diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index bbd9afd2..0ebcff81 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ classifiers = [
 keywords = ["data format", "HDF5", "neutron scattering", "x-ray scattering"]
 requires-python = ">=3.9"
 dependencies = [
+    "chardet",
     "colored",
     "h5py",
     "hdf5plugin",
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/nexus/completer.py b/src/nexusformat/nexus/completer.py
index 128bdec6..b1f9000a 100644
--- a/src/nexusformat/nexus/completer.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/nexus/completer.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2025, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Author: Paul Kienzle, Ray Osborn
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/nexus/lock.py b/src/nexusformat/nexus/lock.py
index 3881352f..c82c79a4 100644
--- a/src/nexusformat/nexus/lock.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/nexus/lock.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2022, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Author: Paul Kienzle, Ray Osborn
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/nexus/tree.py b/src/nexusformat/nexus/tree.py
index 4e633e10..502243ff 100644
--- a/src/nexusformat/nexus/tree.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/nexus/tree.py
@@ -266,16 +266,17 @@ def text(value):
     if isinstance(value, bytes):
         try:
             _text = value.decode(NX_CONFIG['encoding'])
-        except UnicodeDecodeError:
-            if NX_CONFIG['encoding'] == 'utf-8':
-                _text = value.decode('latin-1')
-            else:
-                _text = value.decode('utf-8')
+        except (UnicodeDecodeError, KeyError, LookupError):
+            import chardet
+            detected = chardet.detect(value)
+            encoding = detected['encoding']
+            if not encoding:
+                encoding = 'latin-1'
+            _text = value.decode(encoding, errors='replace')
     else:
         _text = str(value)
     return _text.replace('\x00', '').rstrip()
 
-
 def is_text(value):
     """
     Return True if the value represents text.
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nexusformat.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nexusformat.py
index e3f66ce9..1daa81bd 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nexusformat.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nexusformat.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxcheck.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxcheck.py
index 40badb91..78e448e7 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxcheck.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxcheck.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2025, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2025-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxconsolidate.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxconsolidate.py
index bbdc29f2..4f8c65f4 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxconsolidate.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxconsolidate.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2022, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2022-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxdir.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxdir.py
index be213976..57f18847 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxdir.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxdir.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxduplicate.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxduplicate.py
index edc07f45..1ef14718 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxduplicate.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxduplicate.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2019-2021, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2019-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxinspect.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxinspect.py
index a4d35049..4d4d6c0a 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxinspect.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxinspect.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2025, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2025-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxstack.py b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxstack.py
index 7fcc92c3..149dc635 100755
--- a/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxstack.py
+++ b/src/nexusformat/scripts/nxstack.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Copyright (c) 2015-2022, NeXpy Development Team.
+# Copyright (c) 2015-2026, NeXpy Development Team.
 #
 # Distributed under the terms of the Modified BSD License.
 #
diff --git a/tests/test_encodings.py b/tests/test_encodings.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..62d40b82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_encodings.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import os
+
+import pytest
+from nexusformat.nexus import NXfield, NXentry, nxopen
+
+def test_encoding_detection(tmpdir):
+
+    filename = os.path.join(tmpdir, "encoding_test.nxs")
+
+    latin1_text = "Café"
+    encoded_bytes = latin1_text.encode('latin-1')
+
+    with nxopen(filename, 'w') as root:
+        root['entry'] = NXentry()
+        root['entry/name'] = NXfield(encoded_bytes, dtype='S')
+
+    with nxopen(filename, 'r') as root:
+        retrieved_bytes = root['entry/name'].nxvalue
+
+    if isinstance(retrieved_bytes, bytes):
+        decoded_text = retrieved_bytes.decode('latin-1')
+        assert decoded_text == latin1_text
+        with pytest.raises(UnicodeDecodeError):
+            retrieved_bytes.decode('utf-8')
+    else:
+        assert str(retrieved_bytes) == latin1_text
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("encoding", ["latin-1", "cp1252", "ascii"])
+def test_multiple_encodings(tmpdir, encoding):
+
+    filename = os.path.join(tmpdir, f"test_{encoding}.nxs")
+    original_text = "Test_Data"
+
+    with nxopen(filename, 'w') as root:
+        root['entry'] = NXentry()
+        root['entry/name'] = NXfield(original_text.encode(encoding), dtype='S')
+
+    with nxopen(filename, 'r') as root:
+        value = root['entry/name'].nxvalue
+
+    if isinstance(value, bytes):
+        assert value.decode(encoding) == original_text
+    else:
+        assert str(value) == original_text