diff --git a/render/font.c b/render/font.c
index 2a1872e0..11a8edc6 100644
--- a/render/font.c
+++ b/render/font.c
@@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ static RrFont *openfont(const RrInstance *inst, gchar *fontstring)
 
     if (FcPatternGetInteger(match, "pixelsize", 0, &tmp_int) !=
             FcResultTypeMismatch) {
-        pango_font_description_set_size(out->pango_font_description,
+        pango_font_description_set_absolute_size(out->pango_font_description,
                                         tmp_int*PANGO_SCALE);
     }