diff --git a/evennia/utils/evtable.py b/evennia/utils/evtable.py
index 9dfc0f4d3f..3ef66476dd 100644
--- a/evennia/utils/evtable.py
+++ b/evennia/utils/evtable.py
@@ -568,11 +568,13 @@ class EvCell(object):
 
         """
         align = self.align
+        hfill_char = self.hfill_char
+        width = self.width
         if align == "l":
-            return [line.ljust(self.width, self.hfill_char) for line in data]
+            return [line + hfill_char * (width - m_len(line)) for line in data]
         elif align == "r":
-            return [line.rjust(self.width, self.hfill_char) for line in data]
-        else:
+            return [hfill_char * (width - m_len(line)) + line for line in data]
+        else: # center, 'c'
             return [self._center(line, self.width, self.hfill_char) for line in data]
 
     def _valign(self, data):