diff --git a/docs/changelog.md b/docs/changelog.md
index 38597e33..b27ecaec 100644
--- a/docs/changelog.md
+++ b/docs/changelog.md
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ Requires libvips v8.13.0
 
 * The `flip` and `flop` operations will now occur before the `rotate` operation.
 
+* Improve `normalise` operation with use of histogram.
+  [#200](https://github.com/lovell/sharp/issues/200)
+
 * Use combined bounding box of alpha and non-alpha channels for `trim` operation.
   [#2166](https://github.com/lovell/sharp/issues/2166)
 
diff --git a/src/operations.cc b/src/operations.cc
index b3339d9a..89c2d6ee 100644
--- a/src/operations.cc
+++ b/src/operations.cc
@@ -68,10 +68,9 @@ namespace sharp {
     // Extract luminance
     VImage luminance = lab[0];
     // Find luminance range
-    VImage stats = luminance.stats();
-    double min = stats(0, 0)[0];
-    double max = stats(1, 0)[0];
-    if (min != max) {
+    int const min = luminance.percent(1);
+    int const max = luminance.percent(99);
+    if (std::abs(max - min) > 1) {
       // Extract chroma
       VImage chroma = lab.extract_band(1, VImage::option()->set("n", 2));
       // Calculate multiplication factor and addition
diff --git a/test/unit/normalize.js b/test/unit/normalize.js
index 1bfb2862..33a25b52 100644
--- a/test/unit/normalize.js
+++ b/test/unit/normalize.js
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ const assertNormalized = function (data) {
     max = Math.max(max, data[i]);
   }
   assert.strictEqual(0, min);
-  assert.strictEqual(255, max);
+  assert.ok([254, 255].includes(max));
 };
 
 describe('Normalization', function () {
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ describe('Normalization', function () {
 
   it('spreads grayscaled image values between 0 and 255', function (done) {
     sharp(fixtures.inputJpgWithLowContrast)
-      .gamma()
       .greyscale()
       .normalize(true)
       .raw()