How to add text, captions to photos

April 16, 2023 2:51 PM

I have some photos residing on my pc (windows 10) that I want to add some simple text to. It doesn't have to be fancy. It could be a caption beneath the photo like in the newspapers. I wanted to add text to some photos before I emailed them.

But I haven't not been able to discover a way to do that. I have the last stand-alone version of Lightroom ( I didn't want to subscribe to Adobe). It appears that Lightroom wants to create a slideshow. Also, the photo editor in Windows only creates animated text. Both of these are way overkill for what I want.

Is there a simpler way to accomplish added text/captions to photos? The simpler solution the better. Perhaps there is a way to add text beneath a photo before emailing? Assuming it would maintain that format to the recipient. I email using gmail, btw.

posted by jtexman1 to Technology (8 answers total)

Just to clarify, I'm assuming you want different text below each picture, for example "Alice and Bob outside the Rubovian National Museum" rather than every picture having the same text, for example "February 2023 trip to Rubovia"?

Also, do you want the text to be in a new blank rectangle that is created under the existing image (changing the image dimensions) or superimposed over the image (keeping the image dimensions the same)?
posted by Busy Old Fool at 2:59 PM on April 16, 2023

Response by poster: Yes, the text below each picture, like your description. Not the same text for each photo, but text describing that particular shot. I would prefer the text to be in a blank rectangle below rather than the text superimposed, if possible. Thanks
posted by jtexman1 at 3:02 PM on April 16, 2023

Response by poster: Like if you were to text a photo from your phone, you could a text about the pic. Something like that. In this I am using my PC
posted by jtexman1 at 3:04 PM on April 16, 2023

Lightroom can do this for you.
posted by Candleman at 3:09 PM on April 16, 2023

You may have a working answer already above. If it doesn't meet your needs, I can write up an alternative approach using some freeware I'm familiar with.

One additional question is whether you prefer (1) to add the blank space to all the images at once, which is slightly more fiddly but will be quicker in the long run if you have a lot of images or (2) add the blank space to each image at the same time which is simpler if you only want to caption a few images.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:24 PM on April 16, 2023

Response by poster: Yes, a different caption or text for each photo.
posted by jtexman1 at 3:33 PM on April 16, 2023

How many photos are we talking about? If it's handful Canva is super straightforward.
posted by pyro979 at 3:53 PM on April 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think the built in Photos app in Windows will do this and if not classic Paint certainly does. It doesn't have to animated, I'm sure there's a regular ordinary text option.
posted by fiercekitten at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2023