diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index aec8293d..003d7782 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,15 +1,10 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12)
 
-cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.5)
-project(MD4C C)
-
-set(MD_VERSION_MAJOR 0)
-set(MD_VERSION_MINOR 5)
-set(MD_VERSION_RELEASE 2)
-set(MD_VERSION "${MD_VERSION_MAJOR}.${MD_VERSION_MINOR}.${MD_VERSION_RELEASE}")
-
-set(PROJECT_VERSION "${MD_VERSION}")
-set(PROJECT_URL "https://github.com/mity/md4c")
-
+project(MD4C
+    VERSION "0.5.2"
+    HOMEPAGE_URL "https://github.com/mity/md4c"
+    LANGUAGES C
+)
 
 option(BUILD_MD2HTML_EXECUTABLE "Whether to compile the md2html executable" ON)
 
@@ -17,30 +12,24 @@ option(BUILD_MD2HTML_EXECUTABLE "Whether to compile the md2html executable" ON)
 if(WIN32)
     # On Windows, given there is no standard lib install dir etc., we rather
     # by default build static lib.
-    option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS "help string describing option" OFF)
+    option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS "Build using shared libraries" OFF)
 else()
     # On Linux, MD4C is slowly being adding into some distros which prefer
     # shared lib.
-    option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS "help string describing option" ON)
+    option(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS "Build using shared libraries" ON)
 endif()
 
-add_definitions(
-    -DMD_VERSION_MAJOR=${MD_VERSION_MAJOR}
-    -DMD_VERSION_MINOR=${MD_VERSION_MINOR}
-    -DMD_VERSION_RELEASE=${MD_VERSION_RELEASE}
-)
-
 set(CMAKE_CONFIGURATION_TYPES Debug Release RelWithDebInfo MinSizeRel)
-if("${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" STREQUAL "")
+if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
     set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE $ENV{CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE})
 
-    if("${CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE}" STREQUAL "")
+    if(NOT CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE)
         set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Release")
     endif()
 endif()
 
 
-if(${CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID} MATCHES GNU|Clang)
+if(CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID MATCHES GNU|Clang)
     add_compile_options(-Wall -Wextra -Wshadow)
 
     # We enforce -Wdeclaration-after-statement because Qt project needs to
@@ -49,7 +38,7 @@ if(${CMAKE_C_COMPILER_ID} MATCHES GNU|Clang)
     add_compile_options(-Wdeclaration-after-statement)
 elseif(MSVC)
     # Disable warnings about the so-called unsecured functions:
-    add_definitions(/D_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS)
+    add_compile_definitions(_CRT_SECURE_NO_WARNINGS)
     add_compile_options(/W3)
 
     # Specify proper C runtime library:
diff --git a/md2html/CMakeLists.txt b/md2html/CMakeLists.txt
index 14de6712..10680c17 100644
--- a/md2html/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/md2html/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,22 +1,18 @@
-
-set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DDEBUG")
-
-
 # Build rules for md2html command line utility
 
-include_directories("${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/src")
 add_executable(md2html cmdline.c cmdline.h md2html.c)
-target_link_libraries(md2html md4c-html)
+target_link_libraries(md2html PRIVATE md4c-html)
+target_compile_definitions(md2html PRIVATE
+    MD_VERSION_MAJOR=${PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR}
+    MD_VERSION_MINOR=${PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR}
+    MD_VERSION_RELEASE=${PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH}
+)
 
 
 # Install rules
 
 install(
     TARGETS md2html
-    ARCHIVE DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
-    LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
     RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
-    PUBLIC_HEADER DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}
 )
 install(FILES "md2html.1" DESTINATION "${CMAKE_INSTALL_MANDIR}/man1")
-
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 767c259e..f0a71825 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,16 +1,22 @@
-
 set(CMAKE_WINDOWS_EXPORT_ALL_SYMBOLS 1)
-set(CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG "${CMAKE_C_FLAGS_DEBUG} -DDEBUG")
 
+# Handle absolute include and lib dirs outside of CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX
+include(JoinPaths.cmake) # can be replaced by cmake_path(APPEND) in CMake 3.20
+join_paths(PKGCONFIG_INCLUDEDIR "\${prefix}" "${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}")
+join_paths(PKGCONFIG_LIBDIR "\${prefix}" "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}")
 
 # Build rules for MD4C parser library
 
 configure_file(md4c.pc.in md4c.pc @ONLY)
 add_library(md4c md4c.c md4c.h)
+target_include_directories(md4c PUBLIC
+    "$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}>"
+    "$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}>"
+)
+target_compile_definitions(md4c PRIVATE "$<$<CONFIG:Debug>:DEBUG>")
 set_target_properties(md4c PROPERTIES
-    COMPILE_FLAGS "-DMD4C_USE_UTF8"
-    VERSION ${MD_VERSION}
-    SOVERSION ${MD_VERSION_MAJOR}
+    VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
+    SOVERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR}
     PUBLIC_HEADER md4c.h
 )
 
@@ -18,12 +24,16 @@ set_target_properties(md4c PROPERTIES
 
 configure_file(md4c-html.pc.in md4c-html.pc @ONLY)
 add_library(md4c-html md4c-html.c md4c-html.h entity.c entity.h)
+target_include_directories(md4c-html PUBLIC
+    "$<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}>"
+    "$<INSTALL_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}>"
+)
 set_target_properties(md4c-html PROPERTIES
-    VERSION ${MD_VERSION}
-    SOVERSION ${MD_VERSION_MAJOR}
+    VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION}
+    SOVERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR}
     PUBLIC_HEADER md4c-html.h
 )
-target_link_libraries(md4c-html md4c)
+target_link_libraries(md4c-html PUBLIC md4c)
 
 
 # Install rules
@@ -35,9 +45,8 @@ install(
     LIBRARY DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}
     RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
     PUBLIC_HEADER DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}
-    INCLUDES DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}
 )
-install(FILES ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/md4c.pc DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig)
+install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/md4c.pc DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig)
 
 install(
     TARGETS md4c-html
@@ -47,7 +56,6 @@ install(
     RUNTIME DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_BINDIR}
     PUBLIC_HEADER DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}
 )
-install(FILES ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/src/md4c-html.pc DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig)
+install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/md4c-html.pc DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/pkgconfig)
 
 install(EXPORT md4cConfig DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR}/cmake/md4c/ NAMESPACE md4c::)
-
diff --git a/src/JoinPaths.cmake b/src/JoinPaths.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c68d91b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/JoinPaths.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# This module provides function for joining paths
+# known from most languages
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: (MIT OR CC0-1.0)
+# Copyright 2020 Jan Tojnar
+# https://github.com/jtojnar/cmake-snips
+#
+# Modelled after Python’s os.path.join
+# https://docs.python.org/3.7/library/os.path.html#os.path.join
+# Windows not supported
+function(join_paths joined_path first_path_segment)
+    set(temp_path "${first_path_segment}")
+    foreach(current_segment IN LISTS ARGN)
+        if(NOT ("${current_segment}" STREQUAL ""))
+            if(IS_ABSOLUTE "${current_segment}")
+                set(temp_path "${current_segment}")
+            else()
+                set(temp_path "${temp_path}/${current_segment}")
+            endif()
+        endif()
+    endforeach()
+    set(${joined_path} "${temp_path}" PARENT_SCOPE)
+endfunction()
diff --git a/src/md4c-html.pc.in b/src/md4c-html.pc.in
index 504bb52e..6900239f 100644
--- a/src/md4c-html.pc.in
+++ b/src/md4c-html.pc.in
@@ -1,13 +1,11 @@
 prefix=@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@
-exec_prefix=@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@
-libdir=${exec_prefix}/@CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR@
-includedir=${prefix}/@CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR@
+libdir=@PKGCONFIG_LIBDIR@
+includedir=@PKGCONFIG_INCLUDEDIR@
 
 Name: @PROJECT_NAME@ HTML renderer
 Description: Markdown to HTML converter library.
 Version: @PROJECT_VERSION@
-URL: @PROJECT_URL@
-
+URL: @PROJECT_HOMEPAGE_URL@
 Requires: md4c = @PROJECT_VERSION@
 Libs: -L${libdir} -lmd4c-html
 Cflags: -I${includedir}
diff --git a/src/md4c.pc.in b/src/md4c.pc.in
index cd8842dd..7dc3e8fe 100644
--- a/src/md4c.pc.in
+++ b/src/md4c.pc.in
@@ -1,13 +1,10 @@
 prefix=@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@
-exec_prefix=@CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX@
-libdir=${exec_prefix}/@CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBDIR@
-includedir=${prefix}/@CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR@
+libdir=@PKGCONFIG_LIBDIR@
+includedir=@PKGCONFIG_INCLUDEDIR@
 
 Name: @PROJECT_NAME@
 Description: Markdown parser library with a SAX-like callback-based interface.
 Version: @PROJECT_VERSION@
-URL: @PROJECT_URL@
-
-Requires:
+URL: @PROJECT_HOMEPAGE_URL@
 Libs: -L${libdir} -lmd4c
 Cflags: -I${includedir}