diff --git a/docs/howto/outputting-pdf.txt b/docs/howto/outputting-pdf.txt
index 32e38aebc6..67950d03f2 100644
--- a/docs/howto/outputting-pdf.txt
+++ b/docs/howto/outputting-pdf.txt
@@ -101,7 +101,11 @@ cStringIO_ library as a temporary holding place for your PDF file. The cStringIO
 library provides a file-like object interface that is particularly efficient.
 Here's the above "Hello World" example rewritten to use ``cStringIO``::
 
-    from cStringIO import StringIO
+    # Fall back to StringIO in environments where cStringIO is not available
+    try:
+        from cStringIO import StringIO
+    except ImportError:
+        from StringIO import StringIO
     from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
     from django.http import HttpResponse