diff --git a/include/gint/display.h b/include/gint/display.h
index b43830c..e99eb1e 100644
--- a/include/gint/display.h
+++ b/include/gint/display.h
@@ -189,6 +189,11 @@ typedef struct
 	/* Number of total glyphs */
 	uint32_t glyph_count;
 
+    /* Character spacing (usually 1) */
+    uint8_t char_spacing;
+
+    uint :24;
+
 	struct {
 		/* Unicode point of first character in block */
 		uint start   :20;
diff --git a/src/font8x9.png b/src/font8x9.png
index 5bb9748..af01487 100644
Binary files a/src/font8x9.png and b/src/font8x9.png differ
diff --git a/src/render-cg/topti.c b/src/render-cg/topti.c
index ec0a6fe..ef8c73d 100644
--- a/src/render-cg/topti.c
+++ b/src/render-cg/topti.c
@@ -61,9 +61,8 @@ static void topti_render(int x, int y, char const *str_char, font_t const *f,
 	/* Move to top row */
 	uint16_t *target = gint_vram + 396 * y;
 
-	/* Character spacing and space waiting to be drawn */
-	int space = 1;
-	int active_space = 0;
+	/* Character spacing waiting to be drawn, in pixels */
+	int space = 0;
 
 	/* Read each character from the input string */
 	while(1)
@@ -74,29 +73,23 @@ static void topti_render(int x, int y, char const *str_char, font_t const *f,
 		int glyph = topti_glyph_index(f, code_point);
 		if(glyph < 0) continue;
 
-		/* Draw the space if background is opaque */
-		int prop_space = (code_point == ' ' && f->prop) ? 5 : 0;
-		if(active_space || prop_space)
-		{
-			active_space += prop_space;
-			if(bg >= 0) drect(x, y, x + active_space - 1,
-				y + height - 1, bg);
-		}
-		x += active_space;
-		if(prop_space) { active_space = space; continue; }
+		int dataw = f->prop ? f->glyph_width[glyph] : f->width;
+
+		/* Draw character spacing if background is opaque */
+		if(space && bg >= 0) drect(x, y, x+space-1, y+height-1, bg);
+		x += space;
 		if(x >= 396) break;
 
 		int index = topti_offset(f, glyph);
 
 		/* Compute horizontal intersection between glyph and screen */
 
-		int dataw = f->prop ? f->glyph_width[glyph] : f->width;
 		int width = dataw, left = 0;
 
 		if(x + dataw <= 0)
 		{
 			x += dataw;
-			active_space = space;
+			space = f->char_spacing;
 			continue;
 		}
 		if(x < 0) left = -x, width += x;
@@ -108,7 +101,7 @@ static void topti_render(int x, int y, char const *str_char, font_t const *f,
 			dataw, fg, bg);
 
 		x += dataw;
-		active_space = space;
+		space = f->char_spacing;
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/src/render-fx/topti.c b/src/render-fx/topti.c
index 3f1ad4e..f9db890 100644
--- a/src/render-fx/topti.c
+++ b/src/render-fx/topti.c
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ void topti_render(int x, int y, char const *str_char, font_t const *f,
 		free = topti_split(data+index, width, height, free, operators);
 
 		/* Potential space after the glyph */
-		int space = (*str != 0);
+		int space = (*str != 0) ? f->char_spacing : 0;
 		free -= space;
 
 		if(free > 0) continue;
diff --git a/src/render/topti.c b/src/render/topti.c
index 406ea03..4ce6ae1 100644
--- a/src/render/topti.c
+++ b/src/render/topti.c
@@ -105,39 +105,34 @@ uint32_t topti_utf8_next(uint8_t const **str_pointer)
 void dsize(char const *str_char, font_t const * f, int *w, int *h)
 {
 	uint8_t const *str = (void *)str_char;
+	uint32_t code_point;
 
 	if(!f) f = topti_font;
 	if(h) *h = f->line_height;
 	if(!w) return;
 
 	/* Width for monospaced fonts is easy, unfortunately we still need to
-	   compute the length of [str]. Critical applications might do the
-	   product themselves to avoid this cost. */
+	   compute the length and group bytes into Unicode code points. */
 	if(!f->prop)
 	{
 		int length = 0;
-		while(*str++) length++;
-		*w = (f->width + CHAR_SPACING) * length - CHAR_SPACING;
+		while((code_point = topti_utf8_next(&str))) length++;
+
+		*w = (f->width + f->char_spacing) * length - f->char_spacing;
 		return;
 	}
 
 	/* For proportional fonts, fetch the width of each individual glyphs */
 	int width = 0;
-	uint32_t code_point;
 
 	while(1)
 	{
 		code_point = topti_utf8_next(&str);
 		if(!code_point) break;
 
-		if(code_point == ' ')
-		{
-			width += PROP_SPACING + CHAR_SPACING;
-			continue;
-		}
-
 		int glyph = topti_glyph_index(f, code_point);
-		if(glyph >= 0) width += f->glyph_width[glyph] + CHAR_SPACING;
+		if(glyph < 0) continue;
+		width += f->glyph_width[glyph] + f->char_spacing;
 	}
-	*w = width - CHAR_SPACING;
+	*w = width - f->char_spacing;
 }