diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/ha/harfbuzz/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/ha/harfbuzz/package.nix
index 2a510fbaf5274..9ce59acc5731f 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/ha/harfbuzz/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/ha/harfbuzz/package.nix
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
   icu,
   graphite2,
   harfbuzz, # The icu variant uses and propagates the non-icu one.
-  withCoreText ? false,
+  withCoreText ? stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin, # withCoreText is required for macOS
   withIcu ? false, # recommended by upstream as default, but most don't needed and it's big
   withGraphite2 ? true, # it is small and major distros do include it
   python3,
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 13706199b98b8..0185ca6a69b10 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1551,7 +1551,6 @@ with pkgs;
   cool-retro-term = libsForQt5.callPackage ../applications/terminal-emulators/cool-retro-term { };
 
   kitty = callPackage ../by-name/ki/kitty/package.nix {
-    harfbuzz = harfbuzz.override { withCoreText = stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin; };
     inherit (darwin) autoSignDarwinBinariesHook;
   };
 
@@ -8390,9 +8389,7 @@ with pkgs;
 
   cairomm_1_16 = callPackage ../development/libraries/cairomm/1.16.nix { };
 
-  pango = callPackage ../development/libraries/pango {
-    harfbuzz = harfbuzz.override { withCoreText = stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin; };
-  };
+  pango = callPackage ../development/libraries/pango { };
 
   pangomm = callPackage ../development/libraries/pangomm { };
 
@@ -8470,7 +8467,6 @@ with pkgs;
   };
 
   harfbuzzFull = harfbuzz.override {
-    withCoreText = stdenv.hostPlatform.isDarwin;
     withGraphite2 = true;
     withIcu = true;
   };