diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
index 6e17e33556..06a5fa61c9 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf/input.py
@@ -78,7 +78,6 @@ class RTFInput(InputFormatPlugin):
         from calibre.ebooks.rtf2xml.ParseRtf import ParseRtf
         ofile = 'dataxml.xml'
         run_lev, debug_dir, indent_out = 1, None, 0
-        #just to check if the debug process is lauched, no need of this directory in fact
         if getattr(self.opts, 'debug_pipeline', None) is not None:
             try:
                 os.mkdir('rtfdebug')
@@ -322,5 +321,5 @@ class RTFInput(InputFormatPlugin):
         return os.path.abspath('metadata.opf')
 
 #ebook-convert "bad.rtf" test.epub -v -d "E:\Mes eBooks\Developpement\debug"
-# os.makedirs('E:\\Mes eBooks\\Developpement\\rtfdebug')
-# debug_dir = 'E:\\Mes eBooks\\Developpement\\rtfdebug'
+# os.makedirs("E:\\Mes eBooks\\Developpement\\rtfdebug")
+# debug_dir = "E:\\Mes eBooks\\Developpement\\rtfdebug"
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/ParseRtf.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/ParseRtf.py
index 56e18fe74d..9f554467b0 100755
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/ParseRtf.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/ParseRtf.py
@@ -226,7 +226,7 @@ class ParseRtf:
         try:
             return_value = process_tokens_obj.process_tokens()
         except InvalidRtfException, msg:
-            #Check to see if the file is correctly encoded
+            # Check to see if the file is correctly encoded
             encode_obj = default_encoding.DefaultEncoding(
             in_file = self.__temp_file,
             run_level = self.__run_level,
@@ -237,14 +237,14 @@ class ParseRtf:
             check_encoding_obj = check_encoding.CheckEncoding(
                     bug_handler = RtfInvalidCodeException,
                         )
-            enc = 'cp' + encode_obj.get_codepage()
-            if enc == 'cp10000':
-                enc = 'mac_roman'
-            msg = 'Exception in token processing'
+            enc = encode_obj.get_codepage()
+            if enc != 'mac_roman':
+                enc = 'cp' + enc
+            msg = '%s\nException in token processing' % str(msg)
             if check_encoding_obj.check_encoding(self.__file, enc):
                 file_name = self.__file if isinstance(self.__file, str) \
                                     else self.__file.encode('utf-8')
-                msg = 'File %s does not appear to be correctly encoded.\n' % file_name
+                msg +='\nFile %s does not appear to be correctly encoded.\n' % file_name
             try:
                 os.remove(self.__temp_file)
             except OSError:
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/process_tokens.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/process_tokens.py
index 1edf69b32d..010d374cbc 100755
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/process_tokens.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/process_tokens.py
@@ -786,21 +786,23 @@ class ProcessTokens:
                     token = line.replace("\n","")
                     line_count += 1
                     if line_count == 1 and token != '\\{':
-                            msg = 'Invalid RTF: document doesn\'t start with {\n'
+                            msg = '\nInvalid RTF: document doesn\'t start with {\n'
                             raise self.__exception_handler, msg
                     elif line_count == 2 and token[0:4] != '\\rtf':
-                            msg = 'Invalid RTF: document doesn\'t start with \\rtf \n'
+                            msg = '\nInvalid RTF: document doesn\'t start with \\rtf \n'
                             raise self.__exception_handler, msg
 
                     the_index = token.find('\\ ')
                     if token is not None and the_index > -1:
-                        msg = 'Invalid RTF: token "\\ " not valid.\n'
+                        msg = '\nInvalid RTF: token "\\ " not valid.\nError at line %d'\
+                            % line_count
                         raise self.__exception_handler, msg
                     elif token[:1] == "\\":
                         try:
                             token.decode('us-ascii')
                         except UnicodeError, msg:
-                            msg = 'Invalid RTF: Tokens not ascii encoded.\n%s' % str(msg)
+                            msg = '\nInvalid RTF: Tokens not ascii encoded.\n%s\nError at line %d'\
+                                % (str(msg), line_count)
                             raise self.__exception_handler, msg
                         line = self.process_cw(token)
                         if line is not None:
@@ -816,7 +818,7 @@ class ProcessTokens:
                                 write_obj.write('tx<nu<__________<%s\n' % field)
 
         if not line_count:
-            msg = 'Invalid RTF: file appears to be empty.\n'
+            msg = '\nInvalid RTF: file appears to be empty.\n'
             raise self.__exception_handler, msg
 
         copy_obj = copy.Copy(bug_handler = self.__bug_handler)
@@ -827,7 +829,7 @@ class ProcessTokens:
 
         bad_brackets = self.__check_brackets(self.__file)
         if bad_brackets:
-            msg = 'Invalid RTF: document does not have matching brackets.\n'
+            msg = '\nInvalid RTF: document does not have matching brackets.\n'
             raise self.__exception_handler, msg
         else:
             return self.__return_code
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/tokenize.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/tokenize.py
index 5e01515730..062a720d91 100755
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/tokenize.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/rtf2xml/tokenize.py
@@ -141,17 +141,17 @@ class Tokenize:
             "\\_": "\\_ ",
             "\\:": "\\: ",
             "\\-": "\\- ",
-            # turn into a generic token to eliminate special
-            # cases and make processing easier
+            #turn into a generic token to eliminate special
+            #cases and make processing easier
             "\\{": "\\ob ",
-            # turn into a generic token to eliminate special
-            # cases and make processing easier
+            #turn into a generic token to eliminate special
+            #cases and make processing easier
             "\\}": "\\cb ",
-            # put a backslash in front of to eliminate special cases and
-            # make processing easier
+            #put a backslash in front of to eliminate special cases and
+            #make processing easier
             "{": "\\{",
-            # put a backslash in front of to eliminate special cases and
-            # make processing easier
+            #put a backslash in front of to eliminate special cases and
+            #make processing easier
             "}": "\\}",
             }
         self.__replace_spchar = MReplace(SIMPLE_RPL)
@@ -167,16 +167,11 @@ class Tokenize:
         #remove \n from endline char
         self.__splitexp = re.compile(r"(\\[{}]|\n|\\[^\s\\{}&]+(?:[ \t\r\f\v])?)")
         #this is for old RTF
-        self.__par_exp = re.compile(r'\\\n+')
+        self.__par_exp = re.compile(r'(\\\n+|\\ )')
         #handle improper cs char-style with \* before without {
         self.__cs_ast = re.compile(r'\\\*([\n ]*\\cs\d+[\n \\]+)')
         #handle cw using a digit as argument and without space as delimiter
         self.__cwdigit_exp = re.compile(r"(\\[a-zA-Z]+[\-0-9]+)([^0-9 \\]+)")
-        #self.__bin_exp = re.compile(r"\\bin(-?\d{1,8}) {0,1}")
-        #self.__utf_exp = re.compile(r"^\\u(-?\d{3,6})")
-        #self.__splitexp = re.compile(r"(\\[\\{}]|{|}|\n|\\[^\s\\{}&]+(?:\s)?)")
-        #self.__remove_line = re.compile(r'\n+')
-        ##self.num_exp = re.compile(r"(\*|:|[a-zA-Z]+)(.*)")
 
     def tokenize(self):
         """Main class for handling other methods. Reads the file \