diff --git a/pandas/core/common.py b/pandas/core/common.py
index 3957bca6eff84..85524c7542fbf 100644
--- a/pandas/core/common.py
+++ b/pandas/core/common.py
@@ -705,11 +705,16 @@ def _index_labels_to_array(labels):
 
     return labels
 
-def _stringify(col):
+def _stringify(col, encoding='UTF8'):
     # unicode workaround
     try:
         return unicode(col)
     except UnicodeError:
+        try:
+            if isinstance(col, str):
+                return col.decode(encoding)
+        except UnicodeError:
+            pass
         return console_encode(col)
 
 def _stringify_seq(values):
@@ -930,4 +935,3 @@ def _concat_compat(to_concat):
         return new_values.view(_NS_DTYPE)
     else:
         return np.concatenate(to_concat)
-
diff --git a/pandas/core/format.py b/pandas/core/format.py
index c5be148db31e0..65cbd48be8919 100644
--- a/pandas/core/format.py
+++ b/pandas/core/format.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from itertools import izip
+import sys
 
 try:
     from StringIO import StringIO
@@ -480,15 +481,30 @@ def __init__(self, values, digits=7, formatter=None, na_rep='NaN',
         self.justify = justify
 
     def get_result(self):
-        if self._have_unicode():
+        if self._conv_unicode():
             fmt_values = self._format_strings(use_unicode=True)
         else:
             fmt_values = self._format_strings(use_unicode=False)
 
         return _make_fixed_width(fmt_values, self.justify)
 
-    def _have_unicode(self):
-        mask = lib.map_infer(self.values, lambda x: isinstance(x, unicode))
+    def _conv_unicode(self):
+        #check if any needs and can be converted to nonascii encoding
+        def _nonascii(x):
+            if isinstance(x, unicode):
+                return True
+            try:
+                if isinstance(x, str):
+                    x.decode('ascii')
+                    return False
+            except UnicodeError:
+                try:
+                    x.decode(print_config.encoding)
+                    return True
+                except UnicodeError:
+                    return False
+            return False
+        mask = lib.map_infer(self.values, _nonascii)
         return mask.any()
 
     def _format_strings(self, use_unicode=False):
@@ -501,7 +517,9 @@ def _format_strings(self, use_unicode=False):
             float_format = self.float_format
 
         if use_unicode:
-            formatter = _stringify if self.formatter is None else self.formatter
+            def _strify(x):
+                return _stringify(x, print_config.encoding)
+            formatter = _strify if self.formatter is None else self.formatter
         else:
             formatter = str if self.formatter is None else self.formatter
 
@@ -668,7 +686,7 @@ def set_printoptions(precision=None, column_space=None, max_rows=None,
                      max_columns=None, colheader_justify=None,
                      max_colwidth=None, notebook_repr_html=None,
                      date_dayfirst=None, date_yearfirst=None,
-                     multi_sparse=None):
+                     multi_sparse=None, encoding=None):
     """
     Alter default behavior of DataFrame.toString
 
@@ -716,6 +734,8 @@ def set_printoptions(precision=None, column_space=None, max_rows=None,
         print_config.date_yearfirst = date_yearfirst
     if multi_sparse is not None:
         print_config.multi_sparse = multi_sparse
+    if encoding is not None:
+        print_config.encoding = encoding
 
 def reset_printoptions():
     print_config.reset()
@@ -846,6 +866,9 @@ def __init__(self):
         self.date_dayfirst = False
         self.date_yearfirst = False
         self.multi_sparse = True
+        self.encoding = sys.getdefaultencoding()
+        if self.encoding == 'ascii':
+            self.encoding = 'UTF8'
 
     def reset(self):
         self.__init__()
diff --git a/pandas/tests/test_format.py b/pandas/tests/test_format.py
index 0f02eba0229c7..1484a41b91bf3 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/test_format.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/test_format.py
@@ -150,6 +150,12 @@ def test_to_html_unicode(self):
         df = DataFrame({'A' : [u'\u03c3']})
         df.to_html()
 
+    def test_nonunicode_nonascii_alignment(self):
+        df = DataFrame([["aa\xc3\xa4\xc3\xa4", 1], ["bbbb", 2]])
+        rep_str = df.to_string()
+        lines = rep_str.split('\n')
+        self.assert_(len(lines[1]) == len(lines[2]))
+
     def test_unicode_problem_decoding_as_ascii(self):
         dm = DataFrame({u'c/\u03c3': Series({'test':np.NaN})})
         unicode(dm.to_string())
@@ -776,4 +782,3 @@ def test_misc(self):
     import nose
     nose.runmodule(argv=[__file__,'-vvs','-x','--pdb', '--pdb-failure'],
                    exit=False)
-