diff --git a/buildtools/check_license_headers.py b/buildtools/check_license_headers.py
index ff154e5cda3f492575c269157770b69cad4b8948..5291216d619089c0307cb9a65b305a083e792a8c 100755
--- a/buildtools/check_license_headers.py
+++ b/buildtools/check_license_headers.py
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ IGNORE_PATHS = [
     "share",
     "src/2geom",
     "src/3rdparty",
+    "testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/LICENSES",
 ]
 
 # do not check licenses for the following file endings:
@@ -43,10 +44,12 @@ IGNORE_FILE_ENDINGS = [
     ".dll",
     ".kate-swp",
     ".ods",
+    ".otf",
     ".png",
     ".po",
     ".rc",
     ".svg",
+    ".ttf",
     ".xml",
     ".xpm",
     "AUTHORS",
diff --git a/src/libnrtype/Layout-TNG-Compute.cpp b/src/libnrtype/Layout-TNG-Compute.cpp
index a132f058ca4cdba583825b42e4a918616af548b9..e5659c18cc7daf1d29dcf763061e45b3825f7026 100644
--- a/src/libnrtype/Layout-TNG-Compute.cpp
+++ b/src/libnrtype/Layout-TNG-Compute.cpp
@@ -1455,7 +1455,8 @@ unsigned Layout::Calculator::_buildSpansForPara(ParagraphInfo *para) const
 
                     } // End right to left text.
 
-                    //  The following sorting doesn't seem to be necessary, and causes GitHub bug #394... must test further.
+                    //  The following sorting doesn't seem to be necessary, and causes
+                    //  https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/issues/394 ...
 
                     /*
                         CAREFUL, within a log_cluster the order of glyphs may not map 1:1, or
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/CMakeLists.txt b/testfiles/rendering_tests/CMakeLists.txt
index afe17ba968370ae49ff4a4a167d5a195066226b4..a26ee3c952c934f0c35e58ed6a235d0ad8ae6848 100644
--- a/testfiles/rendering_tests/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/testfiles/rendering_tests/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ set(RENDERING_TESTS
     selector-important-002
     selector-important-003
     test-dont-crash
+    # text-shaping
+    ## Expected rendering generated with Pango 1.44. Currently fails with
+    ## CI as CI uses Pango 1.40. Enable after updating CI to Ubuntu 20.04.
 )
 
 
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping-large.png b/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping-large.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e84ebf537f102e556f7aad87accb1aa0d7d495d1
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping-large.png differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping.png b/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..346ab77ab4c67dc8d288928c307763d9e2136809
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/expected_rendering/text-shaping.png differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Estedad-Medium.ttf b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Estedad-Medium.ttf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..d4844c2d1390314a4122cf0eaceea51d121502bf
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Estedad-Medium.ttf differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/LICENSES b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/LICENSES
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e99e933e27e43c459b3669a14723385893c8361f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/LICENSES
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+
+All fonts in this directory are licensed under open licenses.
+
+Lohit (https://pagure.io/lohit SIL Open Font 1.1)
+NotoSans (https://www.google.com/get/noto/ Open Font License 1.1) 
+Estedad (https://github.com/aminabedi68/Estedad/ SIL Open Font 1.1)
+
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Lohit-Telugu.ttf b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Lohit-Telugu.ttf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..3869703a72ce985313edc6ef4777d1f34c0bf97b
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/Lohit-Telugu.ttf differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b031a492406a91c373c99cb99c9fe7171a3f8f45
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansCJKjp-Regular.otf b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansCJKjp-Regular.otf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..296fbebd86a7cb3b5b1d8f58fb7678f5f239bc7b
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansCJKjp-Regular.otf differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansHebrew-Regular.ttf b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansHebrew-Regular.ttf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9bf03abcdcf49e5f15036a920f477bc57ead6e3a
Binary files /dev/null and b/testfiles/rendering_tests/fonts/NotoSansHebrew-Regular.ttf differ
diff --git a/testfiles/rendering_tests/text-shaping.svg b/testfiles/rendering_tests/text-shaping.svg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c4cf9b9d45a6e3d1f78c397856188217d4eb76e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testfiles/rendering_tests/text-shaping.svg
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
+<svg
+  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
+  xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd"
+  width="100%"
+  height="100%"
+  viewBox="0 0 600 600">
+
+  <style type="text/css">
+
+    @font-face {
+      font-family: "Estedad";
+      src: url("fonts/Estedad-Medium.ttf");
+    }
+
+    @font-face {
+      font-family: "Noto Sans Hebrew";
+      src: url("fonts/NotoSansHebrew-Regular.ttf");
+    }
+
+    @font-face {
+      font-family: "Noto Sans";
+      src: url("fonts/NotoSans-Regular.ttf");
+    }
+
+    @font-face {
+      font-family: "Noto Sans CJK JP";
+      src: url("fonts/NotoSansCJKjp-Regular.otf");
+    }
+
+    @font-face {
+      font-family: "Lohit Telugu";
+      src: url("fonts/Lohit-Telugu.ttf");
+    }
+
+  </style>
+
+  <g style="fill:none;stroke:black;stroke-width:0.5px;font-size:42px;font-family:serif;text-anchor:middle">
+
+    <!-- bug https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/issues/469 -->
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="50"
+          style="font-family:Estedad;direction:rtl">نیرو</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="100"
+          style="font-family:Estedad;direction:rtl">بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="150"
+          style="font-family:'Noto Sans Hebrew';direction:rtl">שָׁלוֹם</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="200"
+          style="font-family:'Noto Sans Hebrew';direction:rtl">חִירִיק</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="250"
+          style="font-family:'Noto Sans'">â â̂ â â̂</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="300"
+          style="font-family:'Noto Sans'">a ḁ ą ą</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="350"
+          style="font-family:'Noto Sans CJK JP'">ヘ ペ ペ</text>
+
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="400"
+          style="font-family:'Lohit Telugu'">తెలుగులో</text>
+
+    <!-- Teluga bug https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/issues/394 -->
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="450"
+          style="font-family:'Lohit Telugu'">గ్రంథాలయం</text>
+
+    <!-- Teluga bug https://launchpadlibrarian.net/167162208/inkscape-telugu-text.svg -->
+    <text xml:space="preserve"
+          x="300"
+          y="500"
+          style="font-family:'Lohit Telugu'">ఇంక్‌స్కేప్</text>
+  </g>
+</svg>