diff --git a/source/blender/ftfont/intern/FTF_TTFont.cpp b/source/blender/ftfont/intern/FTF_TTFont.cpp
index 761f301b448..315de817831 100644
--- a/source/blender/ftfont/intern/FTF_TTFont.cpp
+++ b/source/blender/ftfont/intern/FTF_TTFont.cpp
@@ -39,6 +39,11 @@
 #include <string.h>
 #include <locale.h>
 #include "libintl.h"
+
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+#include <libgen.h>
+#endif
+
 #include "../FTF_Settings.h"
 
 #include "FTF_TTFont.h"
@@ -52,6 +57,7 @@
 
 #define FTF_MAX_STR_SIZE 256
 
+extern char bprogname[];
 
 int utf8towchar(wchar_t *w, char *c)
 {
@@ -136,6 +142,11 @@ int FTF_TTFont::SetFont(char* str, int size)
 
 void FTF_TTFont::SetLanguage(char* str)
 {
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+	char tmp[1024];
+	char msgpath[1024];
+#endif
+
 #if defined (_WIN32) || defined(__APPLE__)
 	char envstr[12];
 
@@ -157,10 +168,18 @@ void FTF_TTFont::SetLanguage(char* str)
 	
 	setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");
 #endif
-	
+
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+	/* message catalogs are stored inside the application bundle */
+	strcpy(tmp, dirname(bprogname));
+	strcat(tmp, "/../Resources/message");
+	realpath(tmp, msgpath);
+	bindtextdomain(DOMAIN_NAME, msgpath);
+	textdomain(DOMAIN_NAME);
+#else
 	bindtextdomain(DOMAIN_NAME, MESSAGE_FILE);
 	textdomain(DOMAIN_NAME);
-
+#endif
 	strcpy(language, str);
 }
 
diff --git a/source/darwin/Makefile b/source/darwin/Makefile
index c65b4d82bd8..9ffc42d6beb 100644
--- a/source/darwin/Makefile
+++ b/source/darwin/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# $Id: Makefile,v 1.4 2003/02/02 17:28:15 sgefant Exp $
+# $Id: Makefile,v 1.5 2003/02/09 18:32:55 sgefant Exp $
 #
 # ***** BEGIN GPL/BL DUAL LICENSE BLOCK *****
 #
@@ -44,6 +44,10 @@ all::
 	@cp $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION) $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION).app/Contents/MacOS/
 	@echo "---> adding excutable attributes"
 	@chmod +x $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION).app/Contents/MacOS/$(APPLICATION)
+ifeq ($(APPLICATION), blender)
+	@echo "---> copying message files"
+	@cp -R ../../bin/message $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION).app/Contents/Resources
+endif
 	@echo "---> removing CVS directories and Mac hidden files from distribution"
 	@find $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION).app -name CVS -prune -exec rm -rf {} \;
 	@find $(DIR)/bin/$(APPLICATION).app -name .DS_Store -exec rm -f {} \;