diff --git a/gramps/plugins/view/htmlrenderer.py b/gramps/plugins/view/htmlrenderer.py
index e239a803f..829ed695d 100644
--- a/gramps/plugins/view/htmlrenderer.py
+++ b/gramps/plugins/view/htmlrenderer.py
@@ -551,7 +551,7 @@ class HtmlView(NavigationView):
         # Now we have two views : Web and Geography, we need to create the
         # startpage only once.
         if not os.path.exists(filename):
-            ufd = open(filename, "w+")
+            ufd = open(filename, "w+", encoding="utf-8")
             ufd.write(data)
             ufd.close()
         return urlunsplit(('file', '',