diff --git a/doc/release/contribs.py b/doc/release/contribs.py
index 08a59fc9..c92ac7ca 100755
--- a/doc/release/contribs.py
+++ b/doc/release/contribs.py
@@ -5,16 +5,17 @@ import string
 import shlex
 
 if len(sys.argv) != 2:
-    print "Usage: ./contributors.py tag-of-previous-release"
+    print("Usage: ./contributors.py tag-of-previous-release")
     sys.exit(-1)
 
 tag = sys.argv[1]
 
 def call(cmd):
-    return subprocess.check_output(shlex.split(cmd)).split('\n')
+    print(shlex.split(cmd))
+    return subprocess.check_output(shlex.split(cmd), universal_newlines=True).split('\n')
 
 tag_date = call("git show --format='%%ci' %s" % tag)[0]
-print "Release %s was on %s" % (tag, tag_date)
+print("Release %s was on %s" % (tag, tag_date))
 
 merges = call("git log --since='%s' --merges --format='>>>%%B' --reverse" % tag_date)
 merges = [m for m in merges if m.strip()]
@@ -22,27 +23,26 @@ merges = '\n'.join(merges).split('>>>')
 merges = [m.split('\n')[:2] for m in merges]
 merges = [m for m in merges if len(m) == 2 and m[1].strip()]
 
-print "\nIt contained the following %d merges:" % len(merges)
-print
+print("\nIt contained the following %d merges:\n" % len(merges))
 for (merge, message) in merges:
     if merge.startswith('Merge pull request #'):
         PR = ' (%s)' % merge.split()[3]
     else:
         PR = ''
 
-    print '- ' + message + PR
+    print('- ' + message + PR)
 
 
-print "\nMade by the following committers [alphabetical by last name]:\n"
+print("\nMade by the following committers [alphabetical by last name]:\n")
 
 authors = call("git log --since='%s' --format=%%aN" % tag_date)
 authors = [a.strip() for a in authors if a.strip()]
 
 def key(author):
-    author = [v for v in author.split() if v[0] in string.letters]
+    author = [v for v in author.split() if v[0] in string.ascii_letters]
     return author[-1]
 
 authors = sorted(set(authors), key=key)
 
 for a in authors:
-    print '-', a
+    print('- ' + a)
diff --git a/skimage/draw/draw.py b/skimage/draw/draw.py
index cbf3ced2..e61df40c 100644
--- a/skimage/draw/draw.py
+++ b/skimage/draw/draw.py
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def ellipse(cy, cx, yradius, xradius, shape=None):
     cc += cx - xradius
 
     if shape is not None:
-        _coords_inside_image(rr, cc, shape)
+        return _coords_inside_image(rr, cc, shape)
 
     return rr, cc
 
diff --git a/skimage/draw/tests/test_draw.py b/skimage/draw/tests/test_draw.py
index 2d739f0f..3cb8c2a6 100644
--- a/skimage/draw/tests/test_draw.py
+++ b/skimage/draw/tests/test_draw.py
@@ -325,6 +325,33 @@ def test_ellipse():
     assert_array_equal(img, img_)
 
 
+def test_ellipse_with_shape():
+    img = np.zeros((15, 15), 'uint8')
+
+    rr, cc = ellipse(7, 7, 3, 10, shape=img.shape)
+    img[rr, cc] = 1
+
+    img_ = np.array(
+      [[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
+       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
+       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
+       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
+       [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0],
+       [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]]
+    )
+
+    assert_array_equal(img, img_)
+
+
 def test_ellipse_perimeter_dot_zeroangle():
     # dot, angle == 0
     img = np.zeros((30, 15), 'uint8')
diff --git a/skimage/transform/_geometric.py b/skimage/transform/_geometric.py
index d5b25b6d..883aa88d 100644
--- a/skimage/transform/_geometric.py
+++ b/skimage/transform/_geometric.py
@@ -489,11 +489,11 @@ class PiecewiseAffineTransform(GeometricTransform):
 class SimilarityTransform(ProjectiveTransform):
     """2D similarity transformation of the form::
 
-        X = a0*x - b0*y + a1 =
-          = m*x*cos(rotation) + m*y*sin(rotation) + a1
+        X = a0 * x - b0 * y + a1 =
+          = m * x * cos(rotation) - m * y * sin(rotation) + a1
 
-        Y = b0*x + a0*y + b1 =
-          = m*x*sin(rotation) + m*y*cos(rotation) + b1
+        Y = b0 * x + a0 * y + b1 =
+          = m * x * sin(rotation) + m * y * cos(rotation) + b1
 
     where ``m`` is a zoom factor and the homogeneous transformation matrix is::
 
@@ -560,13 +560,13 @@ class SimilarityTransform(ProjectiveTransform):
 
         The transformation is defined as::
 
-            X = a0*x - b0*y + a1
-            Y = b0*x + a0*y + b1
+            X = a0 * x - b0 * y + a1
+            Y = b0 * x + a0 * y + b1
 
         These equations can be transformed to the following form::
 
-            0 = a0*x - b0*y + a1 - X
-            0 = b0*x + a0*y + b1 - Y
+            0 = a0 * x - b0 * y + a1 - X
+            0 = b0 * x + a0 * y + b1 - Y
 
         which exist for each set of corresponding points, so we have a set of
         N * 2 equations. The coefficients appear linearly so we can write
@@ -615,8 +615,8 @@ class SimilarityTransform(ProjectiveTransform):
         a0, a1, b0, b1 = - V[-1, :-1] / V[-1, -1]
 
         self.params = np.array([[a0, -b0, a1],
-                                 [b0,  a0, b1],
-                                 [ 0,   0,  1]])
+                                [b0,  a0, b1],
+                                [ 0,   0,  1]])
 
     @property
     def scale(self):