diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f1d7f5e..b052394 100755
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 *.gem
 .DS_Store
+*.swp
diff --git a/lib/docsplit/info_extractor.rb b/lib/docsplit/info_extractor.rb
index 3d50d53..72acb0f 100644
--- a/lib/docsplit/info_extractor.rb
+++ b/lib/docsplit/info_extractor.rb
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+require 'iconv'
+
 module Docsplit
 
   # Delegates to **pdfinfo** in order to extract information about a PDF file.
@@ -19,7 +21,7 @@ class InfoExtractor
     def extract(key, pdfs, opts)
       pdf = [pdfs].flatten.first
       cmd = "pdfinfo #{ESCAPE[pdf]} 2>&1"
-      result = `#{cmd}`.chomp
+      result = Iconv.conv('ASCII//IGNORE', 'UTF8', `#{cmd}`.chomp)
       raise ExtractionFailed, result if $? != 0
       match = result.match(MATCHERS[key])
       answer = match && match[1]
@@ -29,4 +31,4 @@ def extract(key, pdfs, opts)
 
   end
 
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end