diff --git a/src/sage/doctest/forker.py b/src/sage/doctest/forker.py
index 6553d96b967..33d70c89b16 100644
--- a/src/sage/doctest/forker.py
+++ b/src/sage/doctest/forker.py
@@ -514,7 +514,13 @@ def _run(self, test, compileflags, out):
             finally:
                 if self.debugger is not None:
                     self.debugger.set_continue() # ==== Example Finished ====
-            got = self._fakeout.getvalue()  # the actual output
+            got = self._fakeout.getvalue()
+            try:
+                got = got.decode('utf-8')
+            except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                got = got.decode('latin1')
+            # the actual output
+
             outcome = FAILURE   # guilty until proved innocent or insane
 
             # If the example executed without raising any exceptions,
@@ -768,7 +774,7 @@ def update_digests(self, example):
             sage: DTR.running_global_digest.hexdigest()
             '3cb44104292c3a3ab4da3112ce5dc35c'
         """
-        s = pre_hash(get_source(example))
+        s = pre_hash(get_source(example)).encode('utf-8')
         self.running_global_digest.update(s)
         self.running_doctest_digest.update(s)
         if example.predecessors is not None:
diff --git a/src/sage/doctest/parsing.py b/src/sage/doctest/parsing.py
index 77a1c8f8488..01746f7f558 100644
--- a/src/sage/doctest/parsing.py
+++ b/src/sage/doctest/parsing.py
@@ -22,8 +22,9 @@
 #  the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 #                  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
 #*****************************************************************************
-from __future__ import print_function, absolute_import
+from __future__ import print_function, absolute_import, unicode_literals
 from sage.misc.six import u
+from six import text_type
 
 import re
 import sys
@@ -291,7 +292,7 @@ def reduce_hex(fingerprints):
     return "%032x" % res
 
 
-class MarkedOutput(str):
+class MarkedOutput(text_type):
     """
     A subclass of string with context for whether another string
     matches it.
@@ -306,6 +307,9 @@ class MarkedOutput(str):
         'abc'
         sage: s.rel_tol
         0.0500000000000000
+
+        sage: MarkedOutput(u"56 µs")
+        u'56 \xb5s'
     """
     random = False
     rel_tol = 0
diff --git a/src/sage/doctest/sources.py b/src/sage/doctest/sources.py
index c8bd433e4c7..f3e05a6654e 100644
--- a/src/sage/doctest/sources.py
+++ b/src/sage/doctest/sources.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 #                  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
 #*****************************************************************************
 from __future__ import print_function
-from __future__ import absolute_import
+from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 
 import os
 import sys
@@ -61,6 +61,9 @@
 sagestart = re.compile(r"^\s*(>>> |sage: )\s*[^#\s]")
 untested = re.compile("(not implemented|not tested)")
 
+# For parsing a PEP 0263 encoding declaration
+pep_0263 = re.compile(r'coding[:=]\s*([-\w.]+)')
+
 # Source line number in warning output
 doctest_line_number = re.compile(r"^\s*doctest:[0-9]")
 
@@ -226,7 +229,7 @@ def _process_doc(self, doctests, doc, namespace, start):
 
     def _create_doctests(self, namespace, tab_okay=None):
         """
-        Creates a list doctests defined in this source.
+        Creates a list of doctests defined in this source.
 
         This function collects functionality common to file and string
         sources, and is called by
@@ -511,10 +514,13 @@ def __init__(self, path, options):
         base, ext = os.path.splitext(path)
         if ext in ('.py', '.pyx', '.pxd', '.pxi', '.sage', '.spyx'):
             self.__class__ = dynamic_class('PythonFileSource',(FileDocTestSource,PythonSource))
+            self.encoding = "utf-8"
         elif ext == '.tex':
             self.__class__ = dynamic_class('TexFileSource',(FileDocTestSource,TexSource))
+            self.encoding = "utf-8"
         elif ext == '.rst':
             self.__class__ = dynamic_class('RestFileSource',(FileDocTestSource,RestSource))
+            self.encoding = "utf-8"
         else:
             raise ValueError("unknown file extension %r"%ext)
 
@@ -536,10 +542,38 @@ def __iter__(self):
             1     sage: 2 + 2
             2     4
             3 '''
+
+        The encoding is "utf-8" by default::
+
+            sage: FDS.encoding
+            'utf-8'
+
+        We create a file with a Latin-1 encoding without declaring it::
+
+            sage: s = "'''\nRegardons le polyn\xF4me...\n'''\n"
+            sage: open(filename, 'w').write(s)
+            sage: FDS = FileDocTestSource(filename, DocTestDefaults())
+            sage: L = list(FDS)
+            Traceback (most recent call last):
+            ...
+            UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xf4 in position 18: invalid continuation byte
+
+        This works if we add a PEP 0263 encoding declaration::
+
+            sage: s = "#!/usr/bin/env python\n# -*- coding: latin-1 -*-\n" + s
+            sage: open(filename, 'w').write(s)
+            sage: FDS = FileDocTestSource(filename, DocTestDefaults())
+            sage: L = list(FDS)
+            sage: FDS.encoding
+            'latin-1'
         """
         with open(self.path) as source:
             for lineno, line in enumerate(source):
-                yield lineno, line
+                if lineno < 2:
+                    match = pep_0263.search(line)
+                    if match:
+                        self.encoding = match.group(1)
+                yield lineno, unicode(line, self.encoding)
 
     @lazy_attribute
     def printpath(self):
diff --git a/src/sage/interfaces/gap.py b/src/sage/interfaces/gap.py
index fb05adc78b8..dc1bfcbeaa9 100644
--- a/src/sage/interfaces/gap.py
+++ b/src/sage/interfaces/gap.py
@@ -188,6 +188,7 @@
 from sage.structure.element import ModuleElement
 import re
 import os
+import io
 import pexpect
 import time
 import platform
@@ -1329,8 +1330,9 @@ def help(self, s, pager=True):
         else:
             tmp_to_use = self._local_tmpfile()
         self.eval('SetGAPDocTextTheme("none")')
-        self.eval(r'\$SAGE.tempfile := "%s";'%tmp_to_use)
-        line = Expect.eval(self, "? %s"%s)
+        gap_encoding = str(self('GAPInfo.TermEncoding;'))
+        self.eval(r'\$SAGE.tempfile := "%s";' % tmp_to_use)
+        line = Expect.eval(self, "? %s" % s)
         Expect.eval(self, "? 1")
         match = re.search("Page from (\d+)", line)
         if match is None:
@@ -1339,7 +1341,7 @@ def help(self, s, pager=True):
             (sline,) = match.groups()
             if self.is_remote():
                 self._get_tmpfile()
-            F = open(self._local_tmpfile(),"r")
+            F = io.open(self._local_tmpfile(), "r", encoding=gap_encoding)
             help = F.read()
             if pager:
                 from IPython.core.page import page
diff --git a/src/sage/interfaces/r.py b/src/sage/interfaces/r.py
index 9db603f8eb3..2406d3b7f50 100644
--- a/src/sage/interfaces/r.py
+++ b/src/sage/interfaces/r.py
@@ -668,7 +668,11 @@ def library(self, library_name):
             ...
             ImportError: ...
         """
-        ret = self.eval('require("%s")'%library_name)
+        ret = self.eval('require("%s")' % library_name)
+        try:
+            ret = ret.decode('utf-8')
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            ret = ret.decode('latin-1')
         # try hard to parse the message string in a locale-independent way
         if ' library(' in ret:       # locale-independent key-word
             raise ImportError("%s"%ret)
diff --git a/src/sage/plot/graphics.py b/src/sage/plot/graphics.py
index 2c8a48c1085..8fd3998927b 100644
--- a/src/sage/plot/graphics.py
+++ b/src/sage/plot/graphics.py
@@ -693,8 +693,7 @@ def axes_labels(self, l=None):
             sage: c = circle((0,0), 1)
             sage: c.axes_labels(['axe des abscisses', u'axe des ordonnées'])
             sage: c._axes_labels
-            ('axe des abscisses', u'axe des ordonn\xc3\xa9es')
-
+            ('axe des abscisses', u'axe des ordonn\xe9es')
         """
         if l is None:
             try:
diff --git a/src/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_ipython.py b/src/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_ipython.py
index 894b7d274e8..5085c3dca58 100644
--- a/src/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_ipython.py
+++ b/src/sage/repl/rich_output/backend_ipython.py
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ def displayhook(self, plain_text, rich_output):
             sage: from sage.repl.rich_output import get_display_manager
             sage: dm = get_display_manager()
             sage: dm.displayhook(Foo())
-            ({u'text/plain': u'Mot\xc3\xb6rhead'}, {})
+            ({u'text/plain': u'Mot\xf6rhead'}, {})
         """
         if isinstance(rich_output, OutputPlainText):
             return ({u'text/plain': rich_output.text.get_unicode()}, {})
diff --git a/src/sage/structure/dynamic_class.py b/src/sage/structure/dynamic_class.py
index 2269bd78e39..3d2ed2fae49 100644
--- a/src/sage/structure/dynamic_class.py
+++ b/src/sage/structure/dynamic_class.py
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ class MyPermutation(UniqueRepresentation, PermutationCycleType, PosetElement, Gr
 from sage.misc.classcall_metaclass import ClasscallMetaclass
 from sage.misc.inherit_comparison import InheritComparisonMetaclass, InheritComparisonClasscallMetaclass
 
+
 def dynamic_class(name, bases, cls=None, reduction=None, doccls=None,
                   prepend_cls_bases=True, cache=True):
     r"""
@@ -309,6 +310,10 @@ def dynamic_class(name, bases, cls=None, reduction=None, doccls=None,
     """
     bases = tuple(bases)
     #assert(len(bases) > 0 )
+    try:
+        name = str(name)
+    except UnicodeEncodeError:
+        pass
     assert(isinstance(name, str))
     #    assert(cls is None or issubtype(type(cls), type) or type(cls) is classobj)
     if cache is True: