use utf-8 for encoding of strings, this enables UNICODE international characters sets (of nearly any language) in titles, labels, file and folder names. Windows uses utf-16 and conversion functions between utf-8 and utf-16, if access to Windows API functions is needed. A special fopen has been defined. In addition, plot labels on the y axis now are placed vertically, 90°, by using the Windows API or the Linux Xft library. Postscript plotting uses only a UNICODE subset, namely ISO-8859-1/ISO-8859-15, that allows extended ascii. Better looking fonts are now used for labelling the axes. Variables xbrushwidth and gridlinewidth (to be set e.g. in .spiceinit) allow setting separately the linewidths of the graph (xbrushwidth) and the grid (gridlinewidth).