diff --git a/src/PIL/ImageDraw.py b/src/PIL/ImageDraw.py
index 4d5919f22..40eed46bc 100644
--- a/src/PIL/ImageDraw.py
+++ b/src/PIL/ImageDraw.py
@@ -543,7 +543,7 @@ class ImageDraw:
                 # font.getmask2(mode="RGBA") returns color in RGB bands and mask in A
                 # extract mask and set text alpha
                 color, mask = mask, mask.getband(3)
-                ink_alpha = struct.pack("=i", ink)[3]
+                ink_alpha = struct.pack("i", ink)[3]
                 color.fillband(3, ink_alpha)
                 x, y = coord
                 self.im.paste(color, (x, y, x + mask.size[0], y + mask.size[1]), mask)