diff --git a/lib/Slic3r/Print.pm b/lib/Slic3r/Print.pm
index fea392206..67aa3759f 100644
--- a/lib/Slic3r/Print.pm
+++ b/lib/Slic3r/Print.pm
@@ -795,6 +795,9 @@ sub write_gcode {
             or die "Failed to open $file for writing\n";
     }
     
+    # enable UTF-8 output since user might have entered Unicode characters in fields like notes
+    binmode $fh, ':utf8';
+    
     # write some information
     my @lt = localtime;
     printf $fh "; generated by Slic3r $Slic3r::VERSION on %04d-%02d-%02d at %02d:%02d:%02d\n\n",