diff --git a/src/hocrTransform.py b/src/hocrTransform.py
index 5466b0c4..7f809b06 100755
--- a/src/hocrTransform.py
+++ b/src/hocrTransform.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ from PIL import Image
 import re, sys
 import argparse
 
-
 def monkeypatch_method(cls):
 	'''
 	Override a class method at runtime.
@@ -47,8 +46,13 @@ def PIL_imagedata(self):
 
 	from reportlab.lib.utils import import_zlib
 	from reportlab import rl_config
-	from reportlab.pdfbase.pdfutils import _AsciiBase85Encode, _chunker
-
+	from reportlab.pdfbase.pdfutils import _chunker
+	# in order to support both newer and older versions of reportlab
+	try:
+	    from reportlab.pdfbase.pdfutils import _AsciiBase85Encode
+	except ImportError:
+	    from reportlab.pdfbase.pdfutils import _asciiBase85Encode as _AsciiBase85Encode
+	
 	self.source = 'PIL'
 	zlib = import_zlib()
 	if not zlib: