diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b2b6258..a18e432 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 requests>=2.13,<3.0
 beautifulsoup4>=4.5.0,<5.0
+wcwidth>=0.1.7,<2.0
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index bf274f1..6d73704 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ setup(
     install_requires=[
         "requests>=2.13,<3.0",
         "beautifulsoup4>=4.5.0,<5.0",
+        "wcwidth>=0.1.7,<2.0",
     ],
     entry_points={
         'console_scripts': [
diff --git a/tests/test_console.py b/tests/test_console.py
index 41b6efe..7d46e38 100644
--- a/tests/test_console.py
+++ b/tests/test_console.py
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ def test_timeline(mock_get, monkeypatch, capsys):
     mock_get.return_value = MockResponse([{
         'id': '111111111111111111',
         'account': {
-            'display_name': 'Frank Zappa',
+            'display_name': 'Frank Zappa 🎸',
             'username': 'fz'
         },
         'created_at': '2017-04-12T15:53:18.174Z',
@@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ def test_timeline(mock_get, monkeypatch, capsys):
 
     expected = (
         "───────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────\n"
-        "Frank Zappa                    │ The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact\n"
+        "Frank Zappa 🎸                 │ The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact\n"
         "@fz                            │ mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows.\n"
         "2017-04-12 15:53               │ \n"
         "id: 111111111111111111         │ \n"
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea42624
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+from toot import utils
+
+
+def test_pad():
+    text = 'Frank Zappa 🎸'
+    padded = utils.pad(text, 14)
+    assert padded == 'Frank Zappa 🎸'
+    # guitar symbol will occupy two cells, so padded text should be 1
+    # character shorter
+    assert len(padded) == 13
+    # when truncated, … occupies one cell, so we get full length
+    padded = utils.pad(text, 13)
+    assert padded == 'Frank Zappa …'
+    assert len(padded) == 13
diff --git a/toot/output.py b/toot/output.py
index 60c034d..bfdd7e2 100644
--- a/toot/output.py
+++ b/toot/output.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ from itertools import chain
 from itertools import zip_longest
 from textwrap import wrap, TextWrapper
 
-from toot.utils import format_content, get_text, trunc
+from toot.utils import format_content, get_text, pad
 
 START_CODES = {
     'red': '\033[31m',
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ def print_timeline(items):
             return zip_longest(left_column, right_column, fillvalue="")
 
         for left, right in timeline_rows(item):
-            print_out("{:30} │ {}".format(trunc(left, 30), right))
+            print_out("{} │ {}".format(pad(left, 30), right))
 
     def _parse_item(item):
         content = item['reblog']['content'] if item['reblog'] else item['content']
diff --git a/toot/utils.py b/toot/utils.py
index 2508e5a..8167889 100644
--- a/toot/utils.py
+++ b/toot/utils.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import unicodedata
 import warnings
 
 from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
+from wcwidth import wcswidth
 
 from toot.exceptions import ConsoleError
 
@@ -75,14 +76,23 @@ def assert_domain_exists(domain):
         raise ConsoleError("Domain {} not found".format(domain))
 
 
-def trunc(text, length):
+def trunc(text, length, text_length=None):
     """Trims text to given length, if trimmed appends ellipsis."""
-    if len(text) <= length:
+    if text_length is None:
+        text_length = len(text)
+    if text_length <= length:
         return text
 
     return text[:length - 1] + '…'
 
 
+def pad(text, length, fill=' '):
+    text_length = wcswidth(text)
+    text = trunc(text, length, text_length)
+    assert len(text) <= length
+    return text + fill * (length - text_length)
+
+
 EOF_KEY = "Ctrl-Z" if os.name == 'nt' else "Ctrl-D"