diff --git a/kcms/fonts/fonts.cpp b/kcms/fonts/fonts.cpp
--- a/kcms/fonts/fonts.cpp
+++ b/kcms/fonts/fonts.cpp
@@ -103,7 +103,26 @@
     if (dbase.isSmoothlyScalable(family, style) && result.pointSize() == floor(size)) {
         result.setPointSizeF(size);
     }
-    return result;
+
+    bool sameFont = font.toString() == result.toString();
+    // A "Regular" font will have an empty styleName e.g. "DejaVu Sans,12,-1,5,50,0,0,0,0,0"
+    // so that setBold(true) can work (we deliberately clear the styleName for "Regular"-like
+    // font styles when saving via KConfig, see: writeEntryGui() from kconfiggroupgui.cpp).
+    // Here in this method we could end up with a "result" font that's using a Regular style
+    // and that has the styleName set, so the the original "font" param. and "result" are
+    // actually the same font
+    if (!sameFont
+        && font.weight() == QFont::Normal && font.styleName().isEmpty()
+        && result.weight() == QFont::Normal
+        && (result.styleName() == QLatin1String("Regular")
+            || result.styleName() == QLatin1String("Normal")
+            || result.styleName() == QLatin1String("Book")
+            || result.styleName() == QLatin1String("Roman"))) {
+        result.setStyleName(QString());
+        sameFont = font.toString() == result.toString();
+    }
+
+    return sameFont ? font : result;
 }
 
 /**** FontAASettings ****/
@@ -572,7 +591,8 @@
     // previews
     engine()->addImageProvider("preview", new PreviewImageProvider(m_settings->font()));
 
-    // KCM expect save state to be false at this point (can be true because of setNearestExistingFonts
+    // KCM expect save state to be false at this point (can be true because of setNearestExistingFonts),
+    // see: https://phabricator.kde.org/D27452
     setNeedsSave(false);
 }