diff --git a/engine/builder/i18n/desktop.go b/engine/builder/i18n/desktop.go
index 587cc39b..3a3f7848 100644
--- a/engine/builder/i18n/desktop.go
+++ b/engine/builder/i18n/desktop.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ func (b I18nDesktop) JobRun() error {
 	inSuffix := b.RequiredEntryStr(target.KeySourceSuffix)
 	outSuffix := b.RequiredEntryStr(target.KeyOutputSuffix)
 	installdir := b.InstallDir()
+	typ := "--" + b.RequiredEntryStr(target.KeyI18nType)
 
 	perm := b.InstallPerm()
 
@@ -43,7 +44,7 @@ func (b I18nDesktop) JobRun() error {
 
 		fileutil.WriteFileLines(tmpfile, lines)
 
-		b.ExecAbort(append(b.BuilderCmd(), "--desktop", "-d", podir, "--template", tmpfile, "-o", outfile), "")
+		b.ExecAbort(append(b.BuilderCmd(), typ, "-d", podir, "--template", tmpfile, "-o", outfile), "")
 
 		b.InstallPkgFile(outfile, installdir, perm)
 	}
diff --git a/examples/conf/settings.yaml b/examples/conf/settings.yaml
index d16e84a7..39c0e0c3 100644
--- a/examples/conf/settings.yaml
+++ b/examples/conf/settings.yaml
@@ -473,6 +473,7 @@ platform:
                 install/perm:         0664
                 i18n/linguas:         ${i18n::linguas}
                 i18n/po/dir:          po
+                i18n/type:            desktop
                 source/suffix:        .desktop.in
                 output/suffix:        .desktop
 
diff --git a/spec/target/keys.go b/spec/target/keys.go
index e40cddeb..f00b4b2a 100644
--- a/spec/target/keys.go
+++ b/spec/target/keys.go
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ const (
 	KeyI18nCategory = Key("i18n/category")
 	KeyI18nDomain   = Key("i18n/domain")
 	KeyI18nPoDir    = Key("i18n/po/dir")
+	KeyI18nType     = Key("i18n/type")
 )
 
 // generators