diff --git a/poppler/Annot.cc b/poppler/Annot.cc
index b4c4a7710..e8db39ff3 100644
--- a/poppler/Annot.cc
+++ b/poppler/Annot.cc
@@ -3036,7 +3036,7 @@ class HorizontalTextLayouter
             *availableWidth -= blockWidth;
         }
 
-        while (newFontNeeded && (!availableWidth || *availableWidth > 0)) {
+        while (newFontNeeded && (!availableWidth || *availableWidth > 0 || (isUnicode && i == 2) || (!isUnicode && i == 0))) {
             if (!form) {
                 // There's no fonts to look for, so just skip the characters
                 i += isUnicode ? 2 : 1;