diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index 3ddeff79..b97c3e28 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 name = "Plots"
 uuid = "91a5bcdd-55d7-5caf-9e0b-520d859cae80"
 author = ["Tom Breloff (@tbreloff)"]
-version = "1.6.9"
+version = "1.6.10"
 
 [deps]
 Base64 = "2a0f44e3-6c83-55bd-87e4-b1978d98bd5f"
diff --git a/src/backends/pyplot.jl b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
index c039d3b2..8b18365a 100644
--- a/src/backends/pyplot.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
@@ -1022,15 +1022,27 @@ function _before_layout_calcs(plt::Plot{PyPlotBackend})
             end
 
             # Set ticks
-            fontProperties = PyPlot.PyCall.PyDict(Dict("family" => axis[:tickfontfamily],
-                                                       "size" => py_thickness_scale(plt, axis[:tickfontsize]),
-                                                       # "useTex" => false,
-                                                       "rotation" => axis[:tickfontrotation]))
-
+            fontProperties = PyPlot.PyCall.PyDict(
+                Dict(
+                    "family" => axis[:tickfontfamily],
+                    "size" => py_thickness_scale(plt, axis[:tickfontsize]),
+                    "rotation" => axis[:tickfontrotation],
+                )
+            )
 
             positions = getproperty(ax, Symbol("get_",letter,"ticks"))()
             pyaxis.set_major_locator(pyticker.FixedLocator(positions))
-            getproperty(ax, Symbol("set_",letter,"ticklabels"))(positions, fontdict=fontProperties)
+            if RecipesPipeline.is3d(sp)
+                getproperty(ax, Symbol("set_",letter,"ticklabels"))(
+                    positions;
+                    (Symbol(k) => v for (k, v) in fontProperties)...
+                )
+            else
+                getproperty(ax, Symbol("set_",letter,"ticklabels"))(
+                    positions,
+                    fontdict=fontProperties,
+                )
+            end
 
             # workaround to set mathtext.fontspec per Text element
             env = "\\mathregular"  # matches the outer fonts https://matplotlib.org/tutorials/text/mathtext.html