diff --git a/make/tex.mk b/make/tex.mk
index 1f4ebcf2..617c8d9f 100644
--- a/make/tex.mk
+++ b/make/tex.mk
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ ifeq ($(TEX_TMPL_DIR), "")
 	TEX_TMPL_DIR = thisisnotadirectory
 endif
 latex = latex
-PDFLATEX = pdflatex
+PDFLATEX ?= pdflatex
 PDF_VIEWER ?= $(firstword $(shell which okular kpdf acroread))
 CAT ?= cat
 SED ?= sed