In the jrxml I'm trying to compile, there are several textfields with portuguese characters: ç, õ, etc. If I compile this jrxml using iReport, they are correctly displayed when running the report, however, if I use my custom compiler, they are not. The code is pretty straightforward: JasperCompileManager.compileReportToFile(file.getAbsolutePath(), StringUtils.replace(file.getAbsolutePath(), ".jrxml", ".jasper")); I know I'm missing something, I just cant put my finger on what. Do I need to set the .jasper encoding? If so, how do I do that? JRProperties.setProperty("net.sf.jasperreports.export.character.encoding", "UTF-8") ? ps: the first line of my .jrxml file: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>