diff --git a/app/msgviewer.go b/app/msgviewer.go
index d0f771a..e62aae5 100644
--- a/app/msgviewer.go
+++ b/app/msgviewer.go
@@ -634,16 +634,16 @@ func (pv *PartViewer) attemptCopy() {
 			cleaned, images := parse.ExtractImages(&filterBuf)
 			if len(images) > 0 {
 				pv.imageRefs = images
-				cleanedBytes, _ := io.ReadAll(cleaned)
-				pv.composite = newCompositeContent(
-					string(cleanedBytes), images, 80)
-				pv.Invalidate()
-			} else {
-				// No images — forward to pager as normal
-				_, copyErr := io.Copy(pv.pagerin, cleaned)
-				if copyErr != nil {
-					log.Errorf("io.Copy: %s", copyErr)
-				}
+				log.Debugf("extracted %d image refs from filter output", len(images))
+			}
+			// Always forward to pager — placeholders are readable text
+			// Image markers become \x00IMG:N\x00 which we replace
+			// with human-readable [image: alt] text for the pager.
+			cleanedBytes, _ := io.ReadAll(cleaned)
+			output := parse.ReplacePlaceholders(cleanedBytes, images)
+			_, copyErr := io.Copy(pv.pagerin, bytes.NewReader(output))
+			if copyErr != nil {
+				log.Errorf("io.Copy: %s", copyErr)
 			}
 			err = pv.pagerin.Close()
 			if err != nil {
@@ -838,13 +838,9 @@ func (pv *PartViewer) Draw(ctx *ui.Context) {
 	if pv.term != nil {
 		pv.term.Draw(ctx)
 	}
-	// Composite mode: text + images from filter output
-	if pv.composite != nil {
-		pv.composite.width = ctx.Width()
-		ctx.Fill(0, 0, ctx.Width(), ctx.Height(), ' ', pv.uiConfig.GetStyle(config.STYLE_DEFAULT))
-		pv.composite.Draw(ctx, pv.scroll)
-		return
-	}
+	// NOTE: Composite image rendering (pv.composite) is reserved for
+	// future use. Currently all filter output goes through the pager
+	// with [image: alt] text placeholders for extracted images.
 	if pv.image != nil && (pv.resized(ctx) || pv.graphic == nil) {
 		// This path should only occur on resizes or the first pass
 		// after the image is downloaded and could be slow due to
diff --git a/lib/parse/extract_images.go b/lib/parse/extract_images.go
index 9db1774..74b147b 100644
--- a/lib/parse/extract_images.go
+++ b/lib/parse/extract_images.go
@@ -39,3 +39,33 @@ func ExtractImages(r io.Reader) (io.Reader, []ImageRef) {
 	}
 	return buf, images
 }
+
+// ReplacePlaceholders converts \x00IMG:N\x00 placeholders into human-readable
+// [image: alt] text suitable for display in a pager.
+func ReplacePlaceholders(data []byte, images []ImageRef) []byte {
+	result := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
+	for _, line := range bytes.Split(data, []byte("\n")) {
+		trimmed := bytes.TrimSpace(line)
+		if len(trimmed) > 6 && trimmed[0] == 0 &&
+			bytes.HasPrefix(trimmed, []byte("\x00IMG:")) &&
+			trimmed[len(trimmed)-1] == 0 {
+			// Extract index
+			numStr := string(trimmed[5 : len(trimmed)-1])
+			idx := 0
+			for _, c := range numStr {
+				if c >= '0' && c <= '9' {
+					idx = idx*10 + int(c-'0')
+				}
+			}
+			if idx < len(images) && images[idx].Alt != "" {
+				fmt.Fprintf(result, "[image: %s]\n", images[idx].Alt)
+			} else {
+				result.WriteString("[image]\n")
+			}
+		} else {
+			result.Write(line)
+			result.WriteByte('\n')
+		}
+	}
+	return result.Bytes()
+}