diff --git a/pitfall/pitfall/kit/object.rkt b/pitfall/pitfall/kit/object.rkt
index ae1d0b19..54b52577 100644
--- a/pitfall/pitfall/kit/object.rkt
+++ b/pitfall/pitfall/kit/object.rkt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #lang at-exp br
+(require "struct.rkt")
 
 (define PDFObject
   (class object%
@@ -23,18 +24,47 @@
 
     (field [escapable (for/hash ([k (in-list escaped-chars)]
                                  [v (in-list escaped-char-strings)])
-                                (values (string k) v))])
+                        (values (string k) v))])
 
     ; Convert little endian UTF-16 to big endian
+    (define (utf8->utf16 bytes)
+      (let-values ([(bs bslen bsresult)
+                    (bytes-convert (bytes-open-converter "platform-UTF-8" "platform-UTF-16") bytes)])
+        bs))
+    
     (define/public (swapBytes buff)
       (define bufflen (bytes-length buff))
       (when (odd? bufflen)
         (raise-argument-error 'swapBytes "even number of bytes" (bytes-length buff)))
       (define newbuff (make-bytes bufflen))
       (for ([bidx (in-range 0 bufflen 2)])
-           (bytes-set! newbuff bidx (bytes-ref buff (add1 bidx)))
-           (bytes-set! newbuff (add1 bidx) (bytes-ref buff bidx)))
-      newbuff)))
+        (bytes-set! newbuff bidx (bytes-ref buff (add1 bidx)))
+        (bytes-set! newbuff (add1 bidx) (bytes-ref buff bidx)))
+      newbuff)
+
+    (define/public (convert object)
+      (cond
+        ;; String literals are converted to the PDF name type
+        [(string? object) (string-append "/" object)]
+        ;; String objects are converted to PDF strings (UTF-16)
+        [(String? object)
+         ;; Escape characters as required by the spec
+         (define string
+           (regexp-replace* escapableRe (String-string object)
+                            (λ (c) (hash-ref escapable c))))
+         ;; Detect if this is a unicode string
+         (define isUnicode
+           (for/or ([c (in-string string)])
+             (char>? c (integer->char #x7f))))
+         ;; If so, encode it as big endian UTF-16
+         (string-append "(" (if isUnicode
+                                (bytes->string/latin-1 (swapBytes (utf8->utf16 (string->bytes/utf-8 (string-append "\ufeff" string)))))
+                                string) ")")]
+        ;; Buffers are converted to PDF hex strings
+        [(bytes? object) (string-append "<" (string-append*
+                                             (for/list ([b (in-bytes object)])
+                                               (number->string b 16))) ">")]
+        [else 42]))))
 
 
 (module+ test
@@ -51,5 +81,13 @@
   
   (check-equal? (regexp-replace* (get-field escapableRe o) "foo\nba\tr" (λ (c) (hash-ref (get-field escapable o) c))) "foo\\nba\\tr")
 
-  (check-equal? (send o swapBytes #"foobar") #"ofbora"))
+  (check-equal? (send o swapBytes #"foobar") #"ofbora")
+
+  (check-equal? (send o convert "foobar") "/foobar")
+  (check-equal? (send o convert (String "foobar")) "(foobar)")
+  (check-equal? (send o convert (String "öéÿ")) "(þÿ\u0000ö\u0000é\u0000ÿ)")
+  (check-equal? (send o convert (String "fôobár")) "(þÿ\u0000f\u0000ô\u0000o\u0000b\u0000á\u0000r)")
+  (check-equal? (send o convert #"foobar") "<666f6f626172>"))
+
+
 
diff --git a/pitfall/pitfall/kit/struct.rkt b/pitfall/pitfall/kit/struct.rkt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e60cabff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pitfall/pitfall/kit/struct.rkt
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+#lang br
+(provide (struct-out String))
+
+;; use structs to sub for missing node types
+
+(struct String (string) #:transparent)
\ No newline at end of file