diff --git a/Tests/images/default_font_freetype.png b/Tests/images/default_font_freetype.png
index 65d9b18bb..e00bb5d85 100644
Binary files a/Tests/images/default_font_freetype.png and b/Tests/images/default_font_freetype.png differ
diff --git a/Tests/test_imagefont.py b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
index 048d1f351..7121530db 100644
--- a/Tests/test_imagefont.py
+++ b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
@@ -459,6 +459,9 @@ def test_default_font():
     default_font = ImageFont.load_default()
     draw.text((10, 10), txt, font=default_font)
 
+    larger_default_font = ImageFont.load_default(size=14)
+    draw.text((10, 60), txt, font=larger_default_font)
+
     # Assert
     assert_image_equal_tofile(im, "Tests/images/default_font_freetype.png")
 
diff --git a/Tests/test_imagefontpil.py b/Tests/test_imagefontpil.py
index 82cb9224f..c30463e81 100644
--- a/Tests/test_imagefontpil.py
+++ b/Tests/test_imagefontpil.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ import pytest
 
 from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFont, features
 
+from .helper import assert_image_equal_tofile
+
 pytestmark = pytest.mark.skipif(
     features.check_module("freetype2"),
     reason="PILfont superseded if FreeType is supported",
@@ -22,6 +24,11 @@ def test_default_font():
     assert_image_equal_tofile(im, "Tests/images/default_font.png")
 
 
+def test_size_without_freetype():
+    with pytest.raises(ImportError):
+        ImageFont.load_default(size=14)
+
+
 def test_unicode():
     # should not segfault, should return UnicodeDecodeError
     # issue #2826
diff --git a/src/PIL/ImageFont.py b/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
index 531ec8a17..7e69df8a7 100644
--- a/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
+++ b/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
@@ -855,7 +855,7 @@ def load_path(filename):
     raise OSError(msg)
 
 
-def load_default():
+def load_default(size=None):
     """If FreeType support is available, load a version of Aileron Regular,
     https://dotcolon.net/font/aileron, with a more limited character set.
 
@@ -865,7 +865,7 @@ def load_default():
 
     :return: A font object.
     """
-    if core.__class__.__name__ == "module":
+    if core.__class__.__name__ == "module" or size is not None:
         f = truetype(
             BytesIO(
                 base64.b64decode(
@@ -1093,6 +1093,7 @@ AAAAAAQAAAADa3tfFAAAAANAan9kAAAAA4QodoQ==
 """
                 )
             ),
+            10 if size is None else size,
             layout_engine=Layout.BASIC,
         )
     else: