diff --git a/src/font/mod.rs b/src/font/mod.rs
index 3518c47ca..35507c8db 100644
--- a/src/font/mod.rs
+++ b/src/font/mod.rs
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ use std::rc::Rc;
 
 pub mod loader;
 pub mod rasterizer;
+pub mod shaper;
 
 pub mod system;
 pub use self::system::*;
diff --git a/src/font/shaper/harfbuzz.rs b/src/font/shaper/harfbuzz.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..83184de7a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/font/shaper/harfbuzz.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,181 @@
+use crate::font::ftwrap;
+use crate::font::hbwrap as harfbuzz;
+use crate::font::shaper::FontShaper;
+use crate::font::system::GlyphInfo;
+use failure::{bail, Fallible};
+use log::{debug, error};
+use std::cell::RefCell;
+
+struct FontPair {
+    face: ftwrap::Face,
+    font: harfbuzz::Font,
+}
+
+pub struct HarfbuzzShaper {
+    fonts: Vec<RefCell<FontPair>>,
+}
+
+impl HarfbuzzShaper {
+    fn do_shape(
+        &self,
+        font_idx: crate::font::system::FallbackIdx,
+        s: &str,
+    ) -> Fallible<Vec<GlyphInfo>> {
+        let features = vec![
+            // kerning
+            harfbuzz::feature_from_string("kern")?,
+            // ligatures
+            harfbuzz::feature_from_string("liga")?,
+            // contextual ligatures
+            harfbuzz::feature_from_string("clig")?,
+        ];
+
+        let mut buf = harfbuzz::Buffer::new()?;
+        buf.set_script(harfbuzz::hb_script_t::HB_SCRIPT_LATIN);
+        buf.set_direction(harfbuzz::hb_direction_t::HB_DIRECTION_LTR);
+        buf.set_language(harfbuzz::language_from_string("en")?);
+        buf.add_str(s);
+
+        {
+            match self.fonts.get(font_idx) {
+                Some(pair) => {
+                    pair.borrow_mut()
+                        .font
+                        .shape(&mut buf, Some(features.as_slice()));
+                }
+                None => {
+                    let chars: Vec<u32> = s.chars().map(|c| c as u32).collect();
+                    bail!("No more fallbacks while shaping {:x?}", chars);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        let infos = buf.glyph_infos();
+        let positions = buf.glyph_positions();
+
+        let mut cluster = Vec::new();
+
+        let mut last_text_pos = None;
+        let mut first_fallback_pos = None;
+
+        // Compute the lengths of the text clusters.
+        // Ligatures and combining characters mean
+        // that a single glyph can take the place of
+        // multiple characters.  The 'cluster' member
+        // of the glyph info is set to the position
+        // in the input utf8 text, so we make a pass
+        // over the set of clusters to look for differences
+        // greater than 1 and backfill the length of
+        // the corresponding text fragment.  We need
+        // the fragments to properly handle fallback,
+        // and they're handy to have for debugging
+        // purposes too.
+        let mut sizes = Vec::with_capacity(s.len());
+        for (i, info) in infos.iter().enumerate() {
+            let pos = info.cluster as usize;
+            let mut size = 1;
+            if let Some(last_pos) = last_text_pos {
+                let diff = pos - last_pos;
+                if diff > 1 {
+                    sizes[i - 1] = diff;
+                }
+            } else if pos != 0 {
+                size = pos;
+            }
+            last_text_pos = Some(pos);
+            sizes.push(size);
+        }
+        if let Some(last_pos) = last_text_pos {
+            let diff = s.len() - last_pos;
+            if diff > 1 {
+                let last = sizes.len() - 1;
+                sizes[last] = diff;
+            }
+        }
+        //debug!("sizes: {:?}", sizes);
+
+        // Now make a second pass to determine if we need
+        // to perform fallback to a later font.
+        // We can determine this by looking at the codepoint.
+        for (i, info) in infos.iter().enumerate() {
+            let pos = info.cluster as usize;
+            if info.codepoint == 0 {
+                if first_fallback_pos.is_none() {
+                    // Start of a run that needs fallback
+                    first_fallback_pos = Some(pos);
+                }
+            } else if let Some(start_pos) = first_fallback_pos {
+                // End of a fallback run
+                //debug!("range: {:?}-{:?} needs fallback", start, pos);
+
+                let substr = &s[start_pos..pos];
+                let mut shape = match self.do_shape(font_idx + 1, substr) {
+                    Ok(shape) => Ok(shape),
+                    Err(e) => {
+                        error!("{:?} for {:?}", e, substr);
+                        if font_idx == 0 && s == "?" {
+                            bail!("unable to find any usable glyphs for `?` in font_idx 0");
+                        }
+                        self.do_shape(0, "?")
+                    }
+                }?;
+
+                // Fixup the cluster member to match our current offset
+                for mut info in &mut shape {
+                    info.cluster += start_pos as u32;
+                }
+                cluster.append(&mut shape);
+
+                first_fallback_pos = None;
+            }
+            if info.codepoint != 0 {
+                if s.is_char_boundary(pos) && s.is_char_boundary(pos + sizes[i]) {
+                    let text = &s[pos..pos + sizes[i]];
+                    //debug!("glyph from `{}`", text);
+                    cluster.push(GlyphInfo::new(text, font_idx, info, &positions[i]));
+                } else {
+                    cluster.append(&mut self.do_shape(0, "?")?);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        // Check to see if we started and didn't finish a
+        // fallback run.
+        if let Some(start_pos) = first_fallback_pos {
+            let substr = &s[start_pos..];
+            if false {
+                debug!(
+                    "at end {:?}-{:?} needs fallback {}",
+                    start_pos,
+                    s.len() - 1,
+                    substr,
+                );
+            }
+            let mut shape = match self.do_shape(font_idx + 1, substr) {
+                Ok(shape) => Ok(shape),
+                Err(e) => {
+                    error!("{:?} for {:?}", e, substr);
+                    if font_idx == 0 && s == "?" {
+                        bail!("unable to find any usable glyphs for `?` in font_idx 0");
+                    }
+                    self.do_shape(0, "?")
+                }
+            }?;
+            // Fixup the cluster member to match our current offset
+            for mut info in &mut shape {
+                info.cluster += start_pos as u32;
+            }
+            cluster.append(&mut shape);
+        }
+
+        //debug!("shaped: {:#?}", cluster);
+
+        Ok(cluster)
+    }
+}
+
+impl FontShaper for HarfbuzzShaper {
+    fn shape(&self, text: &str) -> Fallible<Vec<GlyphInfo>> {
+        self.do_shape(0, text)
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/font/shaper/mod.rs b/src/font/shaper/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3f74e4bac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/font/shaper/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+use crate::font::system::GlyphInfo;
+use failure::Fallible;
+
+pub mod harfbuzz;
+
+pub trait FontShaper {
+    /// Shape text and return a vector of GlyphInfo
+    fn shape(&self, text: &str) -> Fallible<Vec<GlyphInfo>>;
+}