diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
index e565aa439..937d9ae18 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yaml
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install Dependencies
         run: |
           brew update
-          brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib librsvg
+          brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib librsvg icu4c
       - name: Install
         run: npm install --build-from-source
       - name: Test
diff --git a/Readme.md b/Readme.md
index b27549962..448376724 100644
--- a/Readme.md
+++ b/Readme.md
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ For detailed installation information, see the [wiki](https://github.com/Automat
 
 OS | Command
 ----- | -----
-OS X | Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/):<br/>`brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib librsvg`
+OS X | Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/):<br/>`brew install pkg-config cairo pango libpng jpeg giflib librsvg icu4c`
 Ubuntu | `sudo apt-get install build-essential libcairo2-dev libpango1.0-dev libjpeg-dev libgif-dev librsvg2-dev`
 Fedora | `sudo yum install gcc-c++ cairo-devel pango-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel giflib-devel`
 Solaris | `pkgin install cairo pango pkg-config xproto renderproto kbproto xextproto`
diff --git a/binding.gyp b/binding.gyp
index 57f14ab8c..82a8daf48 100644
--- a/binding.gyp
+++ b/binding.gyp
@@ -85,7 +85,8 @@
             '-l<(GTK_Root)/lib/pango-1.0.lib',
             '-l<(GTK_Root)/lib/freetype.lib',
             '-l<(GTK_Root)/lib/glib-2.0.lib',
-            '-l<(GTK_Root)/lib/gobject-2.0.lib'
+            '-l<(GTK_Root)/lib/gobject-2.0.lib',
+            '-licu'
           ],
           'include_dirs': [
             '<(GTK_Root)/include',
@@ -140,10 +141,24 @@
           'cflags!': ['-fno-exceptions'],
           'cflags_cc!': ['-fno-exceptions']
         }],
+        ['OS=="linux"', {
+          'libraries': [
+            '<!@(pkg-config icu-uc --libs)'
+          ],
+          'include_dirs': [
+            '<!@(pkg-config icu-uc --cflags-only-I | sed s/-I//g)'
+          ]
+        }],
         ['OS=="mac"', {
           'xcode_settings': {
             'GCC_ENABLE_CPP_EXCEPTIONS': 'YES'
-          }
+          },
+          'libraries': [
+            '-L/usr/local/opt/icu4c/lib -licuuc'
+          ],
+          'include_dirs': [
+            '/usr/local/opt/icu4c/include'
+          ]
         }],
         ['with_jpeg=="true"', {
           'defines': [
diff --git a/src/Canvas.cc b/src/Canvas.cc
index bd39d4329..93ba64a37 100644
--- a/src/Canvas.cc
+++ b/src/Canvas.cc
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@
 #include <cstring>
 #include <cctype>
 #include <ctime>
-#include <glib.h>
 #include "PNG.h"
 #include "register_font.h"
 #include <sstream>
@@ -706,9 +705,9 @@ NAN_METHOD(Canvas::StreamJPEGSync) {
 char *
 str_value(Local<Value> val, const char *fallback, bool can_be_number) {
   if (val->IsString() || (can_be_number && val->IsNumber())) {
-    return g_strdup(*Nan::Utf8String(val));
+    return strdup(*Nan::Utf8String(val));
   } else if (fallback) {
-    return g_strdup(fallback);
+    return strdup(fallback);
   } else {
     return NULL;
   }
@@ -765,9 +764,9 @@ NAN_METHOD(Canvas::RegisterFont) {
     Nan::ThrowError(GENERIC_FACE_ERROR);
   }
 
-  g_free(family);
-  g_free(weight);
-  g_free(style);
+  free(family);
+  free(weight);
+  free(style);
 }
 
 NAN_METHOD(Canvas::DeregisterAllFonts) {
diff --git a/src/register_font.cc b/src/register_font.cc
index 1b8632dd2..0fb37aaba 100644
--- a/src/register_font.cc
+++ b/src/register_font.cc
@@ -12,6 +12,12 @@
 #include <fontconfig/fontconfig.h>
 #endif
 
+#if defined(_WIN32)
+#include <icu.h>
+#else
+#include <unicode/ucnv.h>
+#endif
+
 #include <ft2build.h>
 #include FT_FREETYPE_H
 #include FT_TRUETYPE_TABLES_H
@@ -57,7 +63,7 @@ to_utf8(FT_Byte* buf, FT_UInt len, FT_UShort pid, FT_UShort eid) {
   char const *fromcode;
 
   if (pid == TT_PLATFORM_MACINTOSH && eid == TT_MAC_ID_ROMAN) {
-    fromcode = "MAC";
+    fromcode = "macintosh";
   } else if (pid == TT_PLATFORM_MICROSOFT && eid == TT_MS_ID_UNICODE_CS) {
     fromcode = "UTF-16BE";
   } else {
@@ -65,28 +71,16 @@ to_utf8(FT_Byte* buf, FT_UInt len, FT_UShort pid, FT_UShort eid) {
     return NULL;
   }
 
-  GIConv cd = g_iconv_open("UTF-8", fromcode);
+  UErrorCode err = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+  int32_t converted_len = ucnv_convert("utf-8", fromcode, ret, ret_len, (const char*) buf, len, &err);
 
-  if (cd == (GIConv)-1) {
+  if (U_FAILURE(err)) {
     free(ret);
     return NULL;
   }
 
-  size_t inbytesleft = len;
-  size_t outbytesleft = ret_len;
-
-  size_t n_converted = g_iconv(cd, (char**)&buf, &inbytesleft, &ret, &outbytesleft);
-
-  ret -= ret_len - outbytesleft; // rewind the pointers to their
-  buf -= len - inbytesleft;      // original starting positions
-
-  if (n_converted == (size_t)-1) {
-    free(ret);
-    return NULL;
-  } else {
-    ret[ret_len - outbytesleft] = '\0';
-    return ret;
-  }
+  ret[converted_len] = '\0';
+  return ret;
 }
 
 /*
@@ -94,35 +88,12 @@ to_utf8(FT_Byte* buf, FT_UInt len, FT_UShort pid, FT_UShort eid) {
  * system, fall back to the other
  */
 
-typedef struct _NameDef {
-  const char *buf;
-  int rank; // the higher the more desirable
-} NameDef;
-
-gint
-_name_def_compare(gconstpointer a, gconstpointer b) {
-  return ((NameDef*)a)->rank > ((NameDef*)b)->rank ? -1 : 1;
-}
-
-// Some versions of GTK+ do not have this, particualrly the one we
-// currently link to in node-canvas's wiki
-void
-_free_g_list_item(gpointer data, gpointer user_data) {
-  NameDef *d = (NameDef *)data;
-  free((void *)(d->buf));
-}
-
-void
-_g_list_free_full(GList *list) {
-  g_list_foreach(list, _free_g_list_item, NULL);
-  g_list_free(list);
-}
-
 char *
 get_family_name(FT_Face face) {
   FT_SfntName name;
-  GList *list = NULL;
-  char *utf8name = NULL;
+
+  int best_rank = -1;
+  char* best_buf = NULL;
 
   for (unsigned i = 0; i < FT_Get_Sfnt_Name_Count(face); ++i) {
     FT_Get_Sfnt_Name(face, i, &name);
@@ -131,20 +102,19 @@ get_family_name(FT_Face face) {
       char *buf = to_utf8(name.string, name.string_len, name.platform_id, name.encoding_id);
 
       if (buf) {
-        NameDef *d = (NameDef*)malloc(sizeof(NameDef));
-        d->buf = (const char*)buf;
-        d->rank = GET_NAME_RANK(name);
-
-        list = g_list_insert_sorted(list, (gpointer)d, _name_def_compare);
+        int rank = GET_NAME_RANK(name);
+        if (rank > best_rank) {
+          best_rank = rank;
+          if (best_buf) free(best_buf);
+          best_buf = buf;
+        } else {
+          free(buf);
+        }
       }
     }
   }
 
-  GList *best_def = g_list_first(list);
-  if (best_def) utf8name = (char*) strdup(((NameDef*)best_def->data)->buf);
-  if (list) _g_list_free_full(list);
-
-  return utf8name;
+  return best_buf;
 }
 
 PangoWeight