diff --git a/stockTicker.py b/stockTicker.py
index c1dd649..b9deeb0 100755
--- a/stockTicker.py
+++ b/stockTicker.py
@@ -705,15 +705,10 @@ class StockTicker():
 
         #displays the text entered in the webpage by the user.
 
-     
-        
-        
         f = open('csv/message_settings.json', 'r')
         all_settings = json.load(f)
         f.close()
-        
-        
-        
+
         colours = {'Black':(0,0,0),
                    'White':(255,255,255),
                     'Red':(255,0,0),
@@ -738,14 +733,14 @@ class StockTicker():
             elif message["size"] == 'Small':
                 font = ImageFont.load("./fonts/6x13.pil")
                 location = (0, 7)
-                
-                
+
             r,g,b = colours[message['text_colour']]
 
             background = colours[message['background_colour']]
+            decoded = message['text'].encode("ascii","ignore")
+            message['text'] = decoded.decode()
             img = self.textImage(message['text'], font, int(r), int(g), int(b), True, w_buff = 5, background = background, location = location)
-            
-            
+
             if all_settings['title'] and ind == 0:
                 title_img = self.openImage('feature_titles/message.png')
                 imgs.append(self.stitchImage([title_img, img]))