diff --git a/core/bootstrap/image/image.factor b/core/bootstrap/image/image.factor
index e9ee569fd6..4995d0b572 100755
--- a/core/bootstrap/image/image.factor
+++ b/core/bootstrap/image/image.factor
@@ -248,7 +248,7 @@ M: wrapper '
     emit-seq ;
 
 : pack-string ( string -- newstr )
-    dup length 1+ bootstrap-cell align 0 pad-right ;
+    dup length bootstrap-cell align 0 pad-right ;
 
 : emit-string ( string -- ptr )
     string type-number object tag-number [
diff --git a/vm/types.c b/vm/types.c
index 11e92ec754..78e74535b8 100755
--- a/vm/types.c
+++ b/vm/types.c
@@ -463,10 +463,6 @@ F_STRING* allot_string_internal(CELL capacity)
 {
 	F_STRING *string = allot_object(STRING_TYPE,string_size(capacity));
 
-	/* strings are null-terminated in memory, even though they also
-	have a length field. The null termination allows us to add
-	the sizeof(F_STRING) to a Factor string to get a C-style
-	char* string for C library calls. */
 	string->length = tag_fixnum(capacity);
 	string->hashcode = F;
 	string->aux = F;
diff --git a/vm/types.h b/vm/types.h
index e5003ea069..62b2e06dd0 100755
--- a/vm/types.h
+++ b/vm/types.h
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ INLINE CELL string_capacity(F_STRING* str)
 
 INLINE CELL string_size(CELL size)
 {
-	return sizeof(F_STRING) + size + 1;
+	return sizeof(F_STRING) + size;
 }
 
 DEFINE_UNTAG(F_BYTE_ARRAY,BYTE_ARRAY_TYPE,byte_array)