diff --git a/src/osgPlugins/txf/TXFFont.cpp b/src/osgPlugins/txf/TXFFont.cpp
index 9cffb40a8..6cd951d02 100644
--- a/src/osgPlugins/txf/TXFFont.cpp
+++ b/src/osgPlugins/txf/TXFFont.cpp
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ TXFFont::loadFont(std::istream& stream)
         return false;
     }
 
-    float coord_scale = 1.0f/float(computedmaxheight);
+    float coord_scale = (computedmaxheight>0.0f) ? (1.0f/float(computedmaxheight)) : 1.0f;
 
     {
         // insert a trivial blank character