diff --git a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
index 957bc59e6..01ccb4fd9 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/doc.pyx
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import numpy.linalg
 import struct
 cimport numpy as np
 import math
+import six
 
 from ..lexeme cimport Lexeme
 from ..lexeme cimport EMPTY_LEXEME
@@ -117,11 +118,16 @@ cdef class Doc:
     def __unicode__(self):
         return u''.join([t.string for t in self])
 
-    def __str__(self):
+    def __bytes__(self):
         return u''.join([t.string for t in self]).encode('utf-8')
 
+    def __str__(self):
+        if six.PY3:
+            return self.__unicode__()
+        return self.__bytes__()
+
     def __repr__(self):
-        return u''.join([t.string for t in self]).encode('utf-8')
+        return self.__str__()
 
     def similarity(self, other):
         if self.vector_norm == 0 or other.vector_norm == 0:
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/spans.pyx b/spacy/tokens/spans.pyx
index 1f6b07636..95b8e0de1 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/spans.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/spans.pyx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import numpy
 import numpy.linalg
 cimport numpy as np
 import math
+import six
 
 from ..structs cimport TokenC, LexemeC
 from ..typedefs cimport flags_t, attr_t
@@ -47,10 +48,9 @@ cdef class Span:
         return self.end - self.start
 
     def __repr__(self):
-        text = self.text_with_ws
-        if self[-1].whitespace_:
-            text = text[:-1]
-        return text.encode('utf-8')
+        if six.PY3:
+            return self.text
+        return self.text.encode('utf-8')
 
     def __getitem__(self, object i):
         if isinstance(i, slice):
diff --git a/spacy/tokens/token.pyx b/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
index 02ef52d0c..81b850285 100644
--- a/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
+++ b/spacy/tokens/token.pyx
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ cimport numpy as np
 np.import_array()
 
 import numpy
+import six
 
 
 from ..lexeme cimport Lexeme
@@ -40,11 +41,16 @@ cdef class Token:
     def __unicode__(self):
         return self.string
 
-    def __str__(self):
+    def __bytes__(self):
         return self.string.encode('utf-8')
 
+    def __str__(self):
+        if six.PY3:
+            return self.__unicode__()
+        return self.__bytes__()
+
     def __repr__(self):
-        return self.string.encode('utf-8')
+        return self.__str__()
 
     cpdef bint check_flag(self, attr_id_t flag_id) except -1:
         return Lexeme.c_check_flag(self.c.lex, flag_id)