diff --git a/util/font-options.hh b/util/font-options.hh
index 5f99a37ef..5d569968c 100644
--- a/util/font-options.hh
+++ b/util/font-options.hh
@@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ font_options_t::add_options (option_parser_t *parser)
     {"font-slant",	0, 0,
 			      G_OPTION_ARG_DOUBLE,	&this->slant,			"Set synthetic slant (default: 0)",		 "slant ratio; eg. 0.2"},
     {"font-palette",    0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_INT,         &this->palette,                 "Set font palette (default: 0)",                "index"},
-    {"custom-palette",  0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING,      &this->custom_palette,          "Custom palette",                               "palette"},
+    {"custom-palette",  0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING,      &this->custom_palette,          "Custom palette",                               "comma-separated colors"},
     {"font-funcs",	0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING,	&this->font_funcs,		text,						"impl"},
     {"sub-font",	0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN,
 			      G_OPTION_ARG_NONE,	&this->sub_font,		"Create a sub-font (default: false)",		"boolean"},
diff --git a/util/helper-cairo.hh b/util/helper-cairo.hh
index d25372240..293077a6e 100644
--- a/util/helper-cairo.hh
+++ b/util/helper-cairo.hh
@@ -131,9 +131,9 @@ helper_cairo_create_scaled_font (const font_options_t *font_opts)
     char **entries = g_strsplit (font_opts->custom_palette, ",", -1);
     for (unsigned int i = 0; entries[i]; i++)
     {
-      unsigned int idx, fr, fg, fb, fa;
-      if (sscanf (entries[i], "%u:%2x%2x%2x%2x", &idx, &fr, &fg, &fb, &fa) == 5)
-        cairo_font_options_set_custom_palette_color (font_options, idx, fr / 255., fg / 255., fb / 255., fa / 255.);
+      unsigned int fr, fg, fb, fa;
+      if (sscanf (entries[i], "%2x%2x%2x%2x", &fr, &fg, &fb, &fa) == 4)
+        cairo_font_options_set_custom_palette_color (font_options, i, fr / 255., fg / 255., fb / 255., fa / 255.);
     }
     g_strfreev (entries);
   }