diff --git a/1-setup-osx-brew.sh b/1-setup-osx-brew.sh
index a22b3fa7ba6..079dda7c4cb 100755
--- a/1-setup-osx-brew.sh
+++ b/1-setup-osx-brew.sh
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ ccache \
 cmake \
 fftw \
 fontconfig \
+fribidi \
 gettext \
 glibmm \
 gtkmm3 \
@@ -66,6 +67,7 @@ if [ $OS -lt 15 ] && [ -z "$TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR" ]; then # For OSX < 10.11
     cd /usr/local/Homebrew/
     git checkout 1.4.1
     brew info gobject-introspection | grep >/dev/null 'Not installed' && brew install ${WORKDIR}/autobuild/osx/gobject-introspection.rb
+    brew info fribidi | grep >/dev/null 'Not installed' && brew install ${WORKDIR}/autobuild/osx/fribidi.rb # broken url in original formula
 fi
 
 for pkg in $PACKAGES;
diff --git a/autobuild/osx/fribidi.rb b/autobuild/osx/fribidi.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f8d75fd2803
--- /dev/null
+++ b/autobuild/osx/fribidi.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+class Fribidi < Formula
+  desc "Implementation of the Unicode BiDi algorithm"
+  homepage "https://fribidi.org/"
+  url "https://github.com/fribidi/fribidi/releases/download/0.19.7/fribidi-0.19.7.tar.bz2"
+  sha256 "08222a6212bbc2276a2d55c3bf370109ae4a35b689acbc66571ad2a670595a8e"
+  revision 1
+
+  bottle do
+    cellar :any
+    sha256 "328217d2ad90d4f183a44572c59cef7ec0cae37fdfb5b03ace41b37c48d8c72d" => :high_sierra
+    sha256 "5d1e95fc89934750643b1a684cd6738839ecc2d05721282dcf72b9c3481092fd" => :sierra
+    sha256 "6ba76553f8ec26d4de32e84ce0a99e758d1bb5b7272ac2a985ff71322957d1ac" => :el_capitan
+    sha256 "e414b99827d9a472609639ab5030bf5344077763bc178ce743a082008874f232" => :yosemite
+    sha256 "70caed8cb2f44044c41e0b91c2645111b9f177d98b4d49cef01fb0d8558c0f98" => :mavericks
+  end
+
+  depends_on "pkg-config" => :build
+  depends_on "glib"
+  depends_on "pcre"
+
+  def install
+    system "./configure", "--disable-debug", "--disable-dependency-tracking",
+                          "--with-glib", "--prefix=#{prefix}"
+    system "make", "install"
+  end
+
+  test do
+    (testpath/"test.input").write <<~EOS
+      a _lsimple _RteST_o th_oat
+    EOS
+
+    assert_match /a simple TSet that/, shell_output("#{bin}/fribidi --charset=CapRTL --test test.input")
+  end
+end