diff --git a/components/powerpdf/PdfDoc.pas b/components/powerpdf/PdfDoc.pas
index 8532cf47f..e9b81db74 100644
--- a/components/powerpdf/PdfDoc.pas
+++ b/components/powerpdf/PdfDoc.pas
@@ -1290,7 +1290,11 @@ var
   tmpWidth: Single;
 begin
   Result := 0;
-
+  {$IFDEF LAZ_POWERPDF}
+  // for invalid char, any value less than 32 will make FFont.GetCharWidth
+  // to return a default missing width for that font.
+  Text := _UTF8ToWinAnsi(Text, #31);
+  {$ENDIF}
   // calculate width of specified text from current attributes
   for i := 1 to Length(Text) do
   begin
@@ -1321,6 +1325,10 @@ begin
   Result := 0;
   tmpTotalWidth := 0;
 
+  {$IFDEF LAZ_POWERPDF}
+  Text := _UTF8ToWinAnsi(Text, #31);
+  {$ENDIF}
+
   // calculate number of charactor contain in the specified width.
   for i := 1 to Length(Text) do
   begin
@@ -2159,7 +2167,7 @@ end;
 
 procedure TPdfCanvas.RoundRect(x, y, width, height, rx, ry: Single);
 var
-  hm,wm,h1,w1:single;
+  h1,w1:single;
 begin
   h1 := ry*11/20;
   w1 := rx*11/20;
diff --git a/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas b/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
index f78211199..d3b923c50 100644
--- a/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
+++ b/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
@@ -300,6 +300,7 @@ type
 
 {$IFDEF LAZ_POWERPDF}
   function _UTF8StrToUnicodeHex(const Value:string): string;
+  function _UTF8ToWinAnsi(const value:string; InvalidChar:char='?'): string;
   procedure PdfLazRegisterClassAlias(aClass: TPersistentClass; Alias: string);
   function  PdfLazFindClass(aClassName: string):TPersistentClass;
 {$ENDIF}
@@ -1052,7 +1053,7 @@ end;
 //type
 //  TConvFunc=function(const W:Word): char;
 
-function CP1252(const W: Word): Char;
+function CP1252(const W: Word; const InvalidChar: Char): Char;
 begin
   case W of
     $00..$7F,$A0..$FF: result := char(W);
@@ -1084,19 +1085,10 @@ begin
     $017E: result := #$9E;
     $0178: result := #$9F;
   else
-    result:='?';
+    result:=InvalidChar;
   end;
 end;
 
-function UnicodeToWinAnsi(W: widestring): string;
-var
-  i: Integer;
-begin
-  result := '';
-  for i:=1 to length(w) do
-    result := result + CP1252(word(w[i]));
-end;
-
 // _EscapeText
 function _EscapeText(const Value: string): string;
 const
@@ -1106,15 +1098,17 @@ var
   i, j: integer;
   flg: boolean;
   S: string;
-  W: widestring;
 begin
   //  If text contains chars to need escape, replace text using "\".
   //
   // TODO: implement UNICODE support in powerpdf. Currently we can't do
   // any better than converting utf-8 strings to unicode.
-  W := UTF8Decode(Value);
-  S := UnicodeToWinAnsi(W);
   result := '';
+  {$IFDEF LAZ_POWERPDF}
+  S := _UTF8ToWinAnsi(Value);
+  {$ELSE}
+  S := Value;
+  {$ENDIF}
   for i := 1 to Length(S) do
   begin
     flg := false;
@@ -1207,6 +1201,17 @@ begin
   end;
 end;
 
+function _UTF8ToWinAnsi(const value: string; InvalidChar:char='?'): string;
+var
+  W: widestring;
+  i: Integer;
+begin
+  W := UTF8Decode(Value);
+  result := '';
+  for i:=1 to length(w) do
+    result := result + CP1252(word(w[i]), InvalidChar);
+end;
+
 procedure PdfLazRegisterClassAlias(aClass: TPersistentClass; Alias: string);
 begin
   Classes.RegisterClass(aClass);
diff --git a/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk b/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
index 2b0834192..d8a39cb41 100644
--- a/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
+++ b/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
         <CompilerPath Value="$(CompPath)"/>
       </Other>
     </CompilerOptions>
-    <Version Minor="9" Release="4"/>
+    <Version Minor="9" Release="5"/>
     <Files Count="12">
       <Item1>
         <Filename Value="PdfTypes.pas"/>