diff --git a/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst b/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
index 98c71350e34..0e33c11d3f2 100644
--- a/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
+++ b/doc/faq/howto_faq.rst
@@ -661,11 +661,12 @@ or by saving to a file handle::
     fig.savefig(sys.stdout)
 
 Here is an example using `Pillow <http://python-imaging.github.io/>`_.
-First, the figure is saved to a StringIO object which is then fed to
+First, the figure is saved to a BytesIO object which is then fed to
 Pillow for further processing::
 
-    import StringIO, Image
-    imgdata = StringIO.StringIO()
+    from io import BytesIO
+    from PIL import Image
+    imgdata = BytesIO()
     fig.savefig(imgdata, format='png')
     imgdata.seek(0)  # rewind the data
     im = Image.open(imgdata)
diff --git a/examples/misc/svg_filter_line.py b/examples/misc/svg_filter_line.py
index 48a65640338..006ca04b6a8 100644
--- a/examples/misc/svg_filter_line.py
+++ b/examples/misc/svg_filter_line.py
@@ -51,9 +51,9 @@
 ax.set_xlim(0., 1.)
 ax.set_ylim(0., 1.)
 
-# save the figure as a string in the svg format.
-from io import StringIO
-f = StringIO()
+# save the figure as a bytes string in the svg format.
+from io import BytesIO
+f = BytesIO()
 plt.savefig(f, format="svg")
 
 
diff --git a/examples/misc/svg_filter_pie.py b/examples/misc/svg_filter_pie.py
index 64b76be0510..61a2719fce4 100644
--- a/examples/misc/svg_filter_pie.py
+++ b/examples/misc/svg_filter_pie.py
@@ -42,8 +42,8 @@
 
 
 # save
-from io import StringIO
-f = StringIO()
+from io import BytesIO
+f = BytesIO()
 plt.savefig(f, format="svg")
 
 import xml.etree.cElementTree as ET
diff --git a/examples/user_interfaces/svg_histogram.py b/examples/user_interfaces/svg_histogram.py
index 51f5e147447..dd0279674bf 100755
--- a/examples/user_interfaces/svg_histogram.py
+++ b/examples/user_interfaces/svg_histogram.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
-from io import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 import json
 
 plt.rcParams['svg.embed_char_paths'] = 'none'
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
     t.set_gid('leg_text_%d' % i)
 
 # Save SVG in a fake file object.
-f = StringIO()
+f = BytesIO()
 plt.savefig(f, format="svg")
 
 # Create XML tree from the SVG file.
diff --git a/examples/user_interfaces/svg_tooltip.py b/examples/user_interfaces/svg_tooltip.py
index 6b647d17639..2f136156f81 100644
--- a/examples/user_interfaces/svg_tooltip.py
+++ b/examples/user_interfaces/svg_tooltip.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
-from io import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 
 ET.register_namespace("", "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg")
 
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
 ax.set_ylim(-30, 30)
 ax.set_aspect('equal')
 
-f = StringIO()
+f = BytesIO()
 plt.savefig(f, format="svg")
 
 # --- Add interactivity ---