[Post Featured Image]: add option to display image caption/credit

What problem does this address?

When using a block theme that leverages wp:post-featured-image to display a post's featured image, there is no caption being rendered by that block, nor is there an option to do so.

Jetpack for example offers external media providers like Openverse and Pexels that users can select from when setting a featured image. Generally, the Caption field is used to credit the source, and you'll see that themes like Twenty Twenty will render the caption/credit for featured images by default.

Concern originally raised in: Automattic/jetpack#23408

What is your proposed solution?

Given the fluid discussion in: #27617

I'm not quite sure at this point, but I think it'd be nice to have an option that would show the caption/credit for the featured image - especially when the images are sourced from a third-party. At bare minimum, at least have the figcaption output in the HTML even if it's not visually displayed.

I can't use Gutenberg themes, until it displays the ~~description~~ caption. I stored all the copyright notices there.

That would indeed be a nice option, e.g. by ticking in the properties whether that should be shown.

@kaffeeringe

@kaffeeringe even in classic PHP based themes, displaying the description is a custom solution.
Chances are that this field will never be supported by the block by default. You may want to consider moving the data to another field in your database, like the caption.

I learnt that none of the media captions use the caption text from the media library.
So if we want the caption to use the media library data by default, they all need to be updated, not only the post featured image block.

I want to read up on the history and why this choice was made.
It is probably because the same media can be used in multiple places and one caption may not be enough because it is situational. But it has that side effect that existing data is not easily available.

@carolinan

@carolinan Sorry, I mixed up the fields. I use Wordpress in German and there caption and description are called "Beschriftung" and "Beschreibung" and I always mix them up. I use the caption field with my images.

It would be nice if the caption was only the suggested caption if you use an image in a block or as featured image. So you can reuse an image with different captions.

It could be used as a pre-filled placeholder, interesting idea.

I'm refactoring a couple of websites into FSE, and I really wish this was available in the Featured Image block. (I don't need it for copyright declarations, but sure would like it for traditional captions.

@janvitos

Greetings,

I agree that the ability to show captions on featured images should be rolled into WP. Until then, I came up with the following workaround:

Set up a block variation. "For now, let’s create variations.js and put the file in our theme’s assets/js folder":

wp.blocks.registerBlockVariation(
    'core/post-featured-image',
    {
        name: 'sotp_post_featured_image',
        title: 'Post Featured Image + Caption',
        description: 'Displays the post\'s featured image with caption.',
        isActive: [ 'namespace' ],
        attributes: {
            namespace: 'sotp_post_featured_image',
            className: 'sotp-post-featured-image'
        },
        scope: [ 'inserter' ]
    }
);

"Next, you need to enqueue variations.js... This code should generally be placed in your theme’s functions.php..."

function example_enqueue_block_variations() {
	wp_enqueue_script(
		'example-enqueue-block-variations',
		get_template_directory_uri() . '/assets/js/variations.js',
		array( 'wp-blocks', 'wp-dom-ready' ),
		wp_get_theme()->get( 'Version' ),
		false
	);
}
add_action( 'enqueue_block_editor_assets', 'example_enqueue_block_variations' );

And finally filter the block render (functions.php):

function include_feature_image_caption($block_content, $block){
    if ( isset($block['attrs']['className']) && $block['attrs']['className'] === 'sotp-post-featured-image') {
        $caption = '<figcaption class="wp-element-caption">' . get_the_post_thumbnail_caption() . '</figcaption>';
        $block_content = str_replace('</figure>', $caption . '</figure>', $block_content);
    }
    return $block_content;
}
add_filter( 'render_block_core/post-featured-image', 'include_feature_image_caption', 10, 2 );

I make no guarantees for this code. Hope it helps someone.

[updated enqueuing as per @janvitos comment below.]

@jethin

Hope it helps someone

Works like a charm, thanks @jethin!

Just one thing: How do you register your block variation? Using PHP?

I did it this way, but I'm not sure it's the "proper way":

add_action( 'enqueue_block_editor_assets', function() {
    wp_enqueue_script( 'prefix-block-variations', THEME_JS_URL . 'block-variations.js', array( 'wp-blocks' ) );
});

IMO this should definitely be included inside the block with an option to disable (or enable) it. Any update on this being implemented anytime soon?

Screenshots: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/caption-for-post-featured-image/

Wondering about this since another user asked about it today. I'd love to see the ability to put credits / captions on featured images, especially with Openverse. :)

Hi all,

I just had the issue myself that I wanted to display the caption below a featured post image. (Using TT4, caption is saved with the image in the media library). Unfortunately, this was not possible.

As mentioned above, I would love the caption option to be added to the "Post Featured image" block like in the "Image" block. But different to the "image" block, I would prefer that the display of the caption is opt-in and not opt-out. This way, users are not confused, when suddenly captions appear under their featured post images.

+1 !!

Actually, it could be the easiest way to promote the OpenVerse, if the caption plus the licence would include a direct link to the openverse. Right, Matt?

+1 !!!!! to the featured image caption, and an alt text field in the block settings.

@jethin

Thank you @jethin for the workaround. I think this feature would make a great addition.

+1

@jethin

I've made plugin to implement this in the Featured Image block by adding an "Add caption" button to the block toolbar, the same button that appears in the Image block. When selected, a placeholder caption is displayed in the Site Editor and the current caption is rendered in a figcaption on the frontend like @jethin does in #40946 (comment). Writeup: Adding Caption & Lightbox to the Featured Image Block.

@westonruter

@westonruter Thanks for the plugin, it works great.

This should definitely be in core, but I'm glad we have that quick plugin option for now.

@westonruter

We also would find this useful. Our post template displays the post featured image, and it's critical for us that there is an accessible way to add a caption beneath it for image attribution and/or other caption context. Thanks @westonruter for the workaround--it would be great if this could be added to core.

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[Post Featured Image]: add option to display image caption/credit #40946

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[Post Featured Image]: add option to display image caption/credit #40946

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What problem does this address?

What is your proposed solution?

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kaffeeringe commented on Nov 25, 2022

hagege commented on Dec 31, 2022

carolinan commented on Jan 2, 2023

carolinan commented on Jan 4, 2023

kaffeeringe commented on Jan 4, 2023

carolinan commented on Jan 4, 2023

greening commented on Jun 19, 2023

jethin commented on Aug 17, 2023

janvitos commented on Aug 21, 2023

kevinpoot commented on Sep 21, 2023

belisama commented on Sep 27, 2023

supernovia commented on Oct 25, 2023

nickbohle commented on Jan 4, 2024

iamtakashi commented on Apr 9, 2024

nickbohle commented on Apr 11, 2024

dhanson-wp commented on Apr 12, 2024

noellesteegs commented on Apr 17, 2024

jordonrupp-dev commented on Aug 12, 2024

westonruter commented on May 18, 2025

JiveDig commented on Jun 25, 2025

nathan-barlow commented on Aug 4, 2026

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