Photo captions, also known as cutlines, are a few lines of text used to explain and elaborate on published photographs.^[1] In some cases captions and cutlines are distinguished, where the caption is a short (usually one-line) title/explanation for the photo, while the cutline is a longer, prose block under the caption, generally describing the photograph, giving context, or relating it to the article.^[2]

Captions more than a few sentences long are often referred to as a "copy block". They are a type of display copy. Display copy also includes headlines and contrasts with "body copy", such as newspaper articles and magazines.^{[citation needed]} Captions can also be generated by automatic image captioning software.