diff --git a/src/components.jl b/src/components.jl
index 7520ae77..51914ffa 100644
--- a/src/components.jl
+++ b/src/components.jl
@@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ function font(args...;kw...)
 
   for symbol in keys(kw)
     if symbol == :family
-      family = kw[:family]
+      family = string(kw[:family])
     elseif symbol == :pointsize
       pointsize = kw[:pointsize]
     elseif symbol == :halign
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index d13ad4bb..2383a931 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+using Plots: guidefont
 import ImageMagick
 using VisualRegressionTests
 using Plots
diff --git a/test/test_defaults.jl b/test/test_defaults.jl
index 96c0ac44..9ce50738 100644
--- a/test/test_defaults.jl
+++ b/test/test_defaults.jl
@@ -1,10 +1,12 @@
 using Plots, Test
 
-const PLOTS_DEFAULTS = Dict(:theme => :wong2)
+const PLOTS_DEFAULTS = Dict(:theme => :wong2, :fontfamily => :palantino)
 Plots.__init__()
 
 @testset "Loading theme" begin
-    @test plot(1:5)[1][1][:seriescolor] == RGBA(colorant"black")
+    pl = plot(1:5)
+    @test pl[1][1][:seriescolor] == RGBA(colorant"black")
+    @test guidefont(pl[1][:xaxis]).family == "palantino"
 end
 
 empty!(PLOTS_DEFAULTS)