diff --git a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
index e58bdde501a6..180897e0bce2 100644
--- a/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/tools/typesetting/tex/texlive/default.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   - current html: https://nixos.org/nixpkgs/manual/#sec-language-texlive
 */
 { stdenv, lib, fetchurl, runCommand, writeText, buildEnv
-, callPackage, ghostscriptX, harfbuzz
+, callPackage, ghostscript_headless, harfbuzz
 , makeWrapper, python3, ruby, perl, gnused, gnugrep, coreutils
 , libfaketime
 , useFixedHashes ? true
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 let
   # various binaries (compiled)
   bin = callPackage ./bin.nix {
-    ghostscript = ghostscriptX;
+    ghostscript = ghostscript_headless;
     harfbuzz = harfbuzz.override {
       withIcu = true; withGraphite2 = true;
     };
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ let
   combine = import ./combine.nix {
     inherit bin combinePkgs buildEnv lib makeWrapper writeText
       stdenv python3 ruby perl gnused gnugrep coreutils libfaketime;
-    ghostscript = ghostscriptX; # could be without X, probably, but we use X above
+    ghostscript = ghostscript_headless;
   };
 
   # the set of TeX Live packages, collections, and schemes; using upstream naming
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 00af6f3ed414..2032142b1558 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -36674,6 +36674,11 @@ with pkgs;
     x11Support = true;
   };
 
+  ghostscript_headless = ghostscript.override {
+    cupsSupport = false;
+    x11Support = false;
+  };
+
   glava = callPackage ../applications/misc/glava {};
 
   gnuk = callPackage ../misc/gnuk {
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
index 0530337d0a60..270bab337cfb 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/python-packages.nix
@@ -5585,6 +5585,7 @@ self: super: with self; {
   matplotlib = callPackage ../development/python-modules/matplotlib {
     stdenv = if stdenv.isDarwin then pkgs.clangStdenv else pkgs.stdenv;
     inherit (pkgs.darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks) Cocoa;
+    ghostscript = pkgs.ghostscript_headless;
   };
 
   matplotlib-inline = callPackage ../development/python-modules/matplotlib-inline { };