diff --git a/INSTALL b/INSTALL
index 8df87b45f47d..7defde8ec1c5 100644
--- a/INSTALL
+++ b/INSTALL
@@ -212,7 +212,11 @@ Required Dependencies
     Used to manipulate time-zone aware datetimes. http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pytz
 
 :term:`FreeType` 2.3 or later
-    library for reading true type font files.
+    Library for reading true type font files. If using pip, easy_install or 
+    installing from source, the installer will attempt to locate FreeType in
+    expected locations. If it cannot, try installing `pkg-config 
+    <http://matplotlib.org/users/installing.html#optional-dependencies>`__,
+    a tool used to find required non-python libraries.
 
 `cycler <http://matplotlib.org/cycler/>`__ 0.9 or later
    Composable cycle class used for constructing style-cycles