diff --git a/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.cc b/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.cc
index 231dfacd..0c1a63dd 100644
--- a/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.cc
+++ b/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.cc
@@ -113,6 +113,19 @@ namespace OMFormat {
     return hdr;
   }
 
+//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+  std::string as_string(uint8 version)
+  {
+    std::stringstream ss;
+    ss << major_version(version);
+    ss << ".";
+    ss << minor_version(version);
+    return ss.str();
+  }
+
+
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
   const char *as_string(Chunk::Entity e)
diff --git a/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.hh b/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.hh
index 9bbcd860..2fef1389 100644
--- a/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.hh
+++ b/src/OpenMesh/Core/IO/OMFormat.hh
@@ -469,6 +469,8 @@ namespace OMFormat {
 
   // ---------------------------------------- convenience functions
 
+  std::string as_string(uint8 version);
+
   const char *as_string(Chunk::Type t);
   const char *as_string(Chunk::Entity e);
   const char *as_string(Chunk::Dim d);