diff --git a/src/textdialog.cpp b/src/textdialog.cpp
index ed60fa0..35ab96a 100644
--- a/src/textdialog.cpp
+++ b/src/textdialog.cpp
@@ -37,42 +37,79 @@ TextDialog::TextDialog(GMenu2X *gmenu2x, const string &title, const string &desc
 
 void TextDialog::preProcess() {
 	unsigned i = 0;
-	string row;
 
-	while (i<text->size()) {
-		//clean this row
-		row = trim(text->at(i));
+	while (i < text->size()) {
+		/* Clean the end of the string, allowing lines that are indented at
+		 * the start to stay as such. */
+		string line = rtrim(text->at(i));
 
-		//check if this row is not too long
-		if (gmenu2x->font->getTextWidth(row)>(int)gmenu2x->resX-15) {
-			vector<string> words;
-			split(words, row, " ");
+		if (gmenu2x->font->getTextWidth(line) > (int) gmenu2x->resX - 15) {
+			/* At least one full character must fit, in order to advance. */
+			size_t fits = 1;
+			while (fits < line.length() && !isUTF8Starter(line[fits])) {
+				fits++;
+			}
+			size_t doesntFit = fits;
 
-			unsigned numWords = words.size();
-			//find the maximum number of rows that can be printed on screen
-			while (gmenu2x->font->getTextWidth(row)>(int)gmenu2x->resX-15 && numWords>0) {
-				numWords--;
-				row = "";
-				for (unsigned x=0; x<numWords; x++)
-					row += words[x] + " ";
-				row = trim(row);
+			/* This preprocessing finds an upper bound on the number of
+			 * bytes of full characters that fit on the screen, 2^n, in
+			 * n steps. */
+			do {
+				fits = doesntFit; /* what didn't fit has been determined to fit by a previous iteration */
+				doesntFit = min(2 * fits, line.length());
+				while (doesntFit < line.length() && !isUTF8Starter(line[doesntFit])) {
+					doesntFit++;
+				}
+			} while (doesntFit <= line.length()
+			      && gmenu2x->font->getTextWidth(line.substr(0, doesntFit)) <= (int) gmenu2x->resX - 15);
+
+			/* End this loop when N characters fit but N + 1 don't. */
+			while (fits + 1 < doesntFit) {
+				size_t guess = fits + (doesntFit - fits) / 2;
+				if (!isUTF8Starter(line[guess]))
+				{
+					size_t oldGuess = guess;
+					/* Adjust the guess to the nearest UTF-8 starter that is
+					 * not 'fits' or 'doesntFit'. */
+					for (size_t offset = 1; offset < (doesntFit - fits) / 2 - 1; offset++) {
+						if (isUTF8Starter(line[guess - offset])) {
+							guess -= offset;
+							break;
+						} else if (isUTF8Starter(line[guess + offset])) {
+							guess += offset;
+							break;
+						}
+					}
+					/* If there's no such character, exit early. */
+					if (guess == oldGuess) {
+						break;
+					}
+				}
+				if (gmenu2x->font->getTextWidth(line.substr(0, guess)) <= (int) gmenu2x->resX - 15) {
+					fits = guess;
+				} else {
+					doesntFit = guess;
+				}
 			}
 
-			//if numWords==0 then the string must be printed as-is, it cannot be split
-			if (numWords>0) {
-				//replace with the shorter version
-				text->at(i) = row;
-
-				//build the remaining text in another row
-				row = "";
-				for (unsigned x=numWords; x<words.size(); x++)
-					row += words[x] + " ";
-				row = trim(row);
-
-				if (!row.empty())
-					text->insert(text->begin()+i+1, row);
+			/* The line shall be split at the last space-separated word that
+			 * fully fits, or otherwise at the last character that fits. */
+			size_t lastSpace = line.find_last_of(" \t\r", fits);
+			if (lastSpace != string::npos) {
+				fits = lastSpace;
 			}
+
+			/* Insert the rest in a new slot after this line.
+			 * TODO (Nebuleon) Don't use a vector for this, because all later
+			 * elements are moved, which is inefficient. */
+			text->insert(text->begin() + i + 1, ltrim(line.substr(fits)));
+			line = rtrim(line.substr(0, fits));
 		}
+
+		/* Put the trimmed whole line or the smaller split of the split line
+		 * back into the same slot */
+		text->at(i) = line;
+
 		i++;
 	}
 }
diff --git a/src/utilities.cpp b/src/utilities.cpp
index 23ca7cf..c85fff0 100644
--- a/src/utilities.cpp
+++ b/src/utilities.cpp
@@ -46,6 +46,16 @@ string trim(const string& s) {
   return b == string::npos ? "" : string(s, b, e + 1 - b);
 }
 
+string ltrim(const string& s) {
+  auto b = s.find_first_not_of(" \t\r");
+  return b == string::npos ? "" : string(s, b);
+}
+
+string rtrim(const string& s) {
+  auto e = s.find_last_not_of(" \t\r");
+  return e == string::npos ? "" : string(s, 0, e + 1);
+}
+
 bool fileExists(const string &file) {
 	fstream fin;
 	fin.open(file.c_str() ,ios::in);
diff --git a/src/utilities.h b/src/utilities.h
index 11ea6eb..aa29308 100644
--- a/src/utilities.h
+++ b/src/utilities.h
@@ -35,8 +35,16 @@ public:
 	bool operator()(const std::string &left, const std::string &right) const;
 };
 
+inline bool isUTF8Starter(char c) {
+	return (c & 0xC0) != 0x80;
+}
+
 /** Returns the string with whitespace stripped from both ends. */
 std::string trim(const std::string& s);
+/** Returns the string with whitespace stripped from the start. */
+std::string ltrim(const std::string& s);
+/** Returns the string with whitespace stripped from the end. */
+std::string rtrim(const std::string& s);
 
 std::string strreplace(std::string orig, const std::string &search, const std::string &replace);
 std::string cmdclean(std::string cmdline);