diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index dc6e3cf6..52209824 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2017-08-05  Jay Berkenbilt  <ejb@ql.org>
+
+	* Process --pages options earlier so that certain inspection
+	options, like --show-pages, can show the state after the merging
+	operations.
+
 2017-08-02  Jay Berkenbilt  <ejb@ql.org>
 
 	* Fix off-by-one error in parsing pages options. Fixes #129.
diff --git a/qpdf/qpdf.cc b/qpdf/qpdf.cc
index 680e81e8..2d123d85 100644
--- a/qpdf/qpdf.cc
+++ b/qpdf/qpdf.cc
@@ -1874,12 +1874,6 @@ static void set_encryption_options(QPDF& pdf, Options& o, QPDFWriter& w)
 static void write_outfile(QPDF& pdf, Options& o)
 {
     QPDF encryption_pdf;
-    std::vector<PointerHolder<QPDF> > page_heap;
-    if (! o.page_specs.empty())
-    {
-        handle_page_specs(pdf, o, page_heap);
-    }
-
     if (strcmp(o.outfilename, "-") == 0)
     {
         o.outfilename = 0;
@@ -2020,6 +2014,12 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
             pdf.processFile(o.infilename, o.password);
         }
 
+        std::vector<PointerHolder<QPDF> > page_heap;
+        if (! o.page_specs.empty())
+        {
+            handle_page_specs(pdf, o, page_heap);
+        }
+
 	if (o.outfilename == 0)
 	{
             do_inspection(pdf, o);
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
index 807014db..2fff85b6 100644
--- a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf.test
@@ -206,7 +206,7 @@ $td->runtest("remove page we don't have",
 show_ntests();
 # ----------
 $td->notify("--- Miscellaneous Tests ---");
-$n_tests += 94;
+$n_tests += 95;
 
 $td->runtest("qpdf version",
 	     {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --version"},
@@ -652,6 +652,13 @@ $td->runtest("don't overwrite self",
              {$td->REGEXP => "input file and output file are the same.*",
               $td->EXIT_STATUS => 2});
 
+$td->runtest("combine show and --pages",
+             {$td->COMMAND =>
+                  "qpdf --empty --pages minimal.pdf -- --show-pages"},
+             {$td->FILE => "show-pages-pages.out",
+              $td->EXIT_STATUS => 0},
+             $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
+
 show_ntests();
 # ----------
 $td->notify("--- Numeric range parsing tests ---");
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/show-pages-pages.out b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/show-pages-pages.out
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..429dadf3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/show-pages-pages.out
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+page 1: 3 0 R
+  content:
+    4 0 R