A label every visitor can read.
Paste your label, or your notes about a work. You get a point-by-point review, and a suggested rewrite to edit.
- Free, no account
- 3 tries per day
- Processed in Europe
- Your texts are not stored
The same label reads differently depending on the venue and the audience.
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The review
The review will appear here.
This suggestion still needs your eye. You know the work, your display and your visitors: review before you print.
What is an exhibition label?
An exhibition label is the short text displayed next to a work. It identifies the work: maker, title, date, materials, provenance. It can also offer one key to look closer. It is the first act of interpretation between a collection and its visitors. Writing one demands clarity, brevity and simple sentences.
An extended label goes further. In a few sentences, it puts the work in context: its history, its making, one detail worth a closer look. More and more museums are rewriting their labels this way. The challenge: staying short, precise and readable while standing.
Two public references anchor this page. The label guide of the Service des musées de France, updated in July 2025. And the Victoria and Albert Museum’s writing guide.
An example: before, after
Before
French School, Virgin of Sorrows, 17th century. The Marian iconography, rendered in a chiaroscuro of Caravaggesque descent, attests to the circulation of transalpine models in the devotional painting of the period.
After the review
Virgin of Sorrows French School, 17th century Mary has just learned of her son’s death. The painter lights only her face and her hands: everything else stays in shadow. This way of painting came from Italy. Here it serves one purpose: showing grief, with no setting at all.
What goes in a label?
Three blocks stand apart. Keep them separate:
| Block | What it holds | The benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Maker, title or denomination, date, materials and techniques, provenance, museum number. | The order stays identical on every label in the display. |
| Interpretive text | The context of the work, one key to read it, one detail to look at. | 50 to 60 words; the first sentence carries the point. |
| Credits and mentions | How the work entered the collection, donor, photo rights. | Last, and quieter; mostly useful to specialists. |
The method behind good labels
The Service des musées de France and major museums publish their writing rules. The most effective fit in 6 moves:
- Put the most important information first. Hurried visitors will only read that sentence.
- Keep the first sentence under 16 words. Aim for 50 to 60 words, 150 to 500 characters overall.
- One idea per sentence. Visitors read standing up, often in company.
- Explain every technical term the first time it appears. One obscure word stops the reading.
- Point the eye to a visible detail. Do not describe what everyone already sees.
- Admit uncertainty. ‘Attributed to’, ‘probably’: visitors value honesty.
What a tool cannot do
No tool knows your work. Not ours, not any other.
A label carries the scholarly voice of your venue. That is why this tool follows one strict rule: add nothing, no date, no attribution, no interpretation. If your notes are incomplete, the suggestion must say so. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s writers hold their rule in one sentence:
‘Visitors have come to look at objects, not to read books on the wall.’
The label guide of the Service des musées de France points to another safeguard: rereading. The fine arts museum in Lille had its medieval labels reread. A dozen rereaders, from different backgrounds. No artificial intelligence replaces that gaze.
Take the suggestion for what it is: time saved on rewriting. Approval stays with your team, and with your visitors.
Frequently asked questions about labels
What is an extended label?
A simple label identifies the work: maker, title, date, materials. An extended label adds a few sentences of interpretation. It puts the work in context: its history, its place in the collection, one key to read it. Many museums are now rewriting their labels this way, one exhibition at a time.
Read the label guide of the Service des musées de France (in French)
How long should a label be?
The Service des musées de France gives one benchmark: 150 to 500 characters in general. The Victoria and Albert Museum aims for 50 to 60 words per object label. The first sentence stays under 16 words. Anything longer belongs to a room panel, not a label.
In what order should the information go?
Think like a journalist: the essential comes first. Many visitors only read the first sentence. Identification follows one constant order across the whole display: maker, title, date, materials, provenance, museum number. The interpretive text comes next. Credits close the label, in a quieter register.
How do you make a label accessible to everyone?
The Service des musées de France says it plainly: Easy Read principles apply very well to labels. Short sentences, everyday words, one idea per sentence. Braille labels and audio resources complete the set-up for blind and low-vision visitors, as the same guide notes.
Can artificial intelligence write a label?
It applies the writing rules: hierarchy, length, vocabulary. That is useful for a first pass. But it knows neither the work, nor your display, nor your intent. Above all, it must invent nothing: no date, no attribution. This tool commits to that, and your rereading remains the final safeguard.
Should you translate your labels?
Rarely all of them. The Service des musées de France observes that in general, only room panels get translated. Translating every label makes supports denser and reading harder. Visit aids, digital or on paper, give foreign visitors access to the rest of the display.
Who writes the labels in a museum?
The curatorial team, which knows the collections. Writing starts with one choice: which level of information to share with the public. Some museums then have their labels reread by visitor panels, as the fine arts museum in Lille did. That rereading checks that a non-specialist visitor understands every sentence.
Why this tool is free
Gidmi builds a storytelling tool for museums, galleries and heritage sites. Writing for visitors is the heart of that craft. We prefer showing this know-how to claiming it: this tool is free, with no account and no ads.
The label is often the first text a venue addresses to its visitors. Two other free tools go with it: the Easy Read simplifier and the alt text generator. To discover the creation studio: Create with Gidmi.
The tool does not keep your texts. They are not used to train an AI model. Processing happens in Europe. The tool allows 3 tries per day, so it can stay free.
Last updated: July 4, 2026