diff --git a/src/Weave.jl b/src/Weave.jl
index 34c1532..204027d 100644
--- a/src/Weave.jl
+++ b/src/Weave.jl
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ Weave an input document to output file.
 * `pandoc_options`: String array of options to pass to pandoc for `pandoc2html` and
    `pandoc2pdf` formats e.g. ["--toc", "-N"]
 * `latex_cmd`: the command used to make pdf from .tex
-* `escape_unicode`: if set to true (default), try to convert unicode characters to respective LaTeX command
+* `latex_keep_unicode`: if set to true (default is false), do not convert unicode characters to their
+respective latex representation. This is especially useful if a font and tex-engine with support for unicode
+characters are used.
 
 **Note:** Run Weave from terminal and not using IJulia, Juno or ESS, they tend to mess with capturing output.
 """
@@ -96,14 +98,12 @@ function weave(source ; doctype = :auto,
         throw_errors = false,
         template = nothing, highlight_theme = nothing, css = nothing,
         pandoc_options = String[]::Array{String},
-        latex_cmd = "xelatex",escape_unicode=true)
+        latex_cmd = "xelatex",latex_keep_unicode=false)
 
     doc = read_doc(source, informat)
     doctype == :auto && (doctype = detect_doctype(doc.source))
     doc.doctype = doctype
 
-    # Set unicode escape variable
-    doc.escape_unicode = escape_unicode
 
     # Read args from document header, overrides command line args
     if haskey(doc.header, "options")
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ function weave(source ; doctype = :auto,
               mod = mod,
               out_path=out_path, args = args,
               fig_path = fig_path, fig_ext = fig_ext, cache_path = cache_path, cache=cache,
-              throw_errors = throw_errors)
+              throw_errors = throw_errors,latex_keep_unicode=latex_keep_unicode)
       formatted = format(doc)
 
       outname = get_outname(out_path, doc)
diff --git a/src/chunks.jl b/src/chunks.jl
index 89b9e6f..717c9d4 100644
--- a/src/chunks.jl
+++ b/src/chunks.jl
@@ -19,12 +19,11 @@ mutable struct WeaveDoc
     highlight_theme
     fig_path::AbstractString
     chunk_defaults::Dict{Symbol,Any}
-    escape_unicode::Bool
     function WeaveDoc(source, chunks, header)
         path, fname = splitdir(abspath(source))
         basename = splitext(fname)[1]
         new(source, basename, path, chunks, "", nothing, "", "", header,
-          "", "", Highlights.Themes.DefaultTheme, "", deepcopy(rcParams[:chunk_defaults]),true)
+          "", "", Highlights.Themes.DefaultTheme, "", deepcopy(rcParams[:chunk_defaults]))
     end
 end
 
diff --git a/src/format.jl b/src/format.jl
index 3368611..2c00031 100644
--- a/src/format.jl
+++ b/src/format.jl
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ function format(doc::WeaveDoc)
     end
 
     for chunk in copy(doc.chunks)
-        result = format_chunk(chunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=doc.escape_unicode)
+        result = format_chunk(chunk, formatdict, docformat)
         push!(formatted, result)
     end
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ function strip_header(chunk::DocChunk)
   return chunk
 end
 
-function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=true)
+function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat)
     return join([format_inline(c) for c in chunk.content], "")
 end
 
@@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ function addspace(op, inline)
     return op
 end
 
-function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2tex; escape_unicode=true)
+function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2tex)
     out = IOBuffer()
     io = IOBuffer()
     for inline in chunk.content
@@ -157,11 +157,11 @@ function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2tex; esc
         end
     end
     ioformat!(io, out)
-    escape_unicode && return uc2tex(String(take!(out)))
+    formatdict[:keep_unicode] || return uc2tex(String(take!(out)))
     return String(take!(out))
 end
 
-function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML; escape_unicode=true)
+function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML)
     out = IOBuffer()
     io = IOBuffer()
     fun = WeaveMarkdown.html
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ function format_chunk(chunk::DocChunk, formatdict, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML; es
     return String(take!(out))
 end
 
-function format_chunk(chunk::CodeChunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=true)
+function format_chunk(chunk::CodeChunk, formatdict, docformat)
     #Fill undefined options with format specific defaults
     chunk.options[:out_width] == nothing &&
         (chunk.options[:out_width] =  formatdict[:out_width])
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ function format_chunk(chunk::CodeChunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=tr
         chunk.content = indent(chunk.content, formatdict[:indent])
     end
 
-    chunk.content = format_code(chunk.content, docformat; escape_unicode=escape_unicode)
+    chunk.content = format_code(chunk.content, docformat)
 
     if !chunk.options[:eval]
         if chunk.options[:echo]
@@ -227,10 +227,10 @@ function format_chunk(chunk::CodeChunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=tr
         else
             if chunk.options[:wrap]
                 chunk.output = "\n" * wraplines(chunk.output, chunk.options[:line_width])
-                chunk.output = format_output(chunk.output, docformat, escape_unicode=escape_unicode)
+                chunk.output = format_output(chunk.output, docformat)
             else
                 chunk.output = "\n" * rstrip(chunk.output)
-                chunk.output = format_output(chunk.output, docformat, escape_unicode=escape_unicode)
+                chunk.output = format_output(chunk.output, docformat)
             end
 
             if haskey(formatdict, :indent)
@@ -254,29 +254,29 @@ function format_chunk(chunk::CodeChunk, formatdict, docformat; escape_unicode=tr
     return result
 end
 
-function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat)
   return result
 end
 
-function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML)
   return Markdown.htmlesc(result)
 end
 
-function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2tex;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_output(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2tex)
   # Highligts has some extra escaping defined, eg of $, ", ...
   result_escaped = sprint( (io, x) -> Highlights.Format.escape(io, MIME("text/latex"), x, charescape=true), result)
-  escape_unicode && return uc2tex(result_escaped, true)
+  docformat.formatdict[:keep_unicode] || return uc2tex(result_escaped, true)
   return result_escaped
 end
 
-function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat)
   return result
 end
 
-function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2tex;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2tex)
   highlighted = highlight(MIME("text/latex"), strip(result),
         Highlights.Lexers.JuliaLexer, docformat.formatdict[:theme])
-  escape_unicode && return uc2tex(highlighted)
+  docformat.formatdict[:keep_unicode] || return uc2tex(highlighted)
   return highlighted
   #return "\\begin{minted}[mathescape, fontsize=\\small, xleftmargin=0.5em]{julia}\n$result\n\\end{minted}\n"
 end
@@ -310,12 +310,12 @@ function texify(s)
     return ts
 end
 
-function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::JMarkdown2HTML)
   return highlight(MIME("text/html"), strip(result),
     Highlights.Lexers.JuliaLexer, docformat.formatdict[:theme])
 end
 
-function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::Pandoc2HTML;escape_unicode=true)
+function format_code(result::AbstractString, docformat::Pandoc2HTML)
     return highlight(MIME("text/html"), strip(result),
       Highlights.Lexers.JuliaLexer, docformat.formatdict[:theme])
 end
diff --git a/src/formatters.jl b/src/formatters.jl
index eb17578..2ddabb5 100644
--- a/src/formatters.jl
+++ b/src/formatters.jl
@@ -18,7 +18,8 @@ const tex = Tex("Latex with custom code environments",
                                          :fig_env=> "figure",
                                          :fig_pos => "htpb",
                                          :doctype => "tex",
-                                         :mimetypes => ["application/pdf", "image/png", "text/latex", "text/plain"]
+                                         :mimetypes => ["application/pdf", "image/png", "text/latex", "text/plain"],
+                                         :keep_unicode => false,
                                          ))
 
 const texminted = Tex("Latex using minted for highlighting",
@@ -35,7 +36,8 @@ const texminted = Tex("Latex using minted for highlighting",
                                          :fig_env=> "figure",
                                          :fig_pos => "htpb",
                                          :doctype => "texminted",
-                                         :mimetypes => ["application/pdf", "image/png", "text/latex", "text/plain"]
+                                         :mimetypes => ["application/pdf", "image/png", "text/latex", "text/plain"],
+                                         :keep_unicode => false,
                                          ))
 
 struct Pandoc
@@ -147,7 +149,8 @@ const md2tex = JMarkdown2tex("Julia markdown to latex", Dict{Symbol,Any}(
         :out_width => "\\linewidth",
         :mimetypes => ["application/pdf", "image/png", "image/jpg", "text/latex",
                         "text/markdown", "text/plain"],
-        :doctype=> "md2tex"))
+        :doctype=> "md2tex",
+        :keep_unicode=>false))
 
 
 struct MultiMarkdown
diff --git a/src/run.jl b/src/run.jl
index 77bc177..9828aa1 100644
--- a/src/run.jl
+++ b/src/run.jl
@@ -26,13 +26,18 @@ Run code chunks and capture output from parsed document.
 function Base.run(doc::WeaveDoc; doctype = :auto,
         mod::Union{Module, Symbol} = :sandbox, out_path=:doc,
         args=Dict(), fig_path = "figures", fig_ext = nothing,
-        cache_path = "cache", cache = :off, throw_errors=false)
+        cache_path = "cache", cache = :off, throw_errors=false, latex_keep_unicode=false)
     #cache :all, :user, :off, :refresh
 
     doc.cwd = get_cwd(doc, out_path)
     doctype == :auto && (doctype = detect_doctype(doc.source))
     doc.doctype = doctype
     doc.format = formats[doctype]
+
+    if (haskey(doc.format.formatdict, :keep_unicode))
+        doc.format.formatdict[:keep_unicode] = latex_keep_unicode
+    end
+        
     isdir(doc.cwd) || mkpath(doc.cwd)
 
     if occursin("2pdf", doctype) && cache == :off
diff --git a/test/formatter_test.jl b/test/formatter_test.jl
index cd2d91d..f79df2b 100644
--- a/test/formatter_test.jl
+++ b/test/formatter_test.jl
@@ -126,6 +126,28 @@ pformat = Weave.formats["md2tex"]
 
 f = Weave.format_chunk(dchunk, pformat.formatdict, pformat)
 @test f == "\\section{Test chunk}\n\\ensuremath{\\alpha}\n\n"
-
-f = Weave.format_chunk(dchunk, pformat.formatdict, pformat,escape_unicode=false)
+pformat.formatdict[:keep_unicode] = true
+f = Weave.format_chunk(dchunk, pformat.formatdict, pformat)
 @test f == "\\section{Test chunk}\nα\n\n"
+
+function doc_from_string(str)
+    parsed = Weave.parse_doc(str,"markdown")
+    header = Weave.parse_header(parsed[1])
+    Weave.WeaveDoc("",parsed,header)
+end
+
+doc_content = """
+```julia
+α = 10
+```
+"""
+
+parsed = doc_from_string(doc_content)
+ldoc = Weave.run(parsed, doctype = "md2tex")
+@test occursin(Weave.uc2tex("α"),Weave.format(ldoc))
+@test !occursin("α",Weave.format(ldoc))
+
+parsed = doc_from_string(doc_content)
+ldoc = Weave.run(parsed, doctype = "md2tex",latex_keep_unicode=true)
+@test occursin("α",Weave.format(ldoc))
+@test !occursin(Weave.uc2tex("α"),Weave.format(ldoc))