WORDPRESS PLUGIN · FREE · GPLv2
Every Image. Properly Credited.
Know where each picture came from — and show it.
Image Credit Companion finds every image you publish, keeps author, source and licence next to it, and displays the credit where readers see it — as a caption, an overlay on the image, or a source list under the article. Paste an Unsplash or Pexels credit and the fields fill themselves.
Free & GPLv2 · Finds images automatically · Unsplash & Pexels one-paste import · Nothing sent to external services · Tested up to WordPress 7.0
The problem: nobody remembers where the picture came from
An image gets downloaded on a Tuesday, dropped into a post on a Thursday, and reused three times over the next year. Six months later the licence terms are a memory, the photographer’s name is gone, and the only record is a filename like pexels-1431940.jpg. Multiply that by a media library with two thousand entries and “which images may we actually use?” becomes unanswerable.
The solution: capture it once, show it everywhere
The plugin scans every post you save and records which images it uses. Author, source and licence live on the image itself, so the information follows it into every article. One screen shows what is still missing, and readers see the credit as a caption, an overlay or a source list — without you touching a template.
Nothing to remember
Saving a post is enough. The plugin detects images in blocks, galleries, covers and classic HTML and records where each one is used.
Attribution in one paste
Copy the credit line Unsplash or Pexels gives you, paste it, hit “Parse & Fill Fields”. Author, source URL, licence name and licence URL land in place.
Credits readers actually see
A caption under the picture, a discreet overlay on it, or a tidy source list at the end of the article — the same data, wherever it fits your design.
Plugin features
Everything you need to keep image attribution under control — and nothing that turns it into a second job.
Automatic image detection
Every save scans the content for images — Image, Gallery, Cover and Media & Text blocks, classic editor HTML and inline images in paragraphs — and records which post uses which picture.
Quick Attribution Import
Paste the credit snippet from Unsplash or Pexels — or your own HTML — and the plugin parses author, source URL, licence name and licence URL into the right fields. The part everyone gets wrong becomes a single paste.
Metadata where you already are
Fill in the details from the Gutenberg sidebar while writing, from the media modal when uploading, or from the admin list when catching up. Defaults can be applied to new uploads automatically.
A dashboard that shows the gaps
Total images, posts with images, missing author, missing licence, recent usage. The table lists every picture with its author, source, licence, the posts it appears in and when it was last seen — filterable and sortable.
Bulk editing
Select a batch of images and set author and licence for all of them at once — the only realistic way to clean up a library that grew for years without any attribution.
Credits directly on the image
Show each credit as a caption below the picture or as an overlay on it — bottom left, centre or right — with your own prefix text, background colour, opacity and edge distance, on one line or stacked.
Featured images too
Choose exactly where featured-image credits appear: single posts, pages, the blog index, archives, search results. Cover-block heroes get an overlay instead of a hidden line, and Elementor’s featured image widget is handled as well.
Lists, blocks and shortcodes
Output sources as a bullet list, numbered list, inline text or table — through the “Image Sources” block, [imagcrco_image_sources] with post or site scope, [imagcrco_image_credit] for a single picture, or automatic injection after post content.
Templates you can override
Drop list-ul.php, list-ol.php or list-inline.php into your theme to take full control of the markup, or hook the eiam_image_credit_html filter for the per-image credit.
Your data stays yours
Usage lives in an indexed custom table, metadata as attachment meta — all in your own database, nothing sent anywhere. Multisite compatible, translation ready, with a German translation bundled.
What people use it for
News & magazine sites
Where a missing photo credit is a professional embarrassment and a legal risk at the same time, and where dozens of images go live every week.
Blogs built on stock photos
Unsplash and Pexels ask for attribution in return for free images. This is the tool that makes keeping that promise take five seconds.
Agencies & multi-author teams
Ten authors, one standard. The overview shows at a glance who left the licence field empty, long before a client asks.
Education & public sector
Sites that have to document provenance for every asset, and that need one page listing all image sources on demand.
Live in three steps
- Install and activate the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory.
- Open Settings → Image Credits to set defaults and choose how credits are displayed.
- Add author, source and licence in the editor sidebar or the media modal — and use Media → Image Sources to fill the gaps.
Existing posts are picked up as soon as they are saved, and a scan can be run across the whole site. Nothing needs to be entered twice: the credit belongs to the image, not to the article.
Technical details
| Version | 1.2.2 |
| WordPress | 6.0 or higher |
| Tested up to | 7.0 |
| PHP | 7.4 or higher |
| Settings | Settings → Image Credits |
| Block | Image Sources |
| Shortcodes | [imagcrco_image_sources] · [imagcrco_image_credit] |
| License | GPLv2 or later |
Screenshots
What it is — and what it isn’t
Image Credit Companion is a record-keeping and display tool. It finds your images, holds the attribution you give it, shows you what is still missing, and puts the credit in front of readers in a consistent form. For a site that publishes pictures regularly, that is the difference between an answerable question and a shrug.
What it cannot do is know an image’s licence by itself. It reads nothing out of a photo and checks nothing against a rights database — the author, source and licence are what you enter. It also only sees images that go through WordPress’ own attachment handling, so pictures injected by a page builder that bypasses the media library stay invisible to it.
And it is not legal advice. Attribution requirements differ by licence, by country and by how you use the image; a correct credit line is one part of that, not the whole of it. Treat the plugin as the thing that makes doing it right cheap enough to actually do.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add image credits in WordPress?
Install Image Credit Companion and enter author, source and licence for a picture — in the Gutenberg sidebar while writing, in the media modal when uploading, or in bulk under Media → Image Sources. The credit then appears wherever that image is used, as a caption, an overlay or a source list, depending on what you choose in the settings.
Do I have to enter every credit by hand?
Not for stock photos. Copy the attribution snippet Unsplash or Pexels offers, paste it into Quick Attribution Import and press “Parse & Fill Fields” — author, source URL, licence name and licence URL are filled automatically. You can also apply default values to every new upload.
Which images does the plugin find?
Image, Gallery, Cover and Media & Text blocks, images in classic editor HTML, and inline images inside paragraphs. Detection runs whenever a post is saved, and the whole site can be scanned at once.
Can I show the credit on the image itself?
Yes. Since version 1.2.0 the credit can appear as a caption below the picture or as an overlay on it — bottom left, centre or right — with your own prefix, background colour, opacity and distance from the edges, on a single line or stacked.
Does it work with the Classic Editor and with Elementor?
Classic Editor content is detected as reliably as blocks. For Elementor, the featured image widget in the Theme Builder is supported, including theme-specific widgets and CSS background layouts — and [imagcrco_image_credit] places a credit anywhere in a builder template. Images added by builders that bypass the WordPress media library are not detected.
Can I list every image of my site on one page?
Yes. [imagcrco_image_sources scope="site"] outputs a paginated list of all tracked images — useful as a central image credits page linked from your legal notice.
Can I bulk edit an existing media library?
Yes, and it is the fastest way to catch up. The overview filters images by what is missing, and the bulk editor sets author and licence for a whole selection at once.
Can I control the markup?
Yes. Choose between bullet list, numbered list, inline text and table, set your own separator and prefix label, override the templates in your theme, or hook the eiam_image_credit_html filter for the per-image credit.
Does the plugin send data anywhere?
No. Usage is stored in a custom table in your database and the metadata as attachment meta. No personal data is collected and nothing is transmitted to external services.
Is Image Credit Companion free?
Yes. It is published in the official WordPress plugin directory under GPLv2 or later, with no paid tier and no upsell inside the plugin.
Changelog
1.2.2
- New: generic Elementor detection — featured image credits now also work with theme-specific widgets and CSS background layouts.
- New: fallback for themes that render the featured image directly instead of through the standard template function.
- Safety: multi-image widgets such as sliders, galleries and related posts are never touched by the generic detection.
1.2.1
- New: Elementor support for the Featured Image widget in the Theme Builder.
- New: choose exactly where featured image credits appear — single posts, pages, blog index, archives and search results.
- New:
[imagcrco_image_credit]shortcode for page builder templates, and Cover block support with the credit as an overlay. - Fixed: theme-safe wrappers — image size and position are no longer affected by the credit output.
1.2.0
- New: credits directly on images — as a caption below the picture or as an overlay, for featured images and content images alike.
- New: optional prefix text, overlay colour, opacity, edge distance, and single-line or stacked layout.
- New:
eiam_image_credit_htmlfilter for customising the per-image credit output. - Fixed: fatal error when a shortcode was used without attributes, and the
per_pageattribute is honoured again.
1.1.0
- Fixed: the Gutenberg sidebar panel now loads, and bulk editing actually saves author, source and licence.
- Fixed: image detection from plain URLs, “Apply Defaults” in the editor sidebar, and several caching and namespace issues.
- Improved: posts are scanned once per save; the dynamic block is registered from its block.json.
- Compatibility: tested up to WordPress 7.0, minimum raised to 6.0.
1.0.1
- Fixed: custom colours, separator and prefix label settings, and the licence type dropdown now work as documented.
- New: the output theme applies to every output style, and a German translation is bundled.
- Improved: direct file access protection, Block API v3, and all Plugin Check warnings resolved.
1.0.0
- Initial release: automatic image detection, Gutenberg sidebar, admin interface with filtering and bulk editing.
- Shortcodes, dynamic block, theme template overrides and full internationalisation.
Give every image the credit it deserves
Free, GPL-licensed, and set up in three steps from the WordPress plugin directory.
Version 1.2.2 · GPLv2 or later · Desk9 Design