diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 43c02af8..e43f5c7a 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Changelog
 
 ### 1.7 (December 22, 2013)
 
-* __1.7.7__ Cleaned up imporrts
+* __1.7.7__ Cleaned up imports, better unicode support
 * __1.7.6__ Python 3 port for slugify
 * __1.7.5__ Colorama is only needed on windows. Smaller fixes
 * __1.7.3__ Touches temporary files before opening them to allow more external editors.
diff --git a/features/steps/core.py b/features/steps/core.py
index 2a27ebc9..6f2baa5b 100644
--- a/features/steps/core.py
+++ b/features/steps/core.py
@@ -129,11 +129,15 @@ def check_output_time_inline(context, text):
 @then('the output should contain "{text}"')
 def check_output_inline(context, text):
     out = context.stdout_capture.getvalue()
+    if isinstance(out, bytes):
+        out = out.decode('utf-8')
     assert text in out
 
 @then('the output should not contain "{text}"')
 def check_output_not_inline(context, text):
     out = context.stdout_capture.getvalue()
+    if isinstance(out, bytes):
+        out = out.decode('utf-8')
     assert text not in out
 
 @then('we should see the message "{text}"')
diff --git a/jrnl/cli.py b/jrnl/cli.py
index d6156822..7a9c1b55 100644
--- a/jrnl/cli.py
+++ b/jrnl/cli.py
@@ -115,7 +115,8 @@ def run(manual_args=None):
     args = parse_args(manual_args)
 
     if args.version:
-        print("{0} version {1}".format(jrnl.__title__, jrnl.__version__))
+        version_str = "{0} version {1}".format(jrnl.__title__, jrnl.__version__)
+        print(util.py2encode(version_str))
         sys.exit(0)
 
     # If the first textual argument points to a journal file,
@@ -181,17 +182,17 @@ def run(manual_args=None):
 
     # Reading mode
     if not mode_compose and not mode_export:
-        print(journal.pprint())
+        print(util.py2encode(journal.pprint()))
 
     # Various export modes
     elif args.short:
-        print(journal.pprint(short=True))
+        print(util.py2encode(journal.pprint(short=True)))
 
     elif args.tags:
-        print(exporters.to_tag_list(journal))
+        print(util.py2encode(exporters.to_tag_list(journal)))
 
     elif args.export is not False:
-        print(exporters.export(journal, args.export, args.output))
+        print(util.py2encode(exporters.export(journal, args.export, args.output)))
 
     elif (args.encrypt is not False or args.decrypt is not False) and not PYCRYPTO:
         util.prompt("PyCrypto not found. To encrypt or decrypt your journal, install the PyCrypto package from http://www.pycrypto.org.")
diff --git a/jrnl/util.py b/jrnl/util.py
index 72d00ca3..708150f0 100644
--- a/jrnl/util.py
+++ b/jrnl/util.py
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ def u(s):
     """Mock unicode function for python 2 and 3 compatibility."""
     return s if PY3 or type(s) is unicode else unicode(s.encode('string-escape'), "unicode_escape")
 
+def py2encode(s):
+    """Encode in Python 2, but not in python 3."""
+    return s.encode("utf-8") if PY2 and type(s) is unicode else s
+
 def prompt(msg):
     """Prints a message to the std err stream defined in util."""
     if not msg.endswith("\n"):