diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/canvas.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/canvas.py
index 22747eb43b..a7e7a54061 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/canvas.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/canvas.py
@@ -293,7 +293,9 @@ class Canvas(QWidget):
         self.redo_action = a = self.undo_stack.createRedoAction(self, _('Redo') + ' ')
         a.setIcon(QIcon.ic('edit-redo.png'))
 
-    def load_image(self, data):
+    def load_image(self, data, only_if_different=False):
+        if only_if_different and self.original_image_data and not self.is_modified and self.original_image_data == data:
+            return
         self.is_valid = False
         try:
             fmt = identify(data)[0].encode('ascii')
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/image.py b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/image.py
index 283b4adadc..277433123f 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/image.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/tweak_book/editor/image.py
@@ -163,9 +163,7 @@ class Editor(QMainWindow):
         self._is_modified = False  # The image_changed signal will have been triggered causing this editor to be incorrectly marked as modified
 
     def replace_data(self, raw, only_if_different=True):
-        # We ignore only_if_different as it is useless in our case, and
-        # there is no easy way to check two images for equality
-        self.canvas.load_image(raw)
+        self.canvas.load_image(raw, only_if_different=only_if_different)
 
     def apply_settings(self, prefs=None, dictionaries_changed=False):
         pass