@@ -161,9 +161,19 @@ FT2Image::draw_rect_filled(unsigned long x0, unsigned long y0, unsigned long x1,
 
 inline double conv(long v)
 {
-    return double(v) / 64.0;
+    return v / 64.;
 }
 
+FT_UInt ft_get_char_index_or_warn(FT_Face face, FT_ULong charcode)
+{
+    FT_UInt glyph_index = FT_Get_Char_Index(face, charcode);
+    if (!glyph_index) {
+        PyErr_WarnEx(NULL, "Required glyph missing from current font.", 1);
+    }
+    return glyph_index;
+}
+
+
 int FT2Font::get_path_count()
 {
     // get the glyph as a path, a list of (COMMAND, *args) as desribed in matplotlib.path
@@ -614,7 +624,7 @@ void FT2Font::set_text(
         FT_BBox glyph_bbox;
         FT_Pos last_advance;
 
-        glyph_index = FT_Get_Char_Index(face, codepoints[n]);
+        glyph_index = ft_get_char_index_or_warn(face, codepoints[n]);
 
         // retrieve kerning distance and move pen position
         if (use_kerning && previous && glyph_index) {
@@ -667,7 +677,8 @@ void FT2Font::set_text(
 
 void FT2Font::load_char(long charcode, FT_Int32 flags)
 {
-    int error = FT_Load_Char(face, (unsigned long)charcode, flags);
+    FT_UInt glyph_index = ft_get_char_index_or_warn(face, (FT_ULong)charcode);
+    int error = FT_Load_Glyph(face, glyph_index, flags);
 
     if (error) {
         throw "Could not load charcode";
 
@@ -995,8 +995,8 @@ static PyObject *PyFT2Font_get_char_index(PyFT2Font *self, PyObject *args, PyObj
 const char *PyFT2Font_get_sfnt__doc__ =
     "get_sfnt(name)\n"
     "\n"
-    "Get all values from the SFNT names table.  Result is a dictionary whose"
-    "key is the platform-ID, ISO-encoding-scheme, language-code, and"
+    "Get all values from the SFNT names table.  Result is a dictionary whose "
+    "key is the platform-ID, ISO-encoding-scheme, language-code, and "
     "description.\n";
 
 static PyObject *PyFT2Font_get_sfnt(PyFT2Font *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds)