diff --git a/pefile.py b/pefile.py
index d7e93a1..395799e 100644
--- a/pefile.py
+++ b/pefile.py
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import print_function
-from past.builtins import cmp, long
 from builtins import bytes
 from builtins import chr
 from builtins import object
@@ -55,6 +54,9 @@
 
 PY3 = sys.version_info > (3,)
 
+if PY3:
+    long = int
+
 def count_zeroes(data):
     try:
         # newbytes' count() takes a str in Python 2
@@ -566,28 +568,6 @@ def get_sublang_name_for_lang( lang_value, sublang_value ):
     return SUBLANG.get(sublang_value, ['*unknown*'])[0]
 
 
-def convert_to_printable(s):
-    """Convert string to printable string.
-    @param s: string.
-    @return: sanitized string.
-    """
-    printable = True
-    for c in s:
-        if c not in string.printable:
-            printable = False
-            break
-    if printable:
-        return s
-    else:
-        new_string = ''
-        for c in s:
-            if c in string.printable:
-                new_string += c
-            else:
-                new_string += "\\x%02x" % ord(c)
-        return new_string
-
-
 # Ange Albertini's code to process resources' strings
 #
 def parse_strings(data, counter, l):
@@ -988,7 +968,9 @@ def dump_dict(self):
                         except ValueError as e:
                             val = '0x%-8X [INVALID TIME]' % val
                 else:
-                    val = b([b for b in val if b != 0])
+                    val = ''.join(chr(d) if chr(d) in string.printable
+                                  else "\\x%02x" % d for d in
+                                    [ord(c) if not isinstance(c, int) else c for c in val])
 
                 dump_dict[key] = {'FileOffset': self.__field_offsets__[key] + self.__file_offset__,
                                   'Offset': self.__field_offsets__[key],
@@ -4237,7 +4219,7 @@ def get_resources_strings(self):
                         if hasattr(resource_id, 'directory'):
                             if hasattr(resource_id.directory, 'strings') and resource_id.directory.strings:
                                 for res_string in list(resource_id.directory.strings.values()):
-                                    resources_strings.append( res_string )
+                                    resources_strings.append(res_string)
 
         return resources_strings
 
@@ -4973,7 +4955,10 @@ def dump_dict(self, dump=None):
                                     resource_id_list.append(resource_lang_dict)
                             if hasattr(resource_id.directory, 'strings') and resource_id.directory.strings:
                                 for idx, res_string in list(resource_id.directory.strings.items()):
-                                    resource_id_list.append(convert_to_printable(res_string))
+                                    resource_id_list.append(res_string.encode(
+                                            'unicode-escape',
+                                            'backslashreplace').decode(
+                                                'ascii'))
 
 
         if ( hasattr(self, 'DIRECTORY_ENTRY_TLS') and
diff --git a/tests/pefile_test.py b/tests/pefile_test.py
index 2cba082..97891ae 100644
--- a/tests/pefile_test.py
+++ b/tests/pefile_test.py
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ def test_pe_image_regression_test(self):
             try:
                 pe = pefile.PE(pe_filename)
                 pe_file_data = pe.dump_info()
+                pe_file_dict_data = pe.dump_dict() # Make sure that it does not fail
                 pe_file_data = pe_file_data.replace('\n\r', '\n')
             except Exception as excp:
                 print('Failed processing [%s]' % os.path.basename(pe_filename))