Article images missing from Reader output - srcset and Readability stripping

TL;DR

Use X-With-Images-Summary when you want captions generated for the images that do come through. A maintainer found the cause: those img elements only carry a srcset attribute with no src, which the Reader ignored until it was patched. A second cause: the Readability library used for cleanup intentionally strips the image block on some pages.

The error, verbatim

If images are missing from Reader output, two things may be at play. First, images defined only via srcset on picture tags were skipped - that is fixed server-side, so retry. Second, if the image still does not show, the Readability cleanup is removing the block. Request the markdown return format instead of the default, which tells the Reader not to run Readability, and the image survives. Use X-With-Images-Summary when you want captions generated for the images that do come through.

Fix

If images are missing from Reader output, two things may be at play. First, images defined only via srcset on picture tags were skipped - that is fixed server-side, so retry. Second, if the image still does not show, the Readability cleanup is removing the block. Request the markdown return format instead of the default, which tells the Reader not to run Readability, and the image survives. Use X-With-Images-Summary when you want captions generated for the images that do come through.

Context: Issue jina-ai/reader#149 (closed, 7 comments): article main images were missing from Reader output on pages that use the picture tag. A maintainer found the cause: those img elements only carry a srcset attribute with no src, which the Reader ignored until it was patched. A second cause: the Readability library used for cleanup intentionally strips the image block on some pages.

Matched source

Source: Published skill Original query: "Article images missing from Reader output - srcset and Readability stripping" Key terms: article, images, missing, output, readability, reader, srcset, stripping

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