: Kingdom works well with all three swatch types. Color swatches for apparel and accessories, image swatches for products with visual variants, pill buttons for sizes and materials. Because Kingdom’s layout is classic and clean, the swatches integrate without visual tension.

Real use case: A home decor store with throw blankets in 6 colors and 2 sizes. Each color has a flat lay photo, a draped-on-couch photo, and a close-up texture shot. 18 images. Kingdom’s traditional gallery handles this well with Rubik filtering, showing 3 images per color selection.

Krown themes comparison

All six themes are verified and supported. Here is how they compare:

Theme	Price	Focus	Gallery type	Best swatch type	Rubik support
Local	$380	Food and beverage	Vertical thumbnails + carousel	Image swatches	Full
Combine	$380	Home and beauty	Grid / mosaic	Color or image	Full
Borders	$380	Fashion	Full-bleed slider	Color + pill mix	Full
Highlight	$280	Boutique	Standard slider	Image or color	Full
Split	$280	Storytelling	Vertical scroll stack	Image swatches	Full
Kingdom	$280	Classic	Standard + thumbnails	Any type	Full

One thing worth pointing out: if you switch between Krown themes, your image assignments carry over. They are stored in Shopify metafields, not in theme code. Move from Borders to Split? Your variant-to-image mapping stays intact. Rubik detects the new theme and adjusts its rendering automatically.

What Rubik adds to any Krown theme

Multiple images per variant. Assign unlimited images, videos, and 3D models to each variant. The gallery updates instantly on variant selection.
Three swatch types. Color swatches, image swatches, pill buttons. Mix types per option group on the same product.
AI auto-assign. Per-product AI that analyzes 5 data points (product title, variant name, option name, image filename, alt text) plus the image itself via vision API. One product at a time.
Bulk assign. Image-order based grouping across hundreds of products. Arrange images by variant in Shopify’s media gallery and the app detects boundaries. Not filename matching, not AI.
Common images. Mark size charts, brand logos, or lifestyle shots to display on every variant.
Shadow DOM isolation. Swatch CSS is isolated from the theme CSS. No style conflicts with Krown’s custom styling.
100+ CSS variables. Customize swatch size, shape, spacing, borders, hover effects, and more through the visual editor or custom CSS.
Metafield-based loading. No external API calls. Variant image data loads with the page itself.

Rubik Variant Images theme integration with all popular themes

Setup walkthrough (5 minutes)

Install Rubik Variant Images from the Shopify App Store. Free plan covers 1 product so you can test on your Krown theme before committing.
Enable the app embed. Go to your Krown theme editor, open App Embeds, toggle on Rubik Variant Images, and save. This is how the app injects itself into your theme without touching any code files.
Open a product in the Rubik dashboard. You will see your product images on the left and variant options on the right. Click a variant, then click the images you want assigned to it. Or use drag-and-drop.
Try AI auto-assign. For products with well-named files or descriptive alt text, click the AI button and let the app match images automatically. Review and tweak if needed. Uses your monthly AI credits.
Save and preview. Visit the product page on your storefront. Click between variants. The Krown gallery should update instantly, showing only the assigned images for each variant.

For bulk setup across many products, use bulk assign to process your entire catalog. Arrange images by variant order in Shopify’s media library, and the app figures out the boundaries automatically.

Need help? Something not rendering right? Check the variant images not showing fix guide, or reach out through the in-app chat. We respond fast.

See it in action

Watch a general walkthrough of how Rubik Variant Images works on Shopify themes:

“This app works perfectly for linking variant images to product options. Super easy to set up and integrates smoothly with my Shopify theme. It’s saved me so much time and made the shopping experience much clearer for customers. The support team was also quick and helpful.”
Anonymous merchant, 5-star review, October 2025, Rubik Variant Images on the Shopify App Store

Pairing with Rubik Combined Listings

Rubik Variant Images handles the product page. But what about collection pages? If you want color swatches on product cards in your collection grid, or if you need to link separate products together as variants (to bypass Shopify’s 100-variant limit), that is a different app: Rubik Combined Listings.

The two apps work together. RVI filters product page images per variant. RCL groups separate products and shows swatches on collection pages. Many stores use both. You can read more about how combined listings work on our sister site.

See the live demo store, watch the tutorial video, or read the getting started guide.

Try Rubik Variant Images free

Try Rubik Combined Listings free

Frequently asked questions

Does Rubik Variant Images work with all Krown themes?

Yes. All six Krown themes (Local, Combine, Borders, Highlight, Split, Kingdom) are verified and supported. Rubik has dedicated detection code for each theme’s gallery implementation. No code editing required.

Will my image assignments survive a theme switch within Krown?

Yes. Image assignments are stored in Shopify product metafields, not in your theme code. If you switch from Borders to Split (or any other combination), all variant-to-image mappings carry over. Rubik detects the new theme and adjusts rendering automatically.

Can I use Rubik on Krown’s Split layout with the side-by-side gallery?

Yes. Split uses a vertical scrolling image stack on one side of the product page. Rubik controls which images appear in that stack based on the selected variant. The split-screen layout works fully with variant image filtering.

Does Rubik show swatches on Krown collection pages?

No. Rubik Variant Images works on the product page only. For collection page swatches, use Rubik Combined Listings, which adds swatches to product cards on collection pages and supports all Krown themes.

How much does Rubik Variant Images cost?

Flat pricing, not based on your Shopify plan. Free ($0, 1 product), Starter ($25/month, 100 products), Advanced ($50/month, 1,000 products), Premium ($75/month, unlimited). Every plan includes monthly AI credits for the auto-assign feature.