diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
index ccdf5158..41166f9e 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
@@ -1979,7 +1979,12 @@ QPDFJob::doInspection(QPDF& pdf)
     }
     if (m->check_linearization)
     {
-        if (pdf.checkLinearization())
+        if (! pdf.isLinearized())
+        {
+            *(this->m->cout)
+                << m->infilename << " is not linearized" << std::endl;
+        }
+        else if (pdf.checkLinearization())
         {
             *(this->m->cout)
                 << m->infilename << ": no linearization errors" << std::endl;
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
index dcc707a3..58d4102f 100644
--- a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
@@ -4486,6 +4486,15 @@ $td->runtest("check linearization",
 	      $td->EXIT_STATUS => 0},
 	     $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
 
+# Test --check-linearization of non-linearized file
+$n_tests += 1;
+$td->runtest("check linearization of non-linearized file",
+	     {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --check-linearization minimal.pdf"},
+	     {$td->STRING => "minimal.pdf is not linearized\n",
+	      $td->EXIT_STATUS => 0},
+	     $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
+
+
 # Test AES encryption in various ways.
 $n_tests += 18;
 $td->runtest("encrypt with AES",