diff --git a/lib/ext/render.js b/lib/ext/render.js
index 4416e82..10bb012 100644
--- a/lib/ext/render.js
+++ b/lib/ext/render.js
@@ -380,9 +380,10 @@ exports.requireExt = function(display, callback)
                 }
                 var len = numGlyphs * 4 + imageBytes/4 + 3;
                 // TODO: check length, use bigReq
-                 X.pack_stream.pack('CCSLL', [ext.majorOpcode, 20, len, gsid, glyphs.length]);
+                // X.pack_stream.pack('CCSLL', [ext.majorOpcode, 20, len, gsid, glyphs.length]);
+
                 // BigReq: S + [ length ] replaced with SL + [ 0, length+1 ]
-                //X.pack_stream.pack('CCSLLL', [ext.majorOpcode, 20, 0, len+1, gsid, glyphs.length]);
+                X.pack_stream.pack('CCSLLL', [ext.majorOpcode, 20, 0, len+1, gsid, glyphs.length]);
 
                 // glyph ids
                 for (i = 0; i < numGlyphs; i++) {
@@ -422,8 +423,23 @@ exports.requireExt = function(display, callback)
             // TODO: pre-process input so strings larger than 254 chars are supported
             // (split them into multiple entries with 0,0 offset)
 
-            var compositeGlyphsOpcodeFromBits = [,,,,,,,,23,,,,,,,,24,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,25];
             var formatFromBits = [,,,,,,,,'C',,,,,,,,'S',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,'L'];
+            var bufferWriteBits = [,,,,,,,,'writeUInt8',,,,,,,,'writeUInt16LE',,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,'writeUInt32LE'];
+
+            // 8/16/32 bit string + 4-byte pad
+            function wstring(bits, s) {
+              var charLength = bits / 8;
+              var dataLength = s.length*charLength;
+              var res = new Buffer(xutil.padded_length(dataLength));
+              debugger;
+              var write = res[bufferWriteBits[bits]]
+              res.fill(0);
+              for(var i=0; i < s.length; i++)
+                write.call(res, s.charCodeAt(i), i*charLength);
+              return res;
+            }
+
+            var compositeGlyphsOpcodeFromBits = [,,,,,,,,23,,,,,,,,24,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,25];
             ext.CompositeGlyphs = function(glyphBits, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs)
             {
                 var opcode = compositeGlyphsOpcodeFromBits[glyphBits];
@@ -453,10 +469,10 @@ exports.requireExt = function(display, callback)
                   var g = glyphs[i];
                   switch (typeof g) {
                     case 'string':
-                      X.pack_stream.pack('Cxxxssp', [g.length, 0, 0, g]);
+                      X.pack_stream.pack('Cxxxssa', [g.length, 0, 0, wstring(glyphBits, g)]);
                       break;
                     case 'object': // array
-                      X.pack_stream.pack('Cxxxssp', [g[2].length, g[0], g[1], g[2]]);
+                      X.pack_stream.pack('Cxxxssa', [g[2].length, g[0], g[1], wstring(glyphBits, g[2])]);
                       break;
                     case 'number': // glyphset id
                       X.pack_stream.pack('CxxxL', [0xff, g]);
@@ -471,17 +487,15 @@ exports.requireExt = function(display, callback)
          return ext.CompositeGlyphs(8, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs);
       };
 
-	    // TODO: not ready yet. fix format in CompositeGlyphs to support 16 bit chars
-	    ext.CompositeGlyphs16 = function(op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs)
-	    {
-	       return ext.CompositeGlyphs(8, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs);
-	    };
+      ext.CompositeGlyphs16 = function(op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs)
+      {
+         return ext.CompositeGlyphs(16, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs);
+      };
 
-	    // TODO: not ready yet. fix format in CompositeGlyphs to support 32 bit chars
-	    ext.CompositeGlyphs32 = function(op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs)
-	    {
-	       return ext.CompositeGlyphs(8, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs);
-	    };
+      ext.CompositeGlyphs32 = function(op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs)
+      {
+         return ext.CompositeGlyphs(32, op, src, dst, maskFormat, gsid, srcX, srcY, glyphs);
+      };
 
             // TODO: implement xutil-like code https://github.com/alexer/python-xlib-render/blob/master/xutil.py