diff --git a/render/imagecompare.c b/render/imagecompare.c
index c1635c7..8a8fcee 100644
--- a/render/imagecompare.c
+++ b/render/imagecompare.c
@@ -24,7 +24,9 @@ typedef struct {
 } image_t;
 
 static int imageLoad(image_t* img, const char *f) {
-	img->data = stbi_load(f, &img->w, &img->h, &img->comp, 0);
+	const int components = 3; // enforce RGB, as magick/png will save empty images as 1-bit grayscale
+	img->data = stbi_load(f, &img->w, &img->h, &img->comp, components);
+	img->comp = components;
 	if (!img->data)
 		fprintf(stderr, "Unable to load image \"%s\"\n", f);
 	return !!(img->data);