diff --git a/lisp/ob-plantuml.el b/lisp/ob-plantuml.el
index fc621600c..7d92227e9 100644
--- a/lisp/ob-plantuml.el
+++ b/lisp/ob-plantuml.el
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ This function is called by `org-babel-execute-src-block'."
 				((not (file-exists-p org-plantuml-jar-path))
 				 (error "Could not find plantuml.jar at %s" org-plantuml-jar-path))
 				(t (list java
+					 "-Djava.awt.headless=true"
 					 "-jar"
 					 (shell-quote-argument (expand-file-name org-plantuml-jar-path))))))
 	 (full-body (org-babel-plantuml-make-body body params))