diff --git a/sense_hat/sense_hat.py b/sense_hat/sense_hat.py
index 30597b9..3beda77 100644
--- a/sense_hat/sense_hat.py
+++ b/sense_hat/sense_hat.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 import pwd
 import array
 import fcntl
+import codecs
 from PIL import Image  # pillow
 from copy import deepcopy
 
@@ -97,7 +98,7 @@ def __init__(
 
     # Text asset files are rotated right through 90 degrees to allow blocks of
     # 40 contiguous pixels to represent one 5 x 8 character. These are stored
-    # in a 8 x 640 pixel png image with characters arranged adjacently
+    # in a 8 pixel-wide png image with characters arranged adjacently
     # Consequently we must rotate the pixel map left through 90 degrees to
     # compensate when drawing text
 
@@ -108,7 +109,7 @@ def _load_text_assets(self, text_image_file, text_file):
         """
 
         text_pixels = self.load_image(text_image_file, False)
-        with open(text_file, 'r') as f:
+        with codecs.open(text_file, 'r', 'UTF-8') as f:
             loaded_text = f.read()
         self._text_dict = {}
         for index, s in enumerate(loaded_text):
diff --git a/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.png b/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.png
index b4841db..0f102d2 100644
Binary files a/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.png and b/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.png differ
diff --git a/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.txt b/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.txt
index a6fc7b6..406fb5d 100644
--- a/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.txt
+++ b/sense_hat/sense_hat_text.txt
@@ -1 +1 @@
- +-*/!"#$><0123456789.=)(ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz?,;:|@%[&_']\~
+ +-*/!"#$><0123456789.=)(ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz?,;:|@%[&_']\~{}`^¡¿£¥©ªº«»®°±²³µ·¹¼½¾×÷¢¤¦§¨¬¯´¶ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖØÙÚÛÜÝÞßàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöøùúûüýþÿ