diff --git a/Examples/42richText.php b/Examples/42richText.php
index b8f994e6..acd09f2b 100644
--- a/Examples/42richText.php
+++ b/Examples/42richText.php
@@ -34,28 +34,28 @@ date_default_timezone_set('Europe/London');
 define('EOL',(PHP_SAPI == 'cli') ? PHP_EOL : '<br />');
 
 /** Include PHPExcel */
-require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../Classes/PHPExcel.php';
+require_once dirname(__FILE__) . '/../src/Bootstrap.php';
 
 
 // Create new PHPExcel object
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Create new PHPExcel object" , EOL;
-$objPHPExcel = new PHPExcel();
+$objPHPExcel = new \PHPExcel\Spreadsheet();
 
 // Set document properties
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Set document properties" , EOL;
 $objPHPExcel->getProperties()->setCreator("Maarten Balliauw")
-							 ->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
-							 ->setTitle("PHPExcel Test Document")
-							 ->setSubject("PHPExcel Test Document")
-							 ->setDescription("Test document for PHPExcel, generated using PHP classes.")
-							 ->setKeywords("office PHPExcel php")
-							 ->setCategory("Test result file");
+	->setLastModifiedBy("Maarten Balliauw")
+	->setTitle("PHPExcel Test Document")
+	->setSubject("PHPExcel Test Document")
+	->setDescription("Test document for PHPExcel, generated using PHP classes.")
+	->setKeywords("office PHPExcel php")
+	->setCategory("Test result file");
 
 
 // Add some data
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Add some data" , EOL;
 
-$html1='<font color="#0000ff">
+$html1 = '<font color="#0000ff">
 <h1 align="center">My very first example of rich text<br />generated from html markup</h1>
 <p>
 <font size="14" COLOR="rgb(0,255,128)">
@@ -64,11 +64,11 @@ while this block uses an <u>underline</u>.
 </font>
 </p>
 <p align="right"><font size="9" color="red">
-I want to eat <ins><del>healthy food</del><strong>pizza</strong></ins>.
+I want to eat <ins><del>healthy food</del> <strong>pizza</strong></ins>.
 </font>
 ';
 
-$html2='<p>
+$html2 = '<p>
 <font color="#ff0000">
     100&deg;C is a hot temperature
 </font>
@@ -78,43 +78,55 @@ $html2='<p>
 </font>
 </p>';
 
-$html3='2<sup>3</sup> equals 8';
+$html3 = '2<sup>3</sup> equals 8';
 
-$html4='H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> is the chemical formula for Sulphuric acid';
+$html4 = 'H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> is the chemical formula for Sulphuric acid';
 
+$html5 = '<strong>bold</strong>, <em>italic</em>, <strong><em>bold+italic</em></strong>';
 
-$wizard = new PHPExcel_Helper_HTML;
+$wizard = new \PHPExcel\Helper\HTML;
 $richText = $wizard->toRichTextObject($html1);
 
-$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
     ->setCellValue('A1', $richText);
 
-$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getColumnDimension('A')->setWidth(48);
-$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getRowDimension(1)->setRowHeight(-1);
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
+    ->getColumnDimension('A')
+    ->setWidth(48);
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
+    ->getRowDimension(1)
+    ->setRowHeight(-1);
 $objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A1')
     ->getAlignment()
     ->setWrapText(true);
 
 $richText = $wizard->toRichTextObject($html2);
 
-$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
     ->setCellValue('A2', $richText);
 
-$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getRowDimension(1)->setRowHeight(-1);
-$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->getStyle('A2')
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
+    ->getRowDimension(1)
+    ->setRowHeight(-1);
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
+    ->getStyle('A2')
     ->getAlignment()
     ->setWrapText(true);
 
 $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
-            ->setCellValue('A3', $wizard->toRichTextObject($html3));
+    ->setCellValue('A3', $wizard->toRichTextObject($html3));
 
 $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
     ->setCellValue('A4', $wizard->toRichTextObject($html4));
 
+$objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0)
+    ->setCellValue('A5', $wizard->toRichTextObject($html5));
+
 
 // Rename worksheet
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Rename worksheet" , EOL;
-$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()->setTitle('Simple');
+$objPHPExcel->getActiveSheet()
+    ->setTitle('Rich Text Examples');
 
 
 // Set active sheet index to the first sheet, so Excel opens this as the first sheet
@@ -125,7 +137,7 @@ $objPHPExcel->setActiveSheetIndex(0);
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Write to Excel2007 format" , EOL;
 $callStartTime = microtime(true);
 
-$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
+$objWriter = \PHPExcel\IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel2007');
 $objWriter->save(str_replace('.php', '.xlsx', __FILE__));
 $callEndTime = microtime(true);
 $callTime = $callEndTime - $callStartTime;
@@ -140,7 +152,7 @@ echo date('H:i:s') , ' Current memory usage: ' , (memory_get_usage(true) / 1024
 echo date('H:i:s') , " Write to Excel5 format" , EOL;
 $callStartTime = microtime(true);
 
-$objWriter = PHPExcel_IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel5');
+$objWriter = \PHPExcel\IOFactory::createWriter($objPHPExcel, 'Excel5');
 $objWriter->save(str_replace('.php', '.xls', __FILE__));
 $callEndTime = microtime(true);
 $callTime = $callEndTime - $callStartTime;
diff --git a/changelog.txt b/changelog.txt
index 2f455c2d..14dae427 100644
--- a/changelog.txt
+++ b/changelog.txt
@@ -23,12 +23,12 @@
 **************************************************************************************
 
 
-Planned for 1.8.2
+Planned for 1.9
 - Bugfix:   (MBaker)                            - Fix to getCell() method when cell reference includes a worksheet reference
 - Bugfix:   (ncrypthic)       Work Item GH-570  - Ignore inlineStr type if formula element exists
+- Bugfix:   (MBaker)          Work Item GH-554  - Whitespace after toRichTextObject()
 - General:  (umpirsky)        Work Item GH-548  - Optimize vlookup() sort
 
-
 2015-04-30 (v1.8.1):
 - Bugfix:   (goncons)         Work Item GH-397  - Fix for Writing an Open Document cell with non-numeric formula
 - Bugfix:   (sarciszewski)    Work Item GH-329  - Avoid potential divide by zero in basedrawing
diff --git a/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Helper/HTML.php b/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Helper/HTML.php
index 0826d10b..703bf20b 100644
--- a/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Helper/HTML.php
+++ b/src/PhpSpreadsheet/Helper/HTML.php
@@ -615,7 +615,7 @@ class HTML
         $this->initialise();
 
         //    Create a new DOM object
-        $dom = new domDocument;
+        $dom = new \DOMDocument;
         //    Load the HTML file into the DOM object
         //  Note the use of error suppression, because typically this will be an html fragment, so not fully valid markup
         $loaded = @$dom->loadHTML($html);
@@ -625,9 +625,27 @@ class HTML
 
         $this->richTextObject = new \PHPExcel\RichText();
         $this->parseElements($dom);
+
+        // Clean any further spurious whitespace
+        $this->cleanWhitespace();
+
         return $this->richTextObject;
     }
 
+    protected function cleanWhitespace()
+    {
+        foreach($this->richTextObject->getRichTextElements() as $key => $element) {
+            $text = $element->getText();
+            // Trim any leading spaces on the first run
+            if ($key == 0) {
+                $text = ltrim($text);
+            }
+            // Trim any spaces immediately after a line break
+            $text = preg_replace('/\n */mu', "\n", $text);
+            $element->setText($text);
+        }
+    }
+
     protected function buildTextRun()
     {
         $text = $this->stringData;
@@ -767,12 +785,16 @@ class HTML
 
     protected function breakTag()
     {
-        $this->stringData .= PHP_EOL;
+        $this->stringData .= "\n";
     }
 
-    protected function parseTextNode(DOMText $textNode)
+    protected function parseTextNode(\DOMText $textNode)
     {
-        $domText = preg_replace('/\s+/u', ' ', ltrim($textNode->nodeValue));
+        $domText = preg_replace(
+            '/\s+/u',
+            ' ',
+            str_replace(["\r", "\n"], ' ', $textNode->nodeValue)
+        );
         $this->stringData .= $domText;
         $this->buildTextRun();
     }
@@ -787,7 +809,7 @@ class HTML
         }
     }
 
-    protected function parseElementNode(DOMElement $element)
+    protected function parseElementNode(\DOMElement $element)
     {
         $callbackTag = strtolower($element->nodeName);
         $this->stack[] = $callbackTag;
@@ -795,18 +817,17 @@ class HTML
         $this->handleCallback($element, $callbackTag, $this->startTagCallbacks);
 
         $this->parseElements($element);
-        $this->stringData .= ' ';
         array_pop($this->stack);
 
         $this->handleCallback($element, $callbackTag, $this->endTagCallbacks);
     }
 
-    protected function parseElements(DOMNode $element)
+    protected function parseElements(\DOMNode $element)
     {
         foreach ($element->childNodes as $child) {
-            if ($child instanceof DOMText) {
+            if ($child instanceof \DOMText) {
                 $this->parseTextNode($child);
-            } elseif ($child instanceof DOMElement) {
+            } elseif ($child instanceof \DOMElement) {
                 $this->parseElementNode($child);
             }
         }