diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
index 8da3df2773f04..314b9a341b9d5 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/bin.nix
@@ -169,6 +169,18 @@ core-big = stdenv.mkDerivation { #TODO: upmendex
 
   inherit (common) src prePatch;
 
+  patches = [
+    # improves reproducibility of fmt files. This patch has been proposed upstream,
+    # but they are considering some other approaches as well. This is fairly
+    # conservative so we can safely apply it until they make a decision
+    # https://mailman.ntg.nl/pipermail/dev-luatex/2022-April/006650.html
+    (fetchpatch {
+      name = "reproducible_exception_strings.patch";
+      url = "https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?att=1;bug=1009196;filename=reproducible_exception_strings.patch;msg=5";
+      sha256 = "sha256-RNZoEeTcWnrLaltcYrhNIORh42fFdwMzBfxMRWVurbk=";
+    })
+  ];
+
   hardeningDisable = [ "format" ];
 
   inherit (core) nativeBuildInputs;
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
index c18b7a011a860..82af99c0a8ef0 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/combine.nix
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ in (buildEnv {
     "/tex/generic/config" # make it a real directory for scheme-infraonly
   ];
 
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ makeWrapper libfaketime ];
   buildInputs = pkgList.extraInputs;
 
   # This is set primarily to help find-tarballs.nix to do its job
@@ -228,6 +228,21 @@ in (buildEnv {
     FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1 perl `type -P fmtutil.pl` --sys --all | grep '^fmtutil' # too verbose
     #${bin.texlinks}/bin/texlinks "$out/bin" && wrapBin # do we need to regenerate format links?
 
+    # tex intentionally ignores SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH even when FORCE_SOURCE_DATE=1
+    # https://salsa.debian.org/live-team/live-build/-/blob/master/examples/hooks/reproducible/0139-reproducible-texlive-binaries-fmt-files.hook.chroot#L52
+    if [[ -d share/texmf-var/web2c/tex ]]
+    then
+      cd share/texmf-var/web2c/tex
+      faketime $(date --utc -d@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH --iso-8601=seconds) tex -ini -jobname=tex -progname=tex tex.ini
+      cd -
+    fi
+    if [[ -d share/texmf-var/web2c/luahbtex ]]
+    then
+      cd share/texmf-var/web2c/luahbtex
+      faketime $(date --utc -d@$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH --iso-8601=seconds) luahbtex -ini -jobname=lualatex -progname=lualatex lualatex.ini
+      cd -
+    fi
+
     # Disable unavailable map files
     echo y | perl `type -P updmap.pl` --sys --syncwithtrees --force
     # Regenerate the map files (this is optional)
diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
index 27db30593e882..e58bdde501a62 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 { stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
 , callPackage, ghostscriptX, harfbuzz
 , makeWrapper, python3, ruby, perl, gnused, gnugrep, coreutils
+, libfaketime
 , useFixedHashes ? true
 , recurseIntoAttrs
 }:
@@ -23,7 +24,7 @@ let
   # function for creating a working environment from a set of TL packages
   combine = import ./combine.nix {
     inherit bin combinePkgs buildEnv lib makeWrapper writeText
-      stdenv python3 ruby perl gnused gnugrep coreutils;
+      stdenv python3 ruby perl gnused gnugrep coreutils libfaketime;
     ghostscript = ghostscriptX; # could be without X, probably, but we use X above
   };