diff --git a/fonts.mss b/fonts.mss
index 3a5cda51c5..0e347fef25 100644
--- a/fonts.mss
+++ b/fonts.mss
@@ -177,6 +177,44 @@ regular text and can be used for emphasis. Fallback is a regular style.
                 @book-fonts;
 
 /*
+Medium text is heavier than regular text, but ligther than bold. 
+Fallback is a regular style.
+*/
+@medium-fonts:    "Noto Sans Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans CJK JP Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Armenian Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Bengali UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Cham Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Cherokee Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Devanagari UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Ethiopic Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Georgian Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Gujarati UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Gurmukhi UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Hebrew Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Kannada UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Khmer UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Lao UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Malayalam UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Myanmar UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Oriya UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Sinhala UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Sinhala Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Symbols Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Tamil UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Telugu UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Thaana Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Thai UI Medium",
+                  "Noto Sans Tibetan Medium",
+
+                  "Noto Sans Arabic UI Medium",
+
+                  "Noto Naskh Arabic UI Medium",
+
+                  "DejaVu Sans Medium",
+
+                  @book-fonts;
+/*
 Italics are only available for the base font, not the other scripts.
 For a considerable number of labels this style will make no difference to the regular style.
 */
diff --git a/placenames.mss b/placenames.mss
index 5cdee8ec27..5f5835d229 100644
--- a/placenames.mss
+++ b/placenames.mss
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
     text-line-spacing: -1.5; // -0.15 em
     text-margin: 7.0; // 0.7 em
     text-fill: @state-labels;
-    text-face-name: @oblique-fonts;
+    text-face-name: @medium-fonts;
     text-halo-fill: @standard-halo-fill;
     text-halo-radius: @standard-halo-radius * 1.5;
     text-placement: interior;