diff --git a/src/cairo-cff-subset.c b/src/cairo-cff-subset.c
index a01d55eb5..1e6724fc2 100644
--- a/src/cairo-cff-subset.c
+++ b/src/cairo-cff-subset.c
@@ -1907,7 +1907,7 @@ _cairo_cff_font_create (cairo_scaled_font_subset_t  *scaled_font_subset,
 	return CAIRO_INT_STATUS_UNSUPPORTED;
 
     /* We need to use a fallback font generated from the synthesized outlines. */
-    if (backend->is_synthetic (scaled_font_subset->scaled_font))
+    if (backend->is_synthetic && backend->is_synthetic (scaled_font_subset->scaled_font))
 	return CAIRO_INT_STATUS_UNSUPPORTED;
 
     data_length = 0;
diff --git a/src/cairo-truetype-subset.c b/src/cairo-truetype-subset.c
index a70334330..9e0aaa520 100644
--- a/src/cairo-truetype-subset.c
+++ b/src/cairo-truetype-subset.c
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ _cairo_truetype_font_create (cairo_scaled_font_subset_t  *scaled_font_subset,
      */
 
     /* We need to use a fallback font generated from the synthesized outlines. */
-    if (backend->is_synthetic (scaled_font_subset->scaled_font))
+    if (backend->is_synthetic && backend->is_synthetic (scaled_font_subset->scaled_font))
        return CAIRO_INT_STATUS_UNSUPPORTED;
 
     size = sizeof (tt_head_t);