diff --git a/src/ImageSharp/Common/Extensions/EncoderExtensions.cs b/src/ImageSharp/Common/Extensions/EncoderExtensions.cs
index 086dbee35..59c878485 100644
--- a/src/ImageSharp/Common/Extensions/EncoderExtensions.cs
+++ b/src/ImageSharp/Common/Extensions/EncoderExtensions.cs
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp
         {
             if (buffer.Length == 0)
             {
-                return null;
+                return string.Empty;
             }
 
             fixed (byte* bytes = buffer)
diff --git a/tests/ImageSharp.Tests/Common/EncoderExtensionsTests.cs b/tests/ImageSharp.Tests/Common/EncoderExtensionsTests.cs
index ec1ae65d6..e1b4fc790 100644
--- a/tests/ImageSharp.Tests/Common/EncoderExtensionsTests.cs
+++ b/tests/ImageSharp.Tests/Common/EncoderExtensionsTests.cs
@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ namespace SixLabors.ImageSharp.Tests.Common
     public class EncoderExtensionsTests
     {
         [Fact]
-        public void GetString_EmptyBuffer_ReturnsNull()
+        public void GetString_EmptyBuffer_ReturnsEmptyString()
         {
             var buffer = new ReadOnlySpan<byte>();
 
             string result = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(buffer);
 
-            Assert.Null(result);
+            Assert.Equal(string.Empty, result);
         }
 
         [Fact]