diff --git a/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas b/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
index 3a738d14a..c0b8b48ff 100644
--- a/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
+++ b/components/powerpdf/PdfTypes.pas
@@ -1055,14 +1055,19 @@ const
 var
   i, j: integer;
   flg: boolean;
+  S: string;
 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.
+  S := UTF8ToAnsi(Value);
   result := '';
-  for i := 1 to Length(Value) do
+  for i := 1 to Length(S) do
   begin
     flg := false;
     for j := 1 to Length(EscapeChars) do
-      if Value[i] = EscapeChars[j] then
+      if S[i] = EscapeChars[j] then
       begin
         result := result + '\' + ReplaceChars[j];
         flg := true;
@@ -1070,7 +1075,7 @@ begin
       end;
 
     if not flg then
-       result := result + Value[i];
+       result := result + S[i];
   end;
 end;
 
diff --git a/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk b/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
index bf192c723..1b11014ef 100644
--- a/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
+++ b/components/powerpdf/pack_powerpdf.lpk
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
         <CompilerPath Value="$(CompPath)"/>
       </Other>
     </CompilerOptions>
-    <Version Minor="9"/>
+    <Version Minor="9" Release="1"/>
     <Files Count="12">
       <Item1>
         <Filename Value="PdfTypes.pas"/>