diff --git a/api_test/main.c b/api_test/main.c
index 1a41e694a..478ee5da4 100644
--- a/api_test/main.c
+++ b/api_test/main.c
@@ -730,6 +730,30 @@ static void render_plaintext(test_batch_runner *runner) {
          "render document without wrapping");
   free(plaintext);
 
+  static const char multibyte_markdown[] =
+      "- D\xC3\xA9j\xC3\xA0 vu \xC3\xA0 Z\xC3\xBCrich, \xE6\x97\xA5\xE6\x9C\xAC "
+      "\xF0\x9F\x98\x80 encore\n"
+      "\n"
+      "  ```\n"
+      "  code one\n"
+      "  code two\n"
+      "  ```\n";
+  cmark_node *multibyte_doc = cmark_parse_document(
+      multibyte_markdown, sizeof(multibyte_markdown) - 1, CMARK_OPT_DEFAULT);
+  plaintext = cmark_render_plaintext(multibyte_doc, CMARK_OPT_DEFAULT, 12);
+  STR_EQ(runner, plaintext,
+         "  - D\xC3\xA9j\xC3\xA0 vu\n"
+         "    \xC3\xA0\n"
+         "    Z\xC3\xBCrich,\n"
+         "    \xE6\x97\xA5\xE6\x9C\xAC \xF0\x9F\x98\x80\n"
+         "    encore\n"
+         "    \n"
+         "    code one\n"
+         "    code two\n",
+         "render multibyte text and code block with wrapping");
+  free(plaintext);
+  cmark_node_free(multibyte_doc);
+
   cmark_node *text = cmark_node_new(CMARK_NODE_TEXT);
   cmark_node_set_literal(text, "Hi");
   plaintext = cmark_render_plaintext(text, CMARK_OPT_DEFAULT, 0);
diff --git a/src/plaintext.c b/src/plaintext.c
index 0c7d257b3..6db5b92e2 100644
--- a/src/plaintext.c
+++ b/src/plaintext.c
@@ -10,12 +10,6 @@
 
 // Functions to convert cmark_nodes to plain text strings.
 
-static CMARK_INLINE void outc(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node, 
-                              cmark_escaping escape,
-                              int32_t c, unsigned char nextc) {
-  cmark_render_code_point(renderer, c);
-}
-
 static int S_render_node(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
                          cmark_event_type ev_type, int options) {
   int list_number;
@@ -214,5 +208,5 @@ char *cmark_render_plaintext_with_mem(cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
     // a different meaning with OPT_HARDBREAKS
     width = 0;
   }
-  return cmark_render(mem, root, options, width, outc, S_render_node);
+  return cmark_render(mem, root, options, width, NULL, S_render_node);
 }
diff --git a/src/render.c b/src/render.c
index 1a0d2ae8d..ebfb08e23 100644
--- a/src/render.c
+++ b/src/render.c
@@ -19,6 +19,12 @@ static CMARK_INLINE void S_blankline(cmark_renderer *renderer) {
   }
 }
 
+static void S_outc_verbatim(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
+                            cmark_escaping escape, int32_t c,
+                            unsigned char nextc) {
+  cmark_render_code_point(renderer, c);
+}
+
 static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
                   const char *source, bool wrap,
                   cmark_escaping escape) {
@@ -57,6 +63,13 @@ static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
     renderer->need_cr -= 1;
   }
 
+  // Characters the renderer writes back unchanged are copied in runs rather
+  // than decoded and re-encoded one by one. Spaces (when wrapping), newlines
+  // (in LITERAL), U+FFFE, U+FFFF and invalid UTF-8 still go through the loop
+  // below.
+  bool verbatim =
+      !ext && (escape == LITERAL || renderer->outc == S_outc_verbatim);
+
   while (i < length) {
     if (renderer->begin_line) {
       cmark_strbuf_put(renderer->buffer, renderer->prefix->ptr,
@@ -65,6 +78,41 @@ static void S_out(cmark_renderer *renderer, cmark_node *node,
       renderer->column = renderer->prefix->size;
     }
 
+    // With no pending break point, the width check below cannot fire.
+    if (verbatim && (renderer->width == 0 || renderer->last_breakable == 0)) {
+      int run_end = i;
+      int code_points = 0;
+      bool all_digits = true;
+      while (run_end < length) {
+        unsigned char byte = (unsigned char)source[run_end];
+        if (byte < 0x80) {
+          c = byte;
+          len = 1;
+        } else {
+          len = cmark_utf8proc_iterate((const uint8_t *)source + run_end,
+                                       length - run_end, &c);
+          // cmark_utf8proc_encode_char writes U+FFFE and U+FFFF as one byte.
+          if (len == -1 || c == 0xFFFE || c == 0xFFFF)
+            break;
+        }
+        if ((c == ' ' && wrap) || (c == '\n' && escape == LITERAL))
+          break;
+        // (char)c truncates, as the per-character path below does.
+        all_digits = all_digits && cmark_isdigit((char)c);
+        run_end += len;
+        code_points += 1;
+      }
+      if (run_end > i) {
+        cmark_strbuf_put(renderer->buffer, (const unsigned char *)source + i,
+                         run_end - i);
+        renderer->column += code_points;
+        renderer->begin_line = false;
+        renderer->begin_content = renderer->begin_content && all_digits;
+        i = run_end;
+        continue;
+      }
+    }
+
     len = cmark_utf8proc_iterate((const uint8_t *)source + i, length - i, &c);
     if (len == -1) { // error condition
       return;        // return without rendering rest of string
@@ -169,6 +217,9 @@ char *cmark_render(cmark_mem *mem, cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
   char *result;
   cmark_iter *iter = cmark_iter_new(root);
 
+  if (outc == NULL)
+    outc = S_outc_verbatim;
+
   cmark_renderer renderer = {mem,   &buf, &pref, 0,           width,
                              0,     0,    true,  true,        false,
                              false, outc, S_cr,  S_blankline, S_out,
diff --git a/src/render.h b/src/render.h
index 4a68d1e07..0c6c079e1 100644
--- a/src/render.h
+++ b/src/render.h
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ void cmark_render_ascii(cmark_renderer *renderer, const char *s);
 
 void cmark_render_code_point(cmark_renderer *renderer, uint32_t c);
 
+// A NULL outc writes every code point unchanged, which lets S_out copy runs.
 char *cmark_render(cmark_mem *mem, cmark_node *root, int options, int width,
                    void (*outc)(cmark_renderer *, cmark_node *,
                                 cmark_escaping, int32_t,