diff --git a/src/calibre/__init__.py b/src/calibre/__init__.py
index e32c03fe13..e5e284fb5b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/__init__.py
@@ -132,9 +132,12 @@ def prints(*args, **kwargs):
                 try:
                     arg = arg.encode(enc)
                 except UnicodeEncodeError:
-                    if not safe_encode:
-                        raise
-                    arg = repr(arg)
+                    try:
+                        arg = arg.encode('utf-8')
+                    except:
+                        if not safe_encode:
+                            raise
+                        arg = repr(arg)
 
         file.write(arg)
         if i != len(args)-1:
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/documentview.py b/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/documentview.py
index 2c2a7fc135..6b95a4dcaa 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/documentview.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/viewer/documentview.py
@@ -514,7 +514,7 @@ class DocumentView(QWebView):
             mt = guess_type(path)[0]
         html = open(path, 'rb').read().decode(path.encoding, 'replace')
         html = EntityDeclarationProcessor(html).processed_html
-        has_svg = re.search(r'<\S*svg', html) is not None
+        has_svg = re.search(r'<[:a-z]*svg', html) is not None
 
         if 'xhtml' in mt:
             html = self.self_closing_pat.sub(self.self_closing_sub, html)
@@ -522,6 +522,7 @@ class DocumentView(QWebView):
             self.manager.load_started()
         self.loading_url = QUrl.fromLocalFile(path)
         if has_svg:
+            prints('Rendering as XHTML...')
             self.setContent(QByteArray(html.encode(path.encoding)), mt, QUrl.fromLocalFile(path))
         else:
             self.setHtml(html, self.loading_url)
diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/job.py b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/job.py
index 458d5adb8a..a6c39ffc6b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/ipc/job.py
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/ipc/job.py
@@ -52,10 +52,13 @@ class BaseJob(object):
             else:
                 self._status_text = _('Error') if self.failed else _('Finished')
             if DEBUG:
-                prints('Job:', self.id, self.description, 'finished',
+                try:
+                    prints('Job:', self.id, self.description, 'finished',
                         safe_encode=True)
-                prints('\t'.join(self.details.splitlines(True)),
+                    prints('\t'.join(self.details.splitlines(True)),
                         safe_encode=True)
+                except:
+                    pass
             if not self._done_called:
                 self._done_called = True
                 try: