I don't know if you've tried 'Picasa 3' but they have most of the bugs worked out. If you use 'Google' some don't, but it handles all my needs. It has face recognition, easy edit of info, description and captions. It will batch most anything you want and you can post web albums to share if you do have a 'Google' account.
It also offers edit tools and more online. If you take the time to read up on it and just play with it, it might fit your wants.
mike wrote: Irfanview won't add to the canvas? Sure it will!
Image, Canvas, set everything but the bottom to 0, set new background to white.
After you've added it, add your text down there. (I would add it ti the IPTC then paste it into the text box in the image, just so you have it somewhere as text)