diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 55428b32..22203a68 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -79,10 +79,10 @@ SUFFIXES=.html .md .ronn .check .test
 .md.html: _layouts/webpage.html
 	@echo "  MD        $@"
 	@cat $< | sed -e 's/\.md)/.html)/g' -e 's/\.ronn/.html/g' | \
-		kramdown --template _layouts/webpage.html > $@
+		$(KRAMDOWN) --template _layouts/webpage.html > $@
 
 .ronn.html:
-	ronn --html $<
+	$(RONN) --html $<
 
 ##### vim:
 
@@ -101,10 +101,10 @@ EXTRA_DIST += $(vim_addons_syntax_DATA)
 ##### documentation:
 
 src/espeak-ng.1: src/espeak-ng.1.ronn
-	ronn --roff $<
+	$(RONN) --roff $<
 
 src/speak-ng.1: src/speak-ng.1.ronn
-	ronn --roff $<
+	$(RONN) --roff $<
 
 docs_MARKDOWN != ls docs/*.md docs/*/*.md docs/*/*/*.md
 docs_HTML = ${docs_MARKDOWN:.md=.html}
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index bb124bb3..a333ab93 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -257,6 +257,8 @@ AC_CHECK_PROG(RONN, ronn, ronn, no)
 
 AM_CONDITIONAL(HAVE_RONN, [test ! x"$RONN" = xno])
 
+AC_CHECK_PROG(KRAMDOWN, kramdown, kramdown, no)
+
 dnl ================================================================
 dnl Extended dictionary checks.
 dnl ================================================================