diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index 8b3932e63b..a207c07b4b 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ WriteMakefile(NAME => 'LaTeXML',
   PREREQ_PM => {
     'Archive::Zip'      => 0,
     'DB_File'           => 0,
+    'Encode::Locale'    => 0,
     'File::Which'       => 0,
     'Getopt::Long'      => 2.37,
     'Image::Size'       => 0,
diff --git a/bin/latexml b/bin/latexml
index a7a8ea0a2b..f48bbb23c1 100755
--- a/bin/latexml
+++ b/bin/latexml
@@ -22,6 +22,10 @@ use LaTeXML::Util::Pathname;
 use LaTeXML::Common::Error;
 use Encode;
 
+# decode @ARGV before further processing
+use Encode::Locale;
+Encode::Locale::decode_argv(Encode::FB_CROAK);
+
 #**********************************************************************
 # Parse command line
 my ($verbosity, $strict, $comments, $noparse, $includestyles) = (0, 0, 1, 0, 0);
diff --git a/bin/latexmlc b/bin/latexmlc
index c3e6232fe0..e0c1b89449 100755
--- a/bin/latexmlc
+++ b/bin/latexmlc
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ use HTTP::Response;
 use HTTP::Request;
 use JSON::XS qw(decode_json);
 
+# decode @ARGV before further processing
+use Encode::Locale;
+Encode::Locale::decode_argv(Encode::FB_CROAK);
+
 # Determine if a socket server is installed locally and obtain its pathname:
 my $latexmls;
 $latexmls = catfile($RealBin_safe, 'latexmls') if (-e catfile($RealBin_safe, 'latexmls'));
diff --git a/bin/latexmlfind b/bin/latexmlfind
index 1ea8a76603..29d522ddf9 100755
--- a/bin/latexmlfind
+++ b/bin/latexmlfind
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ use LaTeXML::Common::XML;
 use Text::Wrap;
 use LaTeXML;    # Currently, just for version information.
 
+# decode @ARGV before further processing
+use Encode::Locale;
+Encode::Locale::decode_argv(Encode::FB_CROAK);
+
 #**********************************************************************
 # Parse command line
 my ($verbosity) = (0);
@@ -125,7 +129,7 @@ sub collect_matches {
   my ($description, $xpath) = @_;
   my @nodes = $XPATH->findnodes($xpath, $DOC);
   print "Query $description appears in " . scalar(@nodes) . " places\n" if $verbosity > -1;
-  print "  [XPath = \"$xpath\"]\n" if $verbosity > 0;
+  print "  [XPath = \"$xpath\"]\n"                                      if $verbosity > 0;
   foreach my $node (@nodes) {
     my $object = id_object($node);
     push(@{ $$object{items} }, $node); }
@@ -144,9 +148,9 @@ sub id_object {
     my $parent_object = id_object($node);
     my $type          = $node->localname;
     my $labels        = $node->getAttribute('labels');
-    my ($refnum) = $XPATH->findnodes("child::ltx:tags/ltx:tag[\@refnum]/text()", $node);
-    my ($title)  = $XPATH->findnodes("child::ltx:toctitle | child::ltx:title",   $node);
-    my $desc = ($refnum ? ($title ? "$refnum. " . $title->textContent : $refnum)
+    my ($refnum)      = $XPATH->findnodes("child::ltx:tags/ltx:tag[\@refnum]/text()", $node);
+    my ($title)       = $XPATH->findnodes("child::ltx:toctitle | child::ltx:title",   $node);
+    my $desc          = ($refnum ? ($title ? "$refnum. " . $title->textContent : $refnum)
       : ($title ? $title->textContent : ''));
     $desc =~ s/\s+/ /g;
     $OBJECTS{$id} = $object
diff --git a/bin/latexmlmath b/bin/latexmlmath
index 4d58f76fd1..0c721a5049 100755
--- a/bin/latexmlmath
+++ b/bin/latexmlmath
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@ use LaTeXML::Post::CrossRef;
 use LaTeXML::Util::ObjectDB;
 use LaTeXML::Common::Error;
 
+# decode @ARGV before further processing
+use Encode::Locale;
+Encode::Locale::decode_argv(Encode::FB_CROAK);
+
 #**********************************************************************
 # Parse command line
 
diff --git a/bin/latexmlpost b/bin/latexmlpost
index 690fdead42..36eee17a6e 100755
--- a/bin/latexmlpost
+++ b/bin/latexmlpost
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ use LaTeXML::Post::Scan;
 use LaTeXML::Util::Pathname;
 use LaTeXML::Util::ObjectDB;
 
+# decode @ARGV before further processing
+use Encode::Locale;
+Encode::Locale::decode_argv(Encode::FB_CROAK);
+
 #======================================================================
 # Parse command line.
 #======================================================================
diff --git a/lib/LaTeXML/Util/Pathname.pm b/lib/LaTeXML/Util/Pathname.pm
index 1c6fe69336..3f9cfe904e 100644
--- a/lib/LaTeXML/Util/Pathname.pm
+++ b/lib/LaTeXML/Util/Pathname.pm
@@ -32,6 +32,8 @@ use File::Spec;
 use File::Copy;
 use File::Which;
 use Cwd;
+use Encode;
+use Encode::Locale;
 use base qw(Exporter);
 our @EXPORT = qw( &pathname_find &pathname_findall &pathname_kpsewhich
   &pathname_make &pathname_canonical
@@ -51,6 +53,12 @@ my $ISWINDOWS;
 BEGIN {
   $ISWINDOWS = $^O =~ /^(MSWin|NetWare|cygwin)/i;
   require Win32::ShellQuote if $ISWINDOWS;
+
+  # configure perl to call I/O APIs using the current codepage rather than utf-8
+  # NOTE: this is only a stopgap measure; creating a file with a name that does
+  # not fit the codepage may create a file with a similar looking but different name
+  require POSIX;
+  POSIX::setlocale(&POSIX::LC_ALL, '.ACP') if $ISWINDOWS;
 }
 
 # NOTE: For absolute pathnames, the directory component starts with
@@ -219,17 +227,28 @@ sub pathname_to_url {
     $relative_pathname = join('/', split(/\Q$SEP\E/, $relative_pathname)); }
   return $relative_pathname; }
 
+#======================================================================
+# Locale encoding operations, to be used in file system operations.
+sub pathname_decode {
+  my ($pathname) = @_;
+  return $ISWINDOWS ? $pathname : decode('locale_fs', $pathname, Encode::FB_CROAK); }
+
+sub pathname_encode {
+  my ($pathname) = @_;
+  return $ISWINDOWS ? $pathname : encode('locale_fs', $pathname, Encode::FB_CROAK); }
+
 #======================================================================
 # Actual file system operations.
+
 sub pathname_timestamp {
-  my ($pathname) = @_;
+  my $pathname = pathname_encode($_[0]);
   return -f $pathname ? (stat($pathname))[9] : 0; }
 
 our $CWD = undef;
 # DO NOT use pathname_cwd, unless you also use pathname_chdir to change dirs!!!
 sub pathname_cwd {
   if (!defined $CWD) {
-    if (my $cwd = cwd()) {
+    if (my $cwd = pathname_decode(cwd())) {
       $CWD = pathname_canonical($cwd); }
     else {
       # Fatal not imported
@@ -238,7 +257,7 @@ sub pathname_cwd {
   return $CWD; }
 
 sub pathname_chdir {
-  my ($directory) = @_;
+  my $directory = pathname_encode($_[0]);
   chdir($directory);
   pathname_cwd();    # RE-cache $CWD!
   return; }
@@ -250,7 +269,7 @@ sub pathname_mkdir {
   my ($volume, $dirs, $last) = File::Spec->splitpath($directory);
   my (@dirs) = (File::Spec->splitdir($dirs), $last);
   for (my $i = 0 ; $i <= $#dirs ; $i++) {
-    my $dir = File::Spec->catpath($volume, File::Spec->catdir(@dirs[0 .. $i]), '');
+    my $dir = pathname_encode(File::Spec->catpath($volume, File::Spec->catdir(@dirs[0 .. $i]), ''));
     if (!-d $dir) {
       mkdir($dir) or return; } }
   return $directory; }
@@ -262,7 +281,8 @@ sub pathname_copy {
   # If it _needs_ to be copied:
   $source      = pathname_canonical($source);
   $destination = pathname_canonical($destination);
-  if ((!-f $destination) || (pathname_timestamp($source) > pathname_timestamp($destination))) {
+  my ($enc_source, $enc_destination) = (pathname_encode($source), pathname_encode($destination));
+  if ((!-f $enc_destination) || (pathname_timestamp($source) > pathname_timestamp($destination))) {
     if (my $destdir = pathname_directory($destination)) {
       pathname_mkdir($destdir) or return; }
 ###    if($^O =~ /^(MSWin32|NetWare)$/){ # Windows
@@ -271,9 +291,9 @@ sub pathname_copy {
 ###    else {               # Unix
 ###      system("cp --preserve=timestamps $source $destination")==0 or return; }
     # Hopefully this portably copies, preserving timestamp.
-    copy($source, $destination) or return;
-    my ($atime, $mtime) = (stat($source))[8, 9];
-    utime $atime, $mtime, $destination;    # And set the modification time
+    copy($enc_source, $enc_destination) or return;
+    my ($atime, $mtime) = (stat($enc_source))[8, 9];
+    utime $atime, $mtime, $enc_destination;    # And set the modification time
   }
   return $destination; }
 
@@ -373,10 +393,11 @@ sub candidate_pathnames {
           qr/^\Q$name\E\Q$ext\E$/]); } }
   # Now, combine; precedence to leading directories.
   foreach my $dir (@dirs) {
-    opendir(DIR, $dir) or next;
+    opendir(DIR, pathname_encode($dir)) or next;
     my @dir_files = readdir(DIR);
     closedir(DIR);
     for my $local_file (@dir_files) {
+      $local_file = pathname_decode($local_file);
       for my $regex_pair (@regexes) {
         my ($i_regex, $regex) = @$regex_pair;
         if ($local_file =~ m/$i_regex/) {
@@ -429,11 +450,11 @@ sub build_kpse_cache {
   # texpaths: the directories which contain the TeX related files we're interested in
   #. (but they're typically below where the ls-R indexes are!)
   my ($texmf,$texpaths) = split("\n",
-      `"$kpsewhich" --expand-var \'\\\$TEXMF\' --show-path tex $kpse_toolchain`); 
+      `"$kpsewhich" --expand-var \'\\\$TEXMF\' --show-path tex $kpse_toolchain`);
   my @filters  = ();    # Really shouldn't end up empty.
   foreach my $path (split(/$KPATHSEP/, $texpaths)) {
     $path =~ s/^!!//; $path =~ s|//+$|/|;
-    push(@filters, $path) if -d $path; }
+    push(@filters, $path) if -d pathname_encode($path); }
   my $filterre = scalar(@filters) && '(?:' . join('|', map { "\Q$_\E"; } @filters) . ')';
   $texmf =~ s/^["']//; $texmf =~ s/["']$//;
   $texmf =~ s/^\s*\\\{(.+?)}\s*$/$1/s;
@@ -441,12 +462,13 @@ sub build_kpse_cache {
   my @dirs = split(/,/, $texmf);
   foreach my $dir (@dirs) {
     $dir =~ s/^!!//;
+    my $enc_dir = pathname_encode($dir);
     # Presumably if no ls-R, we can ignore the directory?
-    if (-f "$dir/ls-R") {
+    if (-f "$enc_dir/ls-R") {
       my $LSR;
       my $subdir;
       my $skip = 0;    # whether to skip entries in the current subdirectory.
-      open($LSR, '<', "$dir/ls-R") or die "Cannot read $dir/ls-R: $!";
+      open($LSR, '<', "$enc_dir/ls-R") or die "Cannot read $dir/ls-R: $!";
       while (<$LSR>) {
         chop;
         next if !$_ || (substr($_, 0, 1) eq '%');