diff --git a/cogl/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-framebuffer-gl.c b/cogl/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-framebuffer-gl.c
index 8ae631df6..abff84ee0 100644
--- a/cogl/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-framebuffer-gl.c
+++ b/cogl/cogl/driver/gl/cogl-framebuffer-gl.c
@@ -1412,22 +1412,12 @@ _cogl_framebuffer_gl_read_pixels_into_bitmap (CoglFramebuffer *framebuffer,
   if (!cogl_is_offscreen (framebuffer))
     y = framebuffer_height - y - height;
 
-  required_format = ctx->driver_vtable->pixel_format_to_gl (ctx,
-                                                            format,
-                                                            &gl_intformat,
-                                                            &gl_format,
-                                                            &gl_type);
-#if HAVE_COGL_GL
-  /* As we are reading pixels, we want to consider the bitmap according to
-   * its real pixel format, not the swizzled channels we pretend face to the
-   * pipeline.
-   */
-  if ((ctx->driver == COGL_DRIVER_GL || ctx->driver == COGL_DRIVER_GL3) &&
-      (format == COGL_PIXEL_FORMAT_BGRA_8888 ||
-       format == COGL_PIXEL_FORMAT_BGRA_8888_PRE) &&
-      _cogl_has_private_feature (ctx, COGL_PRIVATE_FEATURE_TEXTURE_SWIZZLE))
-    gl_format = GL_BGRA;
-#endif
+  required_format = ctx->driver_vtable->pixel_format_to_gl_with_target (ctx,
+                                                                        framebuffer->internal_format,
+                                                                        format,
+                                                                        &gl_intformat,
+                                                                        &gl_format,
+                                                                        &gl_type);
 
   /* NB: All offscreen rendering is done upside down so there is no need
    * to flip in this case... */