diff --git a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
index c972706..d39e1ec 100644
--- a/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
+++ b/libqpdf/QPDFJob.cc
@@ -745,13 +745,17 @@ QPDFJob::doCheck(QPDF& pdf)
 
         // Create all document helper to trigger any validations they carry out.
         auto& doc = pdf.doc();
-        auto& pages = doc.page_dh();
+        auto pages = doc.page_dh().getAllPages();
         (void)doc.acroform();
         (void)doc.embedded_files();
         (void)doc.page_labels();
-        (void)doc.outlines().resolveNamedDest(QPDFObjectHandle::newString("dummy"));
-        (void)doc.outlines().getOutlinesForPage(pages.getAllPages().at(0));
-
+        (void)doc.outlines().resolveNamedDest(String("dummy"));
+        if (pages.empty()) {
+            okay = false;
+            *m->log->getError() << "ERROR: file does not contain any pages\n";
+        } else {
+            (void)doc.outlines().getOutlinesForPage(pages.at(0));
+        }
         // Write the file to nowhere, uncompressing streams.  This causes full file traversal and
         // decoding of all streams we can decode.
         Writer::Config cfg;
@@ -766,7 +770,7 @@ QPDFJob::doCheck(QPDF& pdf)
 
         // Parse all content streams
         int pageno = 0;
-        for (auto& page: pages.getAllPages()) {
+        for (auto& page: pages) {
             ++pageno;
             try {
                 page.parseContents(nullptr);
diff --git a/manual/release-notes.rst b/manual/release-notes.rst
index eb1d01e..4b06e86 100644
--- a/manual/release-notes.rst
+++ b/manual/release-notes.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,11 @@ more detail.
 
 .. x.y.z: not yet released
 
+12.3.3: not yet released
+  - Bug fixes
+
+    - Fix error message when :qpdf:ref:`--check` encounters a file without any pages.
+
 12.3.2: January 24, 2026
   - Bug fixes
 
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/page-errors.test b/qpdf/qtest/page-errors.test
index d09b8e1..5300f51 100644
--- a/qpdf/qtest/page-errors.test
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/page-errors.test
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ cleanup();
 
 my $td = new TestDriver('page-errors');
 
-my $n_tests = 9;
+my $n_tests = 10;
 
 $td->runtest("handle page no with contents",
              {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --show-pages page-no-content.pdf"},
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ $td->runtest("detect loops in pages structure",
              {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --check pages-loop.pdf"},
              {$td->FILE => "pages-loop.out", $td->EXIT_STATUS => 2},
              $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
+$td->runtest("file with zero pages",
+             {$td->COMMAND => "qpdf --check empty.pdf"},
+             {$td->FILE => "empty-check.out", $td->EXIT_STATUS => 2},
+             $td->NORMALIZE_NEWLINES);
 
 cleanup();
 $td->report($n_tests);
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty-check.out b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty-check.out
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0a92bb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty-check.out
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+checking empty.pdf
+PDF Version: 1.3
+File is not encrypted
+File is not linearized
+ERROR: file does not contain any pages
+qpdf: errors detected
diff --git a/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty.pdf b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty.pdf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3808402
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qpdf/qtest/qpdf/empty.pdf
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+%PDF-1.3
+%¿÷¢þ
+1 0 obj
+<< /Pages 2 0 R /Type /Catalog >>
+endobj
+2 0 obj
+<< /Count 0 /Kids [ ] /Type /Pages >>
+endobj
+xref
+0 3
+0000000000 65535 f 
+0000000015 00000 n 
+0000000064 00000 n 
+trailer << /Root 1 0 R /Size 3 /ID [<c340298302ab3c4e01d6f14c08b392dd><c340298302ab3c4e01d6f14c08b392dd>] >>
+startxref
+117
+%%EOF