diff --git a/ports/freetype/0002-Add-CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH-option.patch b/ports/freetype/0002-Add-CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH-option.patch
index 33b0b920fd..eeecbc1f7a 100644
--- a/ports/freetype/0002-Add-CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH-option.patch
+++ b/ports/freetype/0002-Add-CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH-option.patch
@@ -1,29 +1,17 @@
-From 59ebd2985f081229edc3c487367a1e5d5ac8db9a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
-From: Robert Schumacher <roschuma@microsoft.com>
-Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2016 23:00:38 -0700
-Subject: [PATCH] Add CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH option
-
----
- CMakeLists.txt | 5 ++++-
- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
-
 diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
-index 774737d..5de689c 100644
+index 6bb2558..a894ada 100644
 --- a/CMakeLists.txt
 +++ b/CMakeLists.txt
-@@ -401,8 +401,11 @@ install(TARGETS freetype
-   ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib
-   FRAMEWORK DESTINATION Library/Frameworks
- )
+@@ -419,8 +419,11 @@ if (NOT SKIP_INSTALL_LIBRARIES AND NOT SKIP_INSTALL_ALL)
+     ARCHIVE DESTINATION lib
+     FRAMEWORK DESTINATION Library/Frameworks
+     )
 +
-+set(CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH "lib/cmake/freetype" CACHE STRING "location to install cmake config files")
++  set(CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH "lib/cmake/freetype" CACHE STRING "location to install cmake config files")
 +
- install(EXPORT freetype-targets
--  DESTINATION lib/cmake/freetype
-+  DESTINATION ${CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH}
-   FILE freetype-config.cmake
- )
- 
--- 
-2.9.2.windows.1
-
+   install(EXPORT freetype-targets
+-    DESTINATION lib/cmake/freetype
++    DESTINATION ${CONFIG_INSTALL_PATH}
+     FILE freetype-config.cmake
+     )
+ endif ()
diff --git a/ports/freetype/CONTROL b/ports/freetype/CONTROL
index 3afd18c9d7..541f8b0244 100644
--- a/ports/freetype/CONTROL
+++ b/ports/freetype/CONTROL
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 Source: freetype
-Version: 2.6.3-5
+Version: 2.8
 Build-Depends: zlib, bzip2, libpng
 Description: A library to render fonts.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/ports/freetype/portfile.cmake b/ports/freetype/portfile.cmake
index b5c20a6105..8bce2577e9 100644
--- a/ports/freetype/portfile.cmake
+++ b/ports/freetype/portfile.cmake
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
 include(vcpkg_common_functions)
-set(SOURCE_PATH ${CURRENT_BUILDTREES_DIR}/src/freetype-2.6.3)
+set(FT_VERSION 2.8)
+set(SOURCE_PATH ${CURRENT_BUILDTREES_DIR}/src/freetype-${FT_VERSION})
 vcpkg_download_distfile(ARCHIVE
-    URLS "http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.6.3.tar.bz2"
-    FILENAME "freetype-2.6.3.tar.bz2"
-    SHA512 e1f9018835fc88beeb4479537b59f866c52393ae18d24a1e0710a464cf948ab02b35c2c6043bc20c1db3a04871ee4eb0bb1d210550c0ea2780c8b1aea98fbf0d
+    URLS "http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-${FT_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
+    FILENAME "freetype-${FT_VERSION}.tar.bz2"
+    SHA512 3842c34bf6100a8c9b78258146b2ff35e9bb4c993937d3ef09982c1e2552dfd15f8849ddd8a1e84edf08b5a5fb918b68cf7b1584545c5900e22a00bfa1c89ff5
 )
 vcpkg_extract_source_archive(${ARCHIVE})
 
@@ -16,6 +17,7 @@ vcpkg_apply_patches(
 
 vcpkg_configure_cmake(
     SOURCE_PATH ${SOURCE_PATH}
+    PREFER_NINJA
     OPTIONS
         -DCONFIG_INSTALL_PATH=share/freetype
         -DWITH_ZLIB=ON