diff --git a/R/column_spec.R b/R/column_spec.R
index 25d1289..14c0ea1 100644
--- a/R/column_spec.R
+++ b/R/column_spec.R
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@
                                              extra_css)
   }
 
-  if (!is.null(image)) {
+  if (!is.null(image) && (length(image) > 1 || !is.null(image[[1]]))) {
     image <- image[[1]]
     if (inherits(image, "kableExtraInlinePlots")) {
       if (!is.null(image$svg_text)) {
@@ -539,7 +539,7 @@
                               new_row[column], "\\}")
   }
 
-  if (!is.null(image)) {
+  if (!is.null(image) && (length(image) > 1 || !is.null(image[[1]]))) {
     image <- image[[1]]
     if (inherits(image, "kableExtraInlinePlots")) {
       new_row[column] <- paste0(