diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
index e458300c15e1391c2f80c1aec737fc93fcfcc321..ca22922e7a60dec426b38d7867c3b8394c20e74a 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/r/package.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class R(AutotoolsPackage):
     depends_on('bzip2')
     depends_on('libtiff')
     depends_on('jpeg')
-    depends_on('cairo')
+    depends_on('cairo+pdf')
     depends_on('cairo+X', when='+X')
     depends_on('cairo~X', when='~X')
     depends_on('pango')