diff --git a/svgtemplate.py b/svgtemplate.py
index 410934c..57fea9d 100644
--- a/svgtemplate.py
+++ b/svgtemplate.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ def transform(self, frame):
         # if '$subtitle' in task.parameters and task.parameters['$subtitle'] == '':
         #   child = svg.findall(".//*[@id='subtitle']")[0]
         #   child.getparent().remove(child)
-        self.svgstr = etree.tostring(svg, encoding='unicode')
+        self.svgstr = etree.tostring(svg).decode('UTF-8')
 
     def __exit__(self, exception_type, exception_value, traceback):
         pass