How can I add captions to my images?

Q

Following one of your earlier recommendations, I installed Faststone Image Viewer as an alternative to the now discontinued Picasa. However, I can’t find a way to add captions – something I used to do in Picasa to identify flowers, birds and so on. Is there a suitable alternative? Peter Ashton

A

Hold off clicking that Uninstall button. It’s not made obvious, but Faststone ( www.snipca. com/37342) does let you add captions. Select the relevant photo, then press T to open the JPEG Comment window (see screenshot). You can now enter your caption in the text box below the thumbnail. To save your caption, click Close. The JPEG Comment window will remain open if you select other image thumbnails, allowing you to add captions to more images or view existing ones.

Just as with Picasa, Faststone will save all captions to your images’ metadata, meaning you can view them using other programs. This is particularly good news for Peter because it means he can use Faststone to view any captions you previously added in Picasa.

Faststone also has a tool that lets you apply annotations, which may be useful if you want to mark specific parts of your photos. To use this, double-click your image, then press D to open the Draw Board window. Click the ‘A’ button in the left-hand sidebar, draw a text box on your image, then enter your text (you can adjust the font style, size and colour in the Text Style box). You can then add arrows and other objects from the sidebar. Using the controls at the bottom, you can adjust (or remove) the text box’s background, add a border and change its opacity level. Click ‘OK’ when you’ve finished. Faststone will offer to save the image - we recommend giving it a new file name, otherwise the annotations will be applied permanently to your original image.

Do you need our advice on what software to use? Just email us at letters@computeractive.co.uk