diff --git a/pkgs/development/tools/documentation/gtk-doc/default.nix b/pkgs/development/tools/documentation/gtk-doc/default.nix
index 8ec6aec9918e..0213eca30d22 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/tools/documentation/gtk-doc/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/tools/documentation/gtk-doc/default.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 { stdenv, fetchurl, autoreconfHook, pkgconfig, perl, python, libxml2Python, libxslt, which
-, docbook_xml_dtd_43, docbook_xsl, gnome-doc-utils, dblatex, gettext, itstool
+, docbook_xml_dtd_43, docbook_xsl, gnome-doc-utils, gettext, itstool
+, withDblatex ? false, dblatex
 }:
 
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
@@ -20,8 +21,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook ];
   buildInputs =
     [ pkgconfig perl python libxml2Python libxslt docbook_xml_dtd_43 docbook_xsl
-      gnome-doc-utils dblatex gettext which itstool
-    ];
+      gnome-doc-utils gettext which itstool
+    ] ++ stdenv.lib.optional withDblatex dblatex;
 
   configureFlags = [ "--disable-scrollkeeper" ];