diff --git a/Tests/fonts/LICENSE.txt b/Tests/fonts/LICENSE.txt
index 0e0baaabb05..726d5d797fd 100644
--- a/Tests/fonts/LICENSE.txt
+++ b/Tests/fonts/LICENSE.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 
-NotoNastaliqUrdu-Regular.ttf, from https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts
+NotoNastaliqUrdu-Regular.ttf and NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf, from https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-fonts
 NotoSansJP-Thin.otf, from https://www.google.com/get/noto/help/cjk/
 AdobeVFPrototype.ttf, from https://github.com/adobe-fonts/adobe-variable-font-prototype
 TINY5x3GX.ttf, from http://velvetyne.fr/fonts/tiny
diff --git a/Tests/fonts/NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf b/Tests/fonts/NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..92accef72d4
Binary files /dev/null and b/Tests/fonts/NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf differ
diff --git a/Tests/images/unicode_extended.png b/Tests/images/unicode_extended.png
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c0ffad3c69e
Binary files /dev/null and b/Tests/images/unicode_extended.png differ
diff --git a/Tests/test_imagefont.py b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
index 0ee3b979e83..5532750feb1 100644
--- a/Tests/test_imagefont.py
+++ b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
@@ -463,6 +463,26 @@ def test_unicode_pilfont(self):
         with self.assertRaises(UnicodeEncodeError):
             font.getsize(u"’")
 
+    @unittest.skipIf(
+        sys.platform.startswith("win32") and sys.version.startswith("2"),
+        "requires Python 3.x on Windows",
+    )
+    def test_unicode_extended(self):
+        # issue #3777
+        text = u"A\u278A\U0001F12B"
+        target = "Tests/images/unicode_extended.png"
+
+        ttf = ImageFont.truetype(
+            "Tests/fonts/NotoSansSymbols-Regular.ttf",
+            FONT_SIZE,
+            layout_engine=self.LAYOUT_ENGINE,
+        )
+        img = Image.new("RGB", (100, 60))
+        d = ImageDraw.Draw(img)
+        d.text((10, 10), text, font=ttf)
+
+        self.assert_image_similar_tofile(img, target, self.metrics["multiline"])
+
     def _test_fake_loading_font(self, path_to_fake, fontname):
         # Make a copy of FreeTypeFont so we can patch the original
         free_type_font = copy.deepcopy(ImageFont.FreeTypeFont)
diff --git a/src/_imagingft.c b/src/_imagingft.c
index 2567e30d128..4a3b3ccff1e 100644
--- a/src/_imagingft.c
+++ b/src/_imagingft.c
@@ -327,6 +327,7 @@ getfont(PyObject* self_, PyObject* args, PyObject* kw)
 static int
 font_getchar(PyObject* string, int index, FT_ULong* char_out)
 {
+#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03000000
     if (PyUnicode_Check(string)) {
         Py_UNICODE* p = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(string);
         int size = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(string);
@@ -336,7 +337,6 @@ font_getchar(PyObject* string, int index, FT_ULong* char_out)
         return 1;
     }
 
-#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03000000
     if (PyString_Check(string)) {
         unsigned char* p = (unsigned char*) PyString_AS_STRING(string);
         int size = PyString_GET_SIZE(string);
@@ -345,6 +345,13 @@ font_getchar(PyObject* string, int index, FT_ULong* char_out)
         *char_out = (unsigned char) p[index];
         return 1;
     }
+#else
+    if (PyUnicode_Check(string)) {
+        if (index >= PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH(string))
+            return 0;
+        *char_out = PyUnicode_READ_CHAR(string, index);
+        return 1;
+    }
 #endif
 
     return 0;
@@ -366,6 +373,7 @@ text_layout_raqm(PyObject* string, FontObject* self, const char* dir, PyObject *
         goto failed;
     }
 
+#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03000000
     if (PyUnicode_Check(string)) {
         Py_UNICODE *text = PyUnicode_AS_UNICODE(string);
         Py_ssize_t size = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(string);
@@ -385,9 +393,7 @@ text_layout_raqm(PyObject* string, FontObject* self, const char* dir, PyObject *
             }
         }
 
-    }
-#if PY_VERSION_HEX < 0x03000000
-    else if (PyString_Check(string)) {
+    } else if (PyString_Check(string)) {
         char *text = PyString_AS_STRING(string);
         int size = PyString_GET_SIZE(string);
         if (! size) {
@@ -404,6 +410,28 @@ text_layout_raqm(PyObject* string, FontObject* self, const char* dir, PyObject *
             }
         }
     }
+#else
+    if (PyUnicode_Check(string)) {
+        Py_UCS4 *text = PyUnicode_AsUCS4Copy(string);
+        Py_ssize_t size = PyUnicode_GET_LENGTH(string);
+        if (!text || !size) {
+            /* return 0 and clean up, no glyphs==no size,
+               and raqm fails with empty strings */
+            goto failed;
+        }
+        int set_text = (*p_raqm.set_text)(rq, (const uint32_t *)(text), size);
+        PyMem_Free(text);
+        if (!set_text) {
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "raqm_set_text() failed");
+            goto failed;
+        }
+        if (lang) {
+            if (!(*p_raqm.set_language)(rq, lang, start, size)) {
+                PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "raqm_set_language() failed");
+                goto failed;
+            }
+        }
+    }
 #endif
     else {
         PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "expected string");