diff --git a/drw.c b/drw.c
index 2f3a5df..ced7d37 100644
--- a/drw.c
+++ b/drw.c
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ int
 drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lpad, const char *text, int invert)
 {
 	int i, ty, ellipsis_x = 0;
-	unsigned int tmpw, ew, ellipsis_w = 0, ellipsis_len, ellipsis_width;
+	unsigned int tmpw, ew, ellipsis_w = 0, ellipsis_len;
 	XftDraw *d = NULL;
 	Fnt *usedfont, *curfont, *nextfont;
 	int utf8strlen, utf8charlen, render = x || y || w || h;
@@ -266,6 +266,7 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lp
 	/* keep track of a couple codepoints for which we have no match. */
 	enum { nomatches_len = 64 };
 	static struct { long codepoint[nomatches_len]; unsigned int idx; } nomatches;
+	static unsigned int ellipsis_width = 0;
 
 	if (!drw || (render && (!drw->scheme || !w)) || !text || !drw->fonts)
 		return 0;
@@ -283,7 +284,8 @@ drw_text(Drw *drw, int x, int y, unsigned int w, unsigned int h, unsigned int lp
 	}
 
 	usedfont = drw->fonts;
-	drw_font_getexts(usedfont, "...", 3, &ellipsis_width, NULL);
+	if (!ellipsis_width && render)
+		ellipsis_width = drw_fontset_getwidth(drw, "...");
 	while (1) {
 		ew = ellipsis_len = utf8strlen = 0;
 		utf8str = text;