diff --git a/cairo/Context.cs b/cairo/Context.cs
index aa9d551a0..6605bdc7e 100644
--- a/cairo/Context.cs
+++ b/cairo/Context.cs
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 
 using System;
 using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
+using System.Text;
 using Cairo;
 
 namespace Cairo {
@@ -833,20 +834,56 @@ namespace Cairo {
 			NativeMethods.cairo_show_page (handle);
 		}
 
+		private static byte[] TerminateUtf8(byte[] utf8)
+		{
+			if (utf8.Length > 0 && utf8[utf8.Length - 1] == 0)
+				return utf8;
+			var termedArray = new byte[utf8.Length + 1];
+			Array.Copy(utf8, termedArray, utf8.Length);
+			termedArray[utf8.Length] = 0;
+			return termedArray;
+		}
+
+		private static byte[] TerminateUtf8(string s)
+		{
+			// compute the byte count including the trailing \0
+			var byteCount = Encoding.UTF8.GetMaxByteCount(s.Length + 1);
+			var bytes = new byte[byteCount];
+			Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(s, 0, s.Length, bytes, 0);
+			return bytes;
+		}
+
 		public void ShowText (string str)
 		{
-			NativeMethods.cairo_show_text (handle, str);
+			NativeMethods.cairo_show_text (handle, TerminateUtf8 (str));
+		}
+
+		public void ShowText (byte[] utf8)
+		{
+			NativeMethods.cairo_show_text (handle, TerminateUtf8 (utf8));
 		}
 
 		public void TextPath (string str)
 		{
-			NativeMethods.cairo_text_path  (handle, str);
+			NativeMethods.cairo_text_path (handle, TerminateUtf8 (str));
 		}
 
-		public TextExtents TextExtents (string utf8)
+		public void TextPath (byte[] utf8)
+		{
+			NativeMethods.cairo_text_path (handle, TerminateUtf8 (utf8));
+		}
+
+		public TextExtents TextExtents (string s)
 		{
 			TextExtents extents;
-			NativeMethods.cairo_text_extents (handle, utf8, out extents);
+			NativeMethods.cairo_text_extents (handle, TerminateUtf8 (s), out extents);
+			return extents;
+		}
+
+		public TextExtents TextExtents(byte[] utf8)
+		{
+			TextExtents extents;
+			NativeMethods.cairo_text_extents (handle, TerminateUtf8 (utf8), out extents);
 			return extents;
 		}
 
diff --git a/cairo/NativeMethods.cs b/cairo/NativeMethods.cs
index 38379510f..20fa29998 100644
--- a/cairo/NativeMethods.cs
+++ b/cairo/NativeMethods.cs
@@ -821,7 +821,7 @@ namespace Cairo
 		internal static extern void cairo_show_page (IntPtr cr);
 		
 		[DllImport (cairo, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
-		internal static extern void cairo_show_text (IntPtr cr, string utf8);
+		internal static extern void cairo_show_text (IntPtr cr, byte[] utf8);
 		
 		//[DllImport (cairo, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
 		//internal static extern void cairo_show_text_glyphs (IntPtr cr, IntPtr utf8, int utf8_len, IntPtr glyphs, int num_glyphs, IntPtr clusters, int num_clusters, ClusterFlags cluster_flags);
@@ -944,10 +944,10 @@ namespace Cairo
 		//internal static extern void cairo_text_cluster_free (IntPtr clusters);
 		
 		[DllImport (cairo, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
-		internal static extern void cairo_text_extents (IntPtr cr, string utf8, out TextExtents extents);
+		internal static extern void cairo_text_extents (IntPtr cr, byte[] utf8, out TextExtents extents);
 		
 		[DllImport (cairo, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
-		internal static extern void cairo_text_path (IntPtr ct, string utf8);
+		internal static extern void cairo_text_path (IntPtr ct, byte[] utf8);
 		
 		//[DllImport (cairo, CallingConvention=CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
 		//internal static extern IntPtr cairo_toy_font_face_create (IntPtr face, FontSlant slant, FontWeight weight);