diff --git a/src/tui/light.go b/src/tui/light.go
index 7b474181..a96a8440 100644
--- a/src/tui/light.go
+++ b/src/tui/light.go
@@ -48,11 +48,13 @@ func (r *LightRenderer) stderrInternal(str string, allowNLCR bool) {
 	runes := []rune{}
 	for len(bytes) > 0 {
 		r, sz := utf8.DecodeRune(bytes)
-		if r == utf8.RuneError || r < 32 &&
-			r != '\x1b' && (!allowNLCR || r != '\n' && r != '\r') {
-			runes = append(runes, '?')
-		} else {
-			runes = append(runes, r)
+		nlcr := r == '\n' || r == '\r'
+		if r >= 32 || r == '\x1b' || nlcr {
+			if r == utf8.RuneError || nlcr && !allowNLCR {
+				runes = append(runes, ' ')
+			} else {
+				runes = append(runes, r)
+			}
 		}
 		bytes = bytes[sz:]
 	}
@@ -807,7 +809,7 @@ func (w *LightWindow) Print(text string) {
 }
 
 func cleanse(str string) string {
-	return strings.Replace(str, "\x1b", "?", -1)
+	return strings.Replace(str, "\x1b", "", -1)
 }
 
 func (w *LightWindow) CPrint(pair ColorPair, attr Attr, text string) {
diff --git a/src/util/util.go b/src/util/util.go
index 867935ac..95c4e1b4 100644
--- a/src/util/util.go
+++ b/src/util/util.go
@@ -17,11 +17,12 @@ func RuneWidth(r rune, prefixWidth int, tabstop int) int {
 		return tabstop - prefixWidth%tabstop
 	} else if w, found := _runeWidths[r]; found {
 		return w
-	} else {
-		w := Max(runewidth.RuneWidth(r), 1)
-		_runeWidths[r] = w
-		return w
+	} else if r == '\n' || r == '\r' {
+		return 1
 	}
+	w := runewidth.RuneWidth(r)
+	_runeWidths[r] = w
+	return w
 }
 
 // Max returns the largest integer