Add a Caption or Visible Attribution to a Featured Image
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How can I lawfully attribute all images I use on WordPress? Because it’s the law, I want to add attribution to the featured images to explain copyright and I want it visible on the post itself, not on the homepage’s thumbnails. I see no simple way to do this. I have added captions in the Media Library, but they do not show on the post. It looks easy for images inserted into the post, but not so easy for the image I’m also using as a featured image. Is there some elegant workaround for this? Any way to insert a tiny text field above the title of the post and below the featured image at the top? Is there some order of events or button I need to press, or do I have to use code? Maybe I have to watermark every image to give attribution??? I have seen this question asked before, but none of the answers seem currently doable. Thank you.
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Hi @annafonte
Attribution is an important requirement, and it is good that you are putting care into it.
The featured image block is designed to output only the image itself, unlike the standard Image block, which includes a caption field by default. That is why captions added in the Media Library do not appear automatically when the same image is used as a featured image: https://wordpress.com/support/featured-images/
You can still show attribution in a clean and visible way. Here is one option that works with your current Twenty-Twenty Two block-based theme using the Site Editor:
- Go to Appearance > Editor
- In the Templates section, select the Single Post template
- Locate the Featured Image block at the top of the layout
- Add a Paragraph block just below the Featured Image block
- Insert the attribution or copyright information there
This keeps the credit visible on the post itself and out of the homepage thumbnails and will be applied to all published posts with a featured image set.
For a visual reference, here is a short walkthrough you can follow:
https://share.cleanshot.com/1DlRtR2f
Let me know if you have other questions. -
What I’ve done previously is add a note at the end of my post saying something like:
“Featured image by (insert name) on (website name and link)”It’s important to note that any image under copyright that you use must be with the prior permission of the copyright holder and in accordance with the copyright holder’s copyright notice or Creative Commons license. If the image is in the Public Domain or CC0, no attribution is usually necessary.
Hope that also helps.
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Thank you so much for this, and for the extremely helpful video! I think the problem is that this “will be applied to all published posts with a featured image set.” Instead of a common/generic “copyright #year” label applied to all featured images, I need a way to show each featured image’s unique copyright owner/info below it. Am I correct that your solution does not allow me to attribute each image but only adds a generic tag to all featured images? And that WordPress currently does not allow me to attribute my featured images properly? Or have I missed something?
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Thank you justjennifer. I believe this may be the only solution, even though it’s clunky. I sure wish WP allowed me to cite each image’s owner more responsibly.
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You’re right — the current setup applies the same credit to all featured images. At the moment, WordPress doesn’t have a built-in way to display unique attributions for each featured image.
The best option is to include the image credit manually within each post — either just below the image in the content or at the end of the post. That way, each image gets proper and specific attribution. Let me know if you have more questions!
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Hello again, while what @janrickcarl suggested does work, adding specific copyright information to a template (such as “Copyright 2025”) means that this specific information will appear on each published post using that template. Since it’s likely that you’ll be using different images as featured images, I imagine you’d also want to add the relevant copyright information for that specific featured image.
You can add a Paragraph at the end of your post with “Insert Featured Image attribution or copyright information here” and save it as an unsynced Pattern. https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/create-a-pattern/#unsynced-patterns so when you add the copyright information on your current post, it doesn’t overwrite the information in other posts. However, the disadvantage here is you’d need to add that Attribution Pattern to each Post manually.
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