diff --git a/libvips/deprecated/im_mask2vips.c b/libvips/deprecated/im_mask2vips.c
index f4c9e45d..1cf0142d 100644
--- a/libvips/deprecated/im_mask2vips.c
+++ b/libvips/deprecated/im_mask2vips.c
@@ -101,3 +101,17 @@ im_mask2vips( DOUBLEMASK *in, IMAGE *out )
 	return( 0 );
 }
 
+int
+im_imask2vips( INTMASK *in, IMAGE *out )
+{
+	DOUBLEMASK *d;
+	int result;
+
+	if( !(d = im_imask2dmask( in, in->filename )) )
+		return( -1 );
+	result = im_mask2vips( d, out );
+	im_free_dmask( d );
+
+	return( result ); 
+}
+
diff --git a/libvips/include/vips/vips7compat.h b/libvips/include/vips/vips7compat.h
index 58924752..534a7957 100644
--- a/libvips/include/vips/vips7compat.h
+++ b/libvips/include/vips/vips7compat.h
@@ -771,6 +771,7 @@ int im_blend( VipsImage *c, VipsImage *a, VipsImage *b, VipsImage *out );
 DOUBLEMASK *im_vips2mask( VipsImage *in, const char *filename );
 INTMASK *im_vips2imask( IMAGE *in, const char *filename );
 int im_mask2vips( DOUBLEMASK *in, VipsImage *out );
+int im_imask2vips( INTMASK *in, VipsImage *out );
 
 int im_bandmean( VipsImage *in, VipsImage *out );
 int im_recomb( VipsImage *in, VipsImage *out, DOUBLEMASK *recomb );