diff --git a/lib/image/png.js b/lib/image/png.js
index f3b405c3..b88e77a6 100644
--- a/lib/image/png.js
+++ b/lib/image/png.js
@@ -121,8 +121,19 @@ class PNGImage {
     return (this.imgData = null);
   }
 
+  // png-js decodes pixel data through Node's async zlib.inflate and rethrows
+  // any inflate error from inside that callback, which happens on a later
+  // tick and so can't be caught by a try/catch around doc.image(). Running
+  // an inflateSync pass on the same bytes first surfaces the same failure
+  // synchronously, in a spot the caller can actually catch, the same way
+  // PDFImage.open() already throws synchronously for other bad input.
+  decodePixels(callback) {
+    zlib.inflateSync(this.imgData);
+    return this.image.decodePixels(callback);
+  }
+
   splitAlphaChannel() {
-    return this.image.decodePixels((pixels) => {
+    return this.decodePixels((pixels) => {
       let a, p;
       const colorCount = this.image.colors;
       const pixelCount = this.width * this.height;
@@ -151,7 +162,7 @@ class PNGImage {
   loadIndexedAlphaChannel() {
     const transparency = this.image.transparency.indexed;
     const isInterlaced = this.image.interlaceMethod === 1;
-    return this.image.decodePixels((pixels) => {
+    return this.decodePixels((pixels) => {
       const alphaChannel = new Uint8Array(this.width * this.height);
 
       let i = 0;
@@ -170,7 +181,7 @@ class PNGImage {
   }
 
   decodeData() {
-    this.image.decodePixels((pixels) => {
+    this.decodePixels((pixels) => {
       this.imgData = zlib.deflateSync(pixels);
       this.finalize();
     });
diff --git a/lib/zlib/browser.js b/lib/zlib/browser.js
index bb93cbb5..b9294a0b 100644
--- a/lib/zlib/browser.js
+++ b/lib/zlib/browser.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
-import { zlibSync } from 'fflate';
+import { zlibSync, unzlibSync } from 'fflate';
 
 export default {
   deflateSync: (data) => zlibSync(data),
+  inflateSync: (data) => unzlibSync(data),
 };
diff --git a/lib/zlib/node.js b/lib/zlib/node.js
index 2b131928..579e2590 100644
--- a/lib/zlib/node.js
+++ b/lib/zlib/node.js
@@ -2,4 +2,5 @@ import zlib from 'zlib';
 
 export default {
   deflateSync: (data) => zlib.deflateSync(data),
+  inflateSync: (data) => zlib.inflateSync(data),
 };
diff --git a/tests/unit/image.spec.js b/tests/unit/image.spec.js
index 680d7752..304f29f7 100644
--- a/tests/unit/image.spec.js
+++ b/tests/unit/image.spec.js
@@ -43,6 +43,35 @@ describe('Image', function () {
     expect(jpeg.colorSpace).toBe('DeviceRGB');
   });
 
+  test('a PNG with a corrupted IDAT chunk throws synchronously instead of crashing later (issue #1747)', () => {
+    const chunk = (type, data) => {
+      const len = Buffer.alloc(4);
+      len.writeUInt32BE(data.length);
+      const body = Buffer.concat([Buffer.from(type, 'ascii'), data]);
+      const crc = Buffer.alloc(4);
+      return Buffer.concat([len, body, crc]);
+    };
+
+    const ihdr = Buffer.alloc(13);
+    ihdr.writeUInt32BE(1, 0); // width
+    ihdr.writeUInt32BE(1, 4); // height
+    ihdr[8] = 8; // bit depth
+    ihdr[9] = 6; // color type: RGBA, forces the decodePixels path
+
+    const corruptPng = Buffer.concat([
+      Buffer.from([0x89, 0x50, 0x4e, 0x47, 0x0d, 0x0a, 0x1a, 0x0a]),
+      chunk('IHDR', ihdr),
+      chunk('IDAT', Buffer.from([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef])), // not valid deflate data
+      chunk('IEND', Buffer.alloc(0)),
+    ]);
+
+    // The bug: embed() used to hand this straight to png-js's async
+    // decodePixels, which rethrows inflate errors from inside a zlib
+    // callback on a later tick, so this document.image() call would crash
+    // the process instead of throwing something this test could catch.
+    expect(() => document.image(corruptPng, 0, 0)).toThrow();
+  });
+
   describe('opacity', function () {
     test('adds an ExtGState with the correct ca value', () => {
       document.image('./tests/images/bee.png', 0, 0, { opacity: 0.5 });
diff --git a/tests/unit/zlib.spec.js b/tests/unit/zlib.spec.js
index d7f5e3ea..bbca836d 100644
--- a/tests/unit/zlib.spec.js
+++ b/tests/unit/zlib.spec.js
@@ -15,4 +15,20 @@ describe('zlib', () => {
     expect(compressed.length).toBeLessThan(data.length);
     expect(Buffer.from(zlib.inflateSync(compressed))).toEqual(data);
   });
+
+  test.each([
+    ['node', nodeZlib],
+    ['browser', browserZlib],
+  ])('%s inflateSync reverses deflateSync', (_, impl) => {
+    const compressed = impl.deflateSync(data);
+    expect(Buffer.from(impl.inflateSync(compressed))).toEqual(data);
+  });
+
+  test.each([
+    ['node', nodeZlib],
+    ['browser', browserZlib],
+  ])('%s inflateSync throws on data that was never validly compressed', (_, impl) => {
+    const garbage = Buffer.from([0xde, 0xad, 0xbe, 0xef]);
+    expect(() => impl.inflateSync(garbage)).toThrow();
+  });
 });