diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index a98e311881..be4abb9ff1 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -187,6 +187,13 @@ Default: ``/usr/bin/libreoffice``
 Path to the libreoffice binary used to call LibreOffice for office document conversion.
 
 
+**CONVERTER_PDFTOPPM_PATH**
+
+Default: ``/usr/bin/pdftoppm``
+
+Path to the Popple program pdftoppm.
+
+
 Storage
 =======
 
diff --git a/mayan/apps/converter/backends/python.py b/mayan/apps/converter/backends/python.py
index c6dad6bb1a..95778f27df 100644
--- a/mayan/apps/converter/backends/python.py
+++ b/mayan/apps/converter/backends/python.py
@@ -1,33 +1,30 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
 
+import io
 import logging
 import os
 import tempfile
 
-try:
-    from cStringIO import StringIO
-except ImportError:
-    from StringIO import StringIO
-
 import slate
 from PIL import Image
 import sh
 
-try:
-    pdftoppm = sh.Command('/usr/bin/pdftoppm')
-except sh.CommandNotFound:
-    pdftoppm = None
-else:
-    pdftoppm = pdftoppm.bake('-png')
-
 from common.utils import fs_cleanup
 from mimetype.api import get_mimetype
 
 from . import ConverterBase
-from ..exceptions import UnknownFileFormat
+from ..exceptions import ConvertError, UnknownFileFormat
 from ..literals import (DEFAULT_FILE_FORMAT, DEFAULT_PAGE_NUMBER,
                         TRANSFORMATION_RESIZE, TRANSFORMATION_ROTATE,
                         TRANSFORMATION_ZOOM)
+from ..settings import PDFTOPPM_PATH
+
+try:
+    pdftoppm = sh.Command(PDFTOPPM_PATH)
+except sh.CommandNotFound:
+    pdftoppm = None
+else:
+    pdftoppm = pdftoppm.bake('-png')
 
 Image.init()
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -72,7 +69,7 @@ class Python(ConverterBase):
 
         try:
             if mimetype == 'application/pdf' and pdftoppm:
-                image_buffer = StringIO()
+                image_buffer = io.BytesIO()
                 pdftoppm(input_filepath, f=page, l=page, _out=image_buffer)
                 image_buffer.seek(0)
                 im = Image.open(image_buffer)
@@ -81,6 +78,8 @@ class Python(ConverterBase):
         except Exception as exception:
             logger.error('Error converting image; %s', exception)
             # Python Imaging Library doesn't recognize it as an image
+            raise ConvertError
+        except IOError:  # cannot identify image file
             raise UnknownFileFormat
         finally:
             if tmpfile:
diff --git a/mayan/apps/converter/settings.py b/mayan/apps/converter/settings.py
index 6fb274be9a..cf09c32448 100644
--- a/mayan/apps/converter/settings.py
+++ b/mayan/apps/converter/settings.py
@@ -14,5 +14,6 @@ register_settings(
         {'name': u'GM_SETTINGS', 'global_name': u'CONVERTER_GM_SETTINGS', 'default': u''},
         {'name': u'GRAPHICS_BACKEND', 'global_name': u'CONVERTER_GRAPHICS_BACKEND', 'default': u'converter.backends.python.Python', 'description': _(u'Graphics conversion backend to use.  Options are: converter.backends.imagemagick.ImageMagick, converter.backends.graphicsmagick.GraphicsMagick and converter.backends.python.Python')},
         {'name': u'LIBREOFFICE_PATH', 'global_name': u'CONVERTER_LIBREOFFICE_PATH', 'default': u'/usr/bin/libreoffice', 'exists': True, 'description': _(u'Path to the libreoffice program.')},
+        {'name': u'PDFTOPPM_PATH', 'global_name': u'CONVERTER_PDFTOPPM_PATH', 'default': u'/usr/bin/pdftoppm', 'exists': True, 'description': _(u'Path to the Popple program pdftoppm.')},
     ]
 )