diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
index b444bf1cf4..935a187d5d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/input.py
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ class TXTInput(InputFormatPlugin):
             txt = preserve_spaces(txt)
 
         txt = _ent_pat.sub(xml_entity_to_unicode, txt)
+        txt = txt.encode('utf-8')
 
         if options.markdown:
             log.debug('Running text though markdown conversion...')
@@ -79,7 +80,7 @@ class TXTInput(InputFormatPlugin):
             base = os.path.dirname(stream.name)
         htmlfile = open(os.path.join(base, 'temp_calibre_txt_input_to_html.html'),
                 'wb')
-        htmlfile.write(html.encode('utf-8'))
+        htmlfile.write(html) #html.encode('utf-8')
         htmlfile.close()
         cwd = os.getcwdu()
         odi = options.debug_pipeline
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
index 91c274a7b1..6bd635b6df 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/txt/processor.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ HTML_TEMPLATE = u'<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html
 def convert_basic(txt, title='', epub_split_size_kb=0):
     # Strip whitespace from the beginning and end of the line. Also replace
     # all line breaks with \n.
-    txt = '\n'.join([line.strip() for line in txt.splitlines()])
+    txt = u'\n'.join([line.strip() for line in txt.splitlines()])
 
     # Condense redundant spaces
     txt = re.sub('[ ]{2,}', ' ', txt)
@@ -29,23 +29,28 @@ def convert_basic(txt, title='', epub_split_size_kb=0):
     txt = re.sub('(?<=.)\s+$', '', txt)
     # Remove excessive line breaks.
     txt = re.sub('\n{3,}', '\n\n', txt)
+    #remove ASCII invalid chars : 0 to 8 and 11-14 to 24
+    #illegal_char = re.compile('\x00|\x01|\x02|\x03|\x04|\x05|\x06|\x07|\x08| \
+     #   \x0B|\x0E|\x0F|\x10|\x11|\x12|\x13|\x14|\x15|\x16|\x17|\x18')
+    txt = re.sub('\u000[0-8]|\u001[14-9]|\u002[0-4]', '', txt)
     
     #Takes care if there is no point to split
     if epub_split_size_kb > 0:
-        length_byte = len(txt.encode('utf-8'))
+        length_byte = len(txt)
         #Calculating the average chunk value for easy splitting as EPUB (+2 as a safe margin)
         chunk_size = long(length_byte / (int(length_byte / (epub_split_size_kb * 1024) ) + 2 ))
         #if there are chunks with a superior size then go and break
-        if (len(filter(lambda x: len(x.encode('utf-8')) > chunk_size, txt.split('\n\n')))) :
-            txt = u'\n\n'.join([split_string_separator(line, chunk_size) for line in txt.split('\n\n')])
+        if (len(filter(lambda x: len(x) > chunk_size, txt.split('\n\n')))) :
+            txt = u'\n\n'.join([split_string_separator(line, chunk_size) 
+                for line in txt.split('\n\n')])
 
     lines = []
     # Split into paragraphs based on having a blank line between text.
     for line in txt.split('\n\n'):
         if line.strip():
-            lines.append('<p>%s</p>' % prepare_string_for_xml(line.replace('\n', ' ')))
+            lines.append(u'<p>%s</p>' % prepare_string_for_xml(line.replace('\n', ' ')))
 
-    return HTML_TEMPLATE % (title, '\n'.join(lines))
+    return HTML_TEMPLATE % (title, u'\n'.join(lines))
 
 def convert_markdown(txt, title='', disable_toc=False):
     md = markdown.Markdown(
@@ -57,11 +62,11 @@ def convert_markdown(txt, title='', disable_toc=False):
 def separate_paragraphs_single_line(txt):
     txt = txt.replace('\r\n', '\n')
     txt = txt.replace('\r', '\n')
-    txt = re.sub(u'(?<=.)\n(?=.)', u'\n\n', txt)
+    txt = re.sub(u'(?<=.)\n(?=.)', '\n\n', txt)
     return txt
 
 def separate_paragraphs_print_formatted(txt):
-    txt = re.sub('(?miu)^(\t+|[ ]{2,})(?=.)', '\n\t', txt)
+    txt = re.sub(u'(?miu)^(\t+|[ ]{2,})(?=.)', '\n\t', txt)
     return txt
 
 def preserve_spaces(txt):
@@ -77,9 +82,9 @@ def opf_writer(path, opf_name, manifest, spine, mi):
         opf.render(opffile)
 
 def split_string_separator(txt, size) :
-    if len(txt.encode('utf-8')) > size:
+    if len(txt) > size:
         txt = u''.join([re.sub(u'\.(?P<ends>[^.]*)$', u'.\n\n\g<ends>',
             txt[i:i+size], 1) for i in
-            xrange(0, len(txt.encode('utf-8')), size)])
+            xrange(0, len(txt), size)])
     return txt
 
