diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index b217b8f3..f7ba4f6a 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2020-10-23  Jay Berkenbilt  <ejb@ql.org>
+
+	* Bug fix: fix-qdf: properly handle empty streams with ignore
+	newline.
+
 2020-10-22  Jay Berkenbilt  <ejb@ql.org>
 
 	* Fix loop detection problem when traversing page thumbnails
diff --git a/qpdf/fix-qdf.cc b/qpdf/fix-qdf.cc
index c83b495a..886242d9 100644
--- a/qpdf/fix-qdf.cc
+++ b/qpdf/fix-qdf.cc
@@ -294,7 +294,10 @@ QdfFixer::processLines(std::list<std::string>& lines)
         {
             if (matches(re_ignore_newline))
             {
-                --stream_length;
+                if (stream_length > 0)
+                {
+                    --stream_length;
+                }
             }
             else if (matches(re_n_0_obj))
             {