diff --git a/Tests/test_imagefont.py b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
index 33f37916cb3..91ff44c13db 100644
--- a/Tests/test_imagefont.py
+++ b/Tests/test_imagefont.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import sys
 import copy
 import re
+import shutil
 import distutils.version
 
 FONT_PATH = "Tests/fonts/FreeMono.ttf"
@@ -131,6 +132,15 @@ def test_font_with_open_file(self):
         with open(FONT_PATH, 'rb') as f:
             self._render(f)
 
+    def test_non_unicode_path(self):
+        try:
+            tempfile = self.tempfile("temp_"+chr(128)+".ttf")
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            self.skipTest("Unicode path could not be created")
+        shutil.copy(FONT_PATH, tempfile)
+
+        ImageFont.truetype(tempfile, FONT_SIZE)
+
     def _render(self, font):
         txt = "Hello World!"
         ttf = ImageFont.truetype(font, FONT_SIZE,
diff --git a/src/PIL/ImageFont.py b/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
index 1555e0dee0c..f62a72b2267 100644
--- a/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
+++ b/src/PIL/ImageFont.py
@@ -140,13 +140,26 @@ def __init__(self, font=None, size=10, index=0, encoding="",
 
         self.layout_engine = layout_engine
 
+        def load_from_bytes(f):
+            self.font_bytes = f.read()
+            self.font = core.getfont(
+                "", size, index, encoding, self.font_bytes, layout_engine)
+
         if isPath(font):
+            if sys.platform == "win32":
+                font_bytes_path = font if isinstance(font, bytes) else font.encode()
+                try:
+                    font_bytes_path.decode('ascii')
+                except UnicodeDecodeError:
+                    # FreeType cannot load fonts with non-ASCII characters on Windows
+                    # So load it into memory first
+                    with open(font, 'rb') as f:
+                        load_from_bytes(f)
+                    return
             self.font = core.getfont(font, size, index, encoding,
                                      layout_engine=layout_engine)
         else:
-            self.font_bytes = font.read()
-            self.font = core.getfont(
-                "", size, index, encoding, self.font_bytes, layout_engine)
+            load_from_bytes(font)
 
     def _multiline_split(self, text):
         split_character = "\n" if isinstance(text, str) else b"\n"