w3m should have a setup of the displays font and translate 8-bit chars according to the used font as in lynx (German "a -> a:) further more it shouldn't use 8-bit chars in display (if they are not supported) The options screen looks like this for me: Automatic rendering of frame (*)ONaa( )OFF (were the a has an accent on it) these strange a also prepend lines on many pages (like the debian apache default page)