diff --git a/src/HTMLRenderer/text.cc b/src/HTMLRenderer/text.cc
index 3b45b7b..3f5847d 100644
--- a/src/HTMLRenderer/text.cc
+++ b/src/HTMLRenderer/text.cc
@@ -404,25 +404,30 @@ void HTMLRenderer::embed_font(const string & filepath, GfxFont * font, FontInfo
     ffw_close();
     /*
      * Step 4
-     * Call external hinting program
+     * Font Hinting
      */
 
+    bool hinted = false;
+    rename(fn.c_str(), tmp_fn.c_str());
+
+    // Call external hinting program if specified 
     if(param->external_hint_tool != "")
     {
-        rename(fn.c_str(), tmp_fn.c_str());
-        if(system((char*)str_fmt("%s \"%s\" \"%s\"", param->external_hint_tool.c_str(), tmp_fn.c_str(), fn.c_str())) != 0)
-        {
-            if(param->auto_hint)
-            {
-                ffw_load_font(tmp_fn.c_str());
-                ffw_auto_hint();
-                ffw_save(fn.c_str());
-            }
-            else
-            {
-                rename(tmp_fn.c_str(), fn.c_str());
-            }
-        }
+        hinted = (system((char*)str_fmt("%s \"%s\" \"%s\"", param->external_hint_tool.c_str(), tmp_fn.c_str(), fn.c_str())) == 0);
+    }
+
+    // Call internal hinting procedure if specified 
+    if((!hinted) && (param->auto_hint))
+    {
+        ffw_load_font(tmp_fn.c_str());
+        ffw_auto_hint();
+        ffw_save(fn.c_str());
+        hinted = true;
+    }
+
+    if(!hinted)
+    {
+        rename(tmp_fn.c_str(), fn.c_str());
     }
 
     /* 
diff --git a/src/ffw.c b/src/ffw.c
index 07b3376..e52e29e 100644
--- a/src/ffw.c
+++ b/src/ffw.c
@@ -70,6 +70,13 @@ void ffw_init(int debug)
     }
 
     original_enc = FindOrMakeEncoding("original");
+
+    {
+        Val v;
+        v.type = v_int;
+        v.u.ival = 1;
+        SetPrefs("DetectDiagonalStems", &v, NULL);
+    }
 }
 
 void ffw_fin(void)
diff --git a/test/test.py b/test/test.py
index f646fb1..6ccdf11 100755
--- a/test/test.py
+++ b/test/test.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ with open('out.html','w') as outf:
         if not f.lower().endswith('.pdf'):
             continue
         print f
-        os.system('pdf2htmlEX --dest-dir html --external-hint-tool="ttfautohint" "%s/%s"' % (DIR,f))
+        os.system('pdf2htmlEX --dest-dir html --auto-hint=1 --external-hint-tool="ttfautohint" "%s/%s"' % (DIR,f))
         ff = f[:-3]
         outf.write('<a href="html/%shtml" target="pdf">%s</a><br/>' % (ff,ff))
         outf.flush();