I did this as an undergrad with omeka and neatline. Neatline is a mapping application but you can set the background to be a static image and then add annotations.

I know it's not wordpress, however.

Lena

Lena Bohman
Senior Data Management and Research Impact Librarian
Long Island Jewish - Forest Hills Liaison
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
[Learn to use Open Athens on the Library’s YouTube channel]<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ7OuwLufMv1_8OtFC8xzRUAXpXTqYInG>
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From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of R. C. Miessler <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2026 2:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] image annotation with WordPress

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No, this placing a marker on an image on a website and having it be interactive for an end user.

https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorymap.knightlab.com%2Fgigapixel%2F&data=05%7C02%7Clena.g.bohman%40HOFSTRA.EDU%7C612ffbfc63844d4fb7a808de628dafb7%7Ce32fc43d7c6246d9b49fcd53ba8d9424%7C0%7C0%7C639056557871346444%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8nKmql6VpXK4ZAjBA1EwfA%2FPCiYf1UPvBwtsgkqpglo%3D&reserved=0<https://storymap.knightlab.com/gigapixel/> - essentially this approach. Not metadata. The reason I'm not going with StoryMapJS's Gigapixel is because running all of their images through Zoomify is a giant pain.

R.C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Joe Hourclé
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2026 12:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] image annotation with WordPress

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> On Feb 2, 2026, at 12:24 PM, R. C. Miessler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Does anyone have any good recommendations for image annotation + WordPress solutions? I was using Thinglink but they changed their pricing structure ($35 -> $3500) for the same features. Either a plugin hosted on our multisite instance, or an embeddable option from another site is fine. I'm fine with paying a little bit ($200 max would be best).
>
> For context - this is for undergraduate students who are creating research project websites using a WordPress multisite instance, and often used Thinglink to annotate images as part of their data analysis and presentation, so something with a fairly low barrier to entry is helpful. Each student having their own login is necessary.


Are you looking for something to modify the metadata in the files themselves (EXIF, IPTC, XMP, etc), or are you just looking for something to manage a database of images in wordpress?

If it's one of the metadata ones, if you know which encoding they're using, you might be able to find a suitable editor by searching for that specifically.

(sorry, I can't help answer the specific question, as I'm not all that familiar with what's available for online editing; I've been more of a consumer than maintainer, and used CLI tools)

-Joe
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