diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 550fab5..f296352 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+2020-11-04  Werner Lemberg  <wl@gnu.org>
+
+	* meson.build: Fix .pc file generation.
+
+	For backwards compatibility we need the libtool version, not the .so
+	number.
+
+	Reported by Nikolaus.
+
 2020-10-28  Werner Lemberg  <wl@gnu.org>
 
 	[truetype] Minor update to forthcoming OpenType 1.8.4 standard.
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index c994976..c98fea6 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -32,11 +32,15 @@
   files('builds/meson/extract_freetype_version.py'),
   files('include/freetype/freetype.h')).stdout().strip()
 
-ft2_libtool_version = run_command(python_exe,
+ft2_so_version = run_command(python_exe,
   files('builds/meson/extract_libtool_version.py'),
   '--soversion',
   files('builds/unix/configure.raw')).stdout().strip()
 
+ft2_libtool_version = run_command(python_exe,
+  files('builds/meson/extract_libtool_version.py'),
+  files('builds/unix/configure.raw')).stdout().strip()
+
 ft2_includes = include_directories('include')
 
 
@@ -320,7 +324,7 @@
   include_directories: ft2_includes,
   dependencies: ft2_deps,
   install: true,
-  version: ft2_libtool_version,
+  version: ft2_so_version,
 )
 
 
@@ -328,7 +332,7 @@
 freetype2_dep = declare_dependency(
   include_directories: ft2_includes,
   link_with: ft2_lib,
-  version: ft2_libtool_version)
+  version: ft2_so_version)
 
 
 # NOTE: Using both `install_dir` and `subdir` doesn't seem to work below,