Why remote images show as alt text

Unmarked has no network access, so an image linked from the web (an https:// URL) can't be fetched and shows its alt text instead. Images stored next to your file render normally, in every mode and every export.

Write ![A diagram](https://example.com/diagram.png) and Unmarked has no way to fetch that file. The app can't reach the internet. So where the picture would sit, you see the alt text you typed in the brackets: A diagram.

Why the picture doesn't load

A Mac app declares what it's permitted to do in its sandbox entitlements. Unmarked's don't include network access. There's no wiring to fetch a URL, so a remote image can't be downloaded and shown.

That's the same wall that keeps your writing off the internet. Nothing you type is uploaded, and nothing from the web is pulled in. The wall works in both directions. The cost is that an image hosted somewhere online won't appear in the document, and Unmarked falls back to the alt text rather than showing a broken-image box.

Make the image render

Store the picture next to your file and link it with a relative path. Local images render everywhere: Read mode, Split mode, and every export.

1. Put the image file in the same folder as your .md, or in a subfolder like assets/.
2. Link it with a relative path: ![A diagram](assets/diagram.png).
3. In Write mode, use the + Insert menu and pick Image to add one without typing the path by hand.

A local image carries through to PDF, Word, and HTML. The HTML export even embeds the image inside the single file, so the picture travels with the document.

Inherited a Markdown file full of https:// image links? The same fix scales: save each image into the folder beside the file and switch the URLs to relative paths, and they all render.

The honest tradeoff. You can't reference a picture by its web address and have it appear. Want a remote image in your document? Download it first, then link it with a relative path. The file stays self-contained.