diff --git a/src/Plots.jl b/src/Plots.jl
index e7a71878..5b067f0a 100644
--- a/src/Plots.jl
+++ b/src/Plots.jl
@@ -118,7 +118,6 @@ export
     scalefontsizes,
     resetfontsizes
 
-
 # ---------------------------------------------------------
 
 import NaNMath # define functions that ignores NaNs. To overcome the destructive effects of https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/12563
@@ -250,6 +249,7 @@ end
 # ---------------------------------------------------------
 
 const CURRENT_BACKEND = CurrentBackend(:none)
+const PLOTS_SEED = 1234
 
 include("precompile_includer.jl")
 
diff --git a/src/examples.jl b/src/examples.jl
index 838af274..03d4ae4f 100644
--- a/src/examples.jl
+++ b/src/examples.jl
@@ -128,8 +128,7 @@ const _examples = PlotExample[
             :(
                 begin
                     import FileIO
-                    path =
-                            download("http://juliaplots.org/PlotReferenceImages.jl/Plots/pyplot/0.7.0/ref1.png")
+                    path = download("http://juliaplots.org/PlotReferenceImages.jl/Plots/pyplot/0.7.0/ref1.png")
                     img = FileIO.load(path)
                     plot(img)
                 end
diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index 4ebdc01e..f07945a2 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -303,10 +303,12 @@ function convert_to_polar(theta, r, r_extrema = ignorenan_extrema(r))
     x, y
 end
 
-function fakedata(sz...)
+fakedata(sz::Int...) = fakedata(Random.seed!(PLOTS_SEED), sz...)
+
+function fakedata(rng::AbstractRNG, sz...)
     y = zeros(sz...)
     for r in 2:size(y,1)
-        y[r,:] = 0.95 * vec(y[r-1,:]) + randn(size(y,2))
+        y[r,:] = 0.95 * vec(y[r-1,:]) + randn(rng, size(y,2))
     end
     y
 end
diff --git a/test/imgcomp.jl b/test/imgcomp.jl
index 3a0af3ca..879a87ea 100644
--- a/test/imgcomp.jl
+++ b/test/imgcomp.jl
@@ -6,14 +6,14 @@ function replace_rand!(ex::Expr)
    for arg in ex.args
        replace_rand!(arg)
    end
-   if ex.head === :call && ex.args[1] ∈ (:rand, :randn)
+   if ex.head === :call && ex.args[1] ∈ (:rand, :randn, :(Plots.fakedata))
        pushfirst!(ex.args, ex.args[1])
        ex.args[2] = :rng
    end
 end
 function fix_rand!(ex)
     replace_rand!(ex)
-    pushfirst!(ex.args[1].args, :(rng = StableRNG(1234)))
+    pushfirst!(ex.args[1].args, :(rng = StableRNG(PLOTS_SEED)))
 end
 
 function image_comparison_tests(
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ function image_comparison_tests(
     fn = "ref$idx.png"
     reffn = reference_file(pkg, idx, _current_plots_version)
     newfn = joinpath(reference_path(pkg, _current_plots_version), fn)
+    @debug example.exprs
 
     # test function
     func = (fn, idx) -> begin
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 5b280508..4bea6dd0 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-using Plots: guidefont, series_annotations
+using Plots: guidefont, series_annotations, PLOTS_SEED
 import ImageMagick
 using VisualRegressionTests
 using Plots
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ import GeometryBasics
 using Dates
 using RecipesBase
 
-
 @testset "Plotly standalone" begin
     @test_nowarn Plots._init_ijulia_plotting()
     @test Plots.plotly_local_file_path[] === nothing
@@ -68,7 +67,7 @@ end
 
 include("imgcomp.jl")
 # don't actually show the plots
-Random.seed!(1234)
+Random.seed!(PLOTS_SEED)
 default(show=false, reuse=true)
 is_ci() = get(ENV, "CI", "false") == "true"
 const PLOTS_IMG_TOL = parse(