diff --git a/filter.go b/filter.go
index c26248b..4747617 100644
--- a/filter.go
+++ b/filter.go
@@ -315,25 +315,69 @@ func intParm(parm Dict, key Name, def int, r Resolver) int {
 // a prefix comes back with the error that ended it, never dressed up as a whole
 // stream, so the caller can tell the difference.
 func flateDecode(data []byte) ([]byte, error) {
-	i := 0
-	for i < len(data) && isSpace(data[i]) {
-		i++
+	// Where the stream really starts is ambiguous, and the ambiguity has to be
+	// resolved by reading rather than by guessing.
+	//
+	// Producers put the stream's EOL before the data, so leading white-space is
+	// skipped. But NUL is one of the six bytes the specification calls
+	// white-space, and a bare deflate stream whose first block is STORED begins
+	// with a NUL. Skip that and the stream does not merely fail: 00 03 00 fc ff
+	// "abc" reads, once its NUL is gone, as a fixed-Huffman final block that
+	// ends at once, so it inflates to NOTHING with no error. Silence, not a
+	// diagnostic.
+	//
+	// Stored blocks are ordinary -- they are what a deflater emits for data
+	// that will not compress, which in a PDF is every image that arrived
+	// already compressed -- and "\r\n" followed by such a block needs exactly
+	// two bytes skipped, not three. So every split point inside the leading
+	// white-space run is tried, and the read that actually yields bytes wins.
+	ws := 0
+	for ws < len(data) && isSpace(data[ws]) {
+		ws++
 	}
-	data = data[i:]
-	if zr, err := zlib.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(data)); err == nil {
-		out, err := readAllCapped(zr)
-		if err == nil {
-			return out, nil
+
+	var best []byte
+	var bestErr error
+	have := false
+
+	try := func(b []byte, wrapped bool) bool {
+		var out []byte
+		var err error
+		if wrapped {
+			zr, zerr := zlib.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(b))
+			if zerr != nil {
+				return false
+			}
+			out, err = readAllCapped(zr)
+		} else {
+			out, err = readAllCapped(flate.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(b)))
 		}
-		if len(out) > 0 {
-			return out, fmt.Errorf("reader: FlateDecode: %w", err)
+		if err == nil && len(out) > 0 {
+			best, bestErr, have = out, nil, true
+			return true
 		}
+		if !have || len(out) > len(best) {
+			best, bestErr, have = out, err, true
+		}
+		return false
 	}
-	out, err := readAllCapped(flate.NewReader(bytes.NewReader(data)))
-	if err != nil {
-		return out, fmt.Errorf("reader: FlateDecode: %w", err)
+
+	// zlib is tried only past the white-space, because a valid zlib stream
+	// cannot begin inside it: RFC 1950 fixes CM to 8, so the low nibble of the
+	// first byte is 8, and none of 00, 09, 0a, 0c, 0d, 20 has a low nibble of 8.
+	if try(data[ws:], true) {
+		return best, nil
+	}
+	// Bare deflate, from the far end of the white-space run back to the start.
+	for i := ws; i >= 0; i-- {
+		if try(data[i:], false) {
+			return best, nil
+		}
 	}
-	return out, nil
+	if bestErr != nil {
+		return best, fmt.Errorf("reader: FlateDecode: %w", bestErr)
+	}
+	return best, nil
 }
 
 // readAllCapped reads r, refusing to grow past maxDecodedSize.
diff --git a/filter_test.go b/filter_test.go
index e966dd5..a75bccd 100644
--- a/filter_test.go
+++ b/filter_test.go
@@ -311,3 +311,45 @@ func TestDecodeFlateFailure(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Error("want an error")
 	}
 }
+
+// A bare deflate stream whose first block is STORED begins with a NUL, and NUL
+// is one of the six bytes the specification calls white-space. Skipping it eats
+// a real byte and the stream dies one byte in.
+//
+// The stream is built by hand rather than by a deflater, because which block
+// type a deflater picks is its own business and changes between releases: Go
+// 1.26 compressed this test's data, Go 1.27 stored it, and that is how this was
+// found.
+func TestFlateDecodeStoredBlockStartingWithNUL(t *testing.T) {
+	want := []byte("abc")
+
+	var raw []byte
+	// Non-final stored block: BFINAL=0, BTYPE=00, then LEN and ^LEN, little-endian.
+	raw = append(raw, 0x00, byte(len(want)), 0x00, ^byte(len(want)), 0xff)
+	raw = append(raw, want...)
+	// Final empty stored block.
+	raw = append(raw, 0x01, 0x00, 0x00, 0xff, 0xff)
+
+	if raw[0] != 0x00 {
+		t.Fatalf("test is not exercising what it claims: first byte %#x, want NUL", raw[0])
+	}
+	if !isSpace(raw[0]) {
+		t.Fatal("test is not exercising what it claims: NUL is not treated as white-space")
+	}
+
+	got, err := flateDecode(raw)
+	if err != nil || !bytes.Equal(got, want) {
+		t.Errorf("stored block: got %q, %v; want %q", got, err, want)
+	}
+}
+
+// A bare deflate stream preceded by the stream's EOL: here the white-space skip
+// is the thing that makes it readable, which is why it is there.
+func TestFlateDecodeRawAfterLeadingEOL(t *testing.T) {
+	want := []byte("some data worth compressing, twice over")
+	padded := append([]byte("\r\n"), rawDeflateBytes(t, want)...)
+	got, err := flateDecode(padded)
+	if err != nil || !bytes.Equal(got, want) {
+		t.Errorf("raw deflate after EOL: got %q, %v", got, err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/recover_test.go b/recover_test.go
index a5c6b22..1018f25 100644
--- a/recover_test.go
+++ b/recover_test.go
@@ -105,8 +105,25 @@ func TestDecodeRecoveringDamagedFlateKeepsPredictor(t *testing.T) {
 	if len(dec.Data) < 4*columns {
 		t.Fatalf("recovered only %d bytes", len(dec.Data))
 	}
-	if !bytes.HasPrefix(want, dec.Data) {
-		t.Errorf("predictor not undone over the prefix: got %v, want a prefix of %v", dec.Data[:8], want[:8])
+	// Every row but the last is true. The last one may not be: the stream can
+	// end mid-row, and pngPredictor deliberately pads the remainder with zeroes
+	// and emits the row rather than dropping it -- TestPNGPredictorTruncatedRow
+	// pins that. So the row the damage landed in is excluded here.
+	//
+	// Asserting over the whole of dec.Data only ever passed because the
+	// truncation happened to fall on a row boundary. Go 1.27's deflater picks
+	// different block types for this data than 1.26's, the halfway cut moved,
+	// and the assertion failed on a library that had not changed.
+	whole := len(dec.Data) - columns
+	if whole < 0 {
+		whole = 0
+	}
+	if !bytes.HasPrefix(want, dec.Data[:whole]) {
+		n := whole
+		if n > 8 {
+			n = 8
+		}
+		t.Errorf("predictor not undone over the whole rows: got %v, want a prefix of %v", dec.Data[:n], want[:n])
 	}
 }