incompatible character encodings: ASCII-8BIT and UTF-8

[venkatasubbaiah]

When text extraction from PDF files it showing the "Incompatible character encodings: ASCII-8BIT and UTF-8 " error. Please help me.

[nruth]

It sounds like something is trying to put utf8 encoded text into a string marked as ascii encoded.

Can you provide an example of code and a file that causes the error?

These blog posts are a good intro to how modern ruby versions handle string encoding.
http://yehudakatz.com/2010/05/05/ruby-1-9-encodings-a-primer-and-the-solution-for-rails/
http://yehudakatz.com/2010/05/17/encodings-unabridged/