diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ac4c5193b..57324e289 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ matrix:
             apt:
               packages:
                 - libfontconfig1-dev
+                - libharfbuzz-dev
                 - libglew-dev
                 - libxi-dev
                 - libxrandr-dev
@@ -34,6 +35,7 @@ matrix:
             apt:
               packages:
                 - libfontconfig1-dev
+                - libharfbuzz-dev
                 - libglew-dev
                 - libxi-dev
                 - libxrandr-dev
@@ -55,6 +57,7 @@ matrix:
             apt:
               packages:
                 - libfontconfig1-dev
+                - libharfbuzz-dev
                 - libglew-dev
                 - libxi-dev
                 - libxrandr-dev
diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index a1a133afd..5e3eb0498 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ the following dependencies are installed first.
 * libpng
 * glew   >= 2.0 (not needed on macOS)
 * fontconfig (not needed on macOS)
+* harfbuzz (not needed on macOS)
 * xrdb (only on X11 based systems)
 * xsel (only on X11 systems with glfw < 3.3)
 * ImageMagick (optional, needed to use the `kitty icat` tool to display images in the terminal)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f86858350..2754935b9 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -163,6 +163,8 @@ def init_env(debug=False, sanitize=False, native_optimizations=True, profile=Fal
     else:
         cflags.extend(pkg_config('fontconfig', '--cflags-only-I'))
         font_libs = pkg_config('fontconfig', '--libs')
+        cflags.extend(pkg_config('harfbuzz', '--cflags-only-I'))
+        font_libs.extend(pkg_config('harfbuzz', '--libs'))
     cflags.extend(pkg_config('glfw3', '--cflags-only-I'))
     ldflags.append('-shared')
     pylib = get_python_flags(cflags)