diff --git a/CMakeScripts/DefineDependsandFlags.cmake b/CMakeScripts/DefineDependsandFlags.cmake
index 0425307d62af4d98d61ccb0a95fa5472e3e055fa..81cc8514aa70e23605867c8369646e4d16d647cf 100644
--- a/CMakeScripts/DefineDependsandFlags.cmake
+++ b/CMakeScripts/DefineDependsandFlags.cmake
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ endif()
 
 find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
 pkg_check_modules(INKSCAPE_DEP REQUIRED
-                  harfbuzz
+                  harfbuzz>=2.6.5
                   pangocairo>=1.44
                   pangoft2
                   fontconfig
diff --git a/src/libnrtype/font-instance.cpp b/src/libnrtype/font-instance.cpp
index c6e4091c28db6cf7db51ed8a7c46080909a58192..195566c412d753bc12f40fcb1b570c4d6ae032b1 100644
--- a/src/libnrtype/font-instance.cpp
+++ b/src/libnrtype/font-instance.cpp
@@ -158,16 +158,11 @@ void FontInstance::acquire(PangoFont *p_font_, PangoFontDescription *descr_)
     }
     hb_face = hb_font_get_face(hb_font);
 
-#if HB_VERSION_ATLEAST(2,6,5)
     // hb_font is immutable, yet we need to act on it (with set_funcs) to extract the freetype face
     hb_font_copy = hb_font_create_sub_font(hb_font);
     hb_ft_font_set_funcs(hb_font_copy);
     face = hb_ft_font_lock_face(hb_font_copy);
-#else
-    if (face) {
-        pango_fc_font_unlock_face(PANGO_FC_FONT(p_font));
-    }
-#endif
+
     if (!face) {
         release();
         throw CtorException("Failed to get freetype face");
@@ -177,18 +172,13 @@ void FontInstance::acquire(PangoFont *p_font_, PangoFontDescription *descr_)
 // Release the resources acquired by acquire().
 void FontInstance::release()
 {
-#if HB_VERSION_ATLEAST(2,6,5)
     if (hb_font_copy) {
         if (face) {
             hb_ft_font_unlock_face(hb_font_copy);
         }
         hb_font_destroy(hb_font_copy);
     }
-#else
-    if (face) {
-        pango_fc_font_unlock_face(PANGO_FC_FONT(p_font));
-    }
-#endif
+
     pango_font_description_free(descr);
     g_object_unref(p_font);
 }