diff --git a/deck/text.py b/deck/text.py
index 5264548..f6a2542 100644
--- a/deck/text.py
+++ b/deck/text.py
@@ -6,79 +6,66 @@ import re
 
 # internal tag delimiters and boundaries
 _tag_delim = '%%%'
-_start_tag = 'DECKTEXT_BEGIN'
-_end_tag = 'DECKTEXT_END'
-_start_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}{_start_tag}{_tag_delim}'
-_end_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}{_end_tag}{_tag_delim}'
-_title_start_tag = 'TITLE_BEGIN'
-_title_end_tag = 'TITLE_END'
-_title_start_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}{_title_start_tag}{_tag_delim}'
-_title_end_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}{_title_end_tag}{_tag_delim}'
-_page_sep_tag = 'PAGE_SEP'
-_page_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}{_page_sep_tag}{_tag_delim}'
+_page_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}PAGE_SEP{_tag_delim}'
+_title_regex = re.compile('<(title|TITLE)>(.*?)<\/(title|TITLE)>')
+_link_regex = re.compile('<(a|A).*?(href|HREF)="(.+?)">(.+?)<\\/(a|A)>')
 _link_begin_tag = 'LINK_BEGIN'
 _link_end_tag = 'LINK_END'
+_start_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}DECKTEXT_BEGIN{_tag_delim}'
+_end_boundary = f'{_tag_delim}DECKTEXT_END{_tag_delim}'
 _link_regex_src = f'{_tag_delim}{_link_begin_tag}:(.+?){_tag_delim}(.+?){_tag_delim}{_link_end_tag}{_tag_delim}'
+_link_repl = f'{_tag_delim}{_link_begin_tag}:\\1{_tag_delim}\\2{_tag_delim}{_link_end_tag}{_tag_delim}'
 _link_regex = re.compile(_link_regex_src)
 
-# internal tag mapping
-_tagmap = {
-  _start_tag: ['<!\\-\\-\\ decktext_begin\\ \\-\\->'],
-  _end_tag: ['<!\\-\\-\\ decktext_end\\ \\-\\->'],
-  _title_start_tag: ['<title>'],
-  _title_end_tag: ['</title>'],
-  _page_sep_tag: ['<hr>', '<hr/>', '<hr\\ />'],
-  f'{_link_begin_tag}:\\1': ['<a\\ href="(.+?)">'],
-  _link_end_tag: ['</a>'],
-  'BOLD_BEGIN': ['<b>', '<strong>'],
-  'BOLD_END': ['</b>', '</strong>'],
-  'ITALIC_BEGIN': ['<i>', '<em>'],
-  'ITALIC_END': ['</i>', '</em>'],
-  'CODE_BEGIN': ['<tt>', '<code>', '<pre>', '<xmp>'],
-  'CODE_END': ['</tt>', '</code>', '</pre>', '</xmp>'],
-  'STRIKE_BEGIN': ['<s>', '<del>'],
-  'STRIKE_END': ['</s>', '</del>'],
-  'LI_BEGIN': ['<li>'],
-  'LI_END': ['</li>'],
-  'QUOTE_BEGIN': ['<q>', '<blockquote>'],
-  'QUOTE_END': ['</q>', '</blockquote>'],
-  'IGNORE': ['<.+?>']
-}
+# HTML sanitization and rendering
 
-# compile regexes for this mapping
-_ctagmap = []
-for tagkey in _tagmap:
-  finaltag = f'{_tag_delim}{tagkey}{_tag_delim}'
-  for tagitem in _tagmap[tagkey]:
-    if tagkey != 'IGNORE':
-      _ctagmap.append((re.compile(tagitem.lower()), finaltag))
-      _ctagmap.append((re.compile(tagitem.upper()), finaltag))
-# IGNORE tag needs to be added last
-if 'IGNORE' in _tagmap:
-  for tagitem in _tagmap['IGNORE']:
-    _ctagmap.append((re.compile(tagitem), ''))
+def _replace_img_with_alt(match):
+  tag_content = match.group(0)
+  # Search for the alt attribute specifically within the matched img tag
+  alt_match = re.search('alt=["\'](.*?)["\']', tag_content)
+  if alt_match:
+    return f'[IMG: {alt_match.group(1)}]'
+  return '' # Return empty string if no alt is found
 
-# output format replacements (tags and main HTML entities)
+# (regex, repl) tuple list: order matters!
+_render_regex_src = [
+  ('<(head|HEAD).*?>.*?<\\/(head|HEAD)>', ''),
+  ('<(script|SCRIPT).*?>.*?<\\/(script|SCRIPT)>', ''),
+  ('<(style|STYLE).*?>.*?<\\/(style|STYLE)>', ''),
+  ('<(audio|AUDIO).*?>.*?<\\/(audio|AUDIO)>', ''),
+  ('<(video|VIDEO).*?>.*?<\\/(video|VIDEO)>', ''),
+  ('<(object|OBJECT).*?>.*?<\\/(object|OBJECT)>', ''),
+  ('<(canvas|CANVAS).*?>.*?<\\/(canvas|CANVAS)>', ''),
+  ('<!-- (decktext_begin|DECKTEXT_BEGIN) -->', _start_boundary),
+  ('<!-- (decktext_end|DECKTEXT_END) -->', _end_boundary),
+  ('<img.*?>', _replace_img_with_alt),
+  ('<a\\ .*?href="(.+?)".*?>(.+?)<\\/a>', _link_repl),
+  ('<(hr|HR).*?>', f'\n{_page_boundary}\n'),
+  ('<(b|B|strong|STRONG).*?>', '**'),
+  ('<\\/(b|B|strong|STRONG)>', '**'),
+  ('<(i|I|em|EM).*?>', '_'),
+  ('<\\/(i|I|em|EM)>', '_'),
+  ('<(tt|TT|code|CODE).*?>', '`'),
+  ('<\\/(tt|TT|code|CODE)>', '`'),
+  ('<(s|S|del|DEL).*?>', '~~'),
+  ('<\\/(s|S|del|DEL)>', '~~'),
+  ('<(pre|PRE|xmp|XMP).*?>', '\n```\n'),
+  ('<\\/(pre|PRE|xmp|XMP)>', '\n```\n'),
+  ('<(blockquote|BLOCKQUOTE).*?>', '\n>> '),
+  ('<\\/(blockquote|BLOCKQUOTE)>', '\n'),
+  ('<(li|LI).*?>', '* '),
+  ('<\\/(li|LI)>', '\n'),
+  ('<.+?>', ''),
+  ('&lt;', '<'),
+  ('&gt;', '>'),
+  ('&(ldquo|rdquo|quot);', '"'),
+  ('&(rsquo|lsquo|apos);', "'"),
+  ('&amp;', '&')
+]
 
-_render_tags = {
-  f'{_tag_delim}BOLD_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '**',
-  f'{_tag_delim}BOLD_END{_tag_delim}': '**',
-  f'{_tag_delim}ITALIC_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '_',
-  f'{_tag_delim}ITALIC_END{_tag_delim}': '_',
-  f'{_tag_delim}CODE_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '`',
-  f'{_tag_delim}CODE_END{_tag_delim}': '`',
-  f'{_tag_delim}STRIKE_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '~~',
-  f'{_tag_delim}STRIKE_END{_tag_delim}': '~~',
-  f'{_tag_delim}QUOTE_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '>> ',
-  f'{_tag_delim}QUOTE_END{_tag_delim}': '',
-  f'{_tag_delim}LI_BEGIN{_tag_delim}': '* ',
-  f'{_tag_delim}LI_END{_tag_delim}': '',
-  '&lt;': '<',
-  '&gt;': '>',
-  '&quot;': '"',
-  '&apos;': "'",
-  '&amp;': '&'
-}
+_rendering_regexes = []
+for r in _render_regex_src:
+  _rendering_regexes.append((re.compile(r[0]), r[1]))
 
 # main class start
 class DeckText:
@@ -88,6 +75,11 @@ class DeckText:
     if src:
       self.load(src)
 
+  def sanitize_html(self, pagetext):
+    for regex in _rendering_regexes:
+      pagetext = regex[0].sub(regex[1], pagetext)
+    return pagetext.strip()
+
   def _render_page(self, pagetext):
     page_links = [] # list of tuples in (url, title) format
     linkpool = pagetext = pagetext.strip()
@@ -103,8 +95,6 @@ class DeckText:
       linkpool = linkpool.replace(fullref, '')
       pagetext = pagetext.replace(fullref, f'{title} ([{linknum}])')
       linknum += 1
-    for rtag in _render_tags: # render the rest of the tags
-      pagetext = pagetext.replace(rtag, _render_tags[rtag])
     return {
       'content': pagetext,
       'links': page_links
@@ -112,17 +102,20 @@ class DeckText:
 
   def load(self, src:str):
     if len(src) > 0:
-      # pre-parse stage 1: replace ambiguous tags with own tagmap
-      for tagkey in _ctagmap:
-        src = tagkey[0].sub(tagkey[1], src) 
-      # pre-parse stage 2: extract document title
+      # Stage 1: extract document title
       try:
-        self.title = src.split(_title_start_boundary)[1].split(_title_end_boundary)[0].strip()
+        self.title = _title_regex.search(src).group(2).strip()
       except:
         self.title = ''
-      # pre-parse stage 3: only leave the contents between the DeckText begin/end markers
+      # Stage 2: strip everything unnecessary and render almost everything
+      src = self.sanitize_html(src)
+      # Stage 3: determine if we need to go to the fallback mode
+      docparts = src.split(_start_boundary)
+      if len(docparts) < 2: # no DeckText start marker detected
+        docparts = ['', docparts[0]] # emulate this
+      # Stage 4: only leave the contents between the DeckText begin/end markers
       fragments = []
-      for part in src.split(_start_boundary)[1:]: # skip the part before the first marker
+      for part in docparts[1:]: # skip the part before the first marker
         frag = part # by default, we may not use an end marker although that's bad
         try:
           frag = part.split(_end_boundary)[0]