diff --git a/src/Desc.cc b/src/Desc.cc
index 269af07b3b..12b4a524eb 100644
--- a/src/Desc.cc
+++ b/src/Desc.cc
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ void ODesc::AddBytes(const void* bytes, unsigned int n)
 				}
 			else
 				{
-				string esc_str = get_escaped_string(string(p.first, p.second));
+				string esc_str = get_escaped_string(string(p.first, p.second), true);
 				AddBytesRaw(esc_str.c_str(), esc_str.size());
 				}
 			s = p.first + p.second;
diff --git a/src/LogWriterAscii.cc b/src/LogWriterAscii.cc
index 9ccd0f27f8..d2c1d91370 100644
--- a/src/LogWriterAscii.cc
+++ b/src/LogWriterAscii.cc
@@ -82,19 +82,19 @@ bool LogWriterAscii::DoInit(string path, int num_fields,
 		{
 		string str = string(header_prefix, header_prefix_len)
 			+ "separator " // Always use space as separator here.
-			+ get_escaped_string(string(separator, separator_len))
+			+ get_escaped_string(string(separator, separator_len), false)
 			+ "\n";
 
 		if( fwrite(str.c_str(), str.length(), 1, file) != 1 )
 			goto write_error;
 
 		if ( ! (WriteHeaderField("set_separator", get_escaped_string(
-		            string(set_separator, set_separator_len))) &&
+		            string(set_separator, set_separator_len), false)) &&
 		        WriteHeaderField("empty_field", get_escaped_string(
-		            string(empty_field, empty_field_len))) &&
+		            string(empty_field, empty_field_len), false)) &&
 		        WriteHeaderField("unset_field", get_escaped_string(
-		            string(unset_field, unset_field_len))) &&
-		        WriteHeaderField("path", path)) )
+		            string(unset_field, unset_field_len), false)) &&
+		        WriteHeaderField("path", get_escaped_string(path, false))) )
 			goto write_error;
 
 		string names;
diff --git a/src/util.cc b/src/util.cc
index 01632a5a97..171756fc1c 100644
--- a/src/util.cc
+++ b/src/util.cc
@@ -42,22 +42,32 @@
 #include "Reporter.h"
 
 /**
- * Takes a string, escapes each character into its equivalent hex code (\x##), and
+ * Takes a string, escapes characters into equivalent hex codes (\x##), and
  * returns a string containing all escaped values.
  *
  * @param str string to escape
- * @return A std::string containing a list of escaped hex values of the form \x##
- */
-std::string get_escaped_string(const std::string& str)
+ * @param escape_all If true, all characters are escaped. If false, only
+ * characters are escaped that are either whitespace or not printable in
+ * ASCII.
+ * @return A std::string containing a list of escaped hex values of the form
+ * \x## */
+std::string get_escaped_string(const std::string& str, bool escape_all)
 {
     char tbuf[16];
     string esc = "";
 
     for ( size_t i = 0; i < str.length(); ++i )
         {
-        snprintf(tbuf, sizeof(tbuf), "\\x%02x", str[i]);
-        esc += tbuf;
-        }
+	char c = str[i];
+
+	if ( escape_all || isspace(c) || ! isascii(c) || ! isprint(c) )
+		{
+		snprintf(tbuf, sizeof(tbuf), "\\x%02x", str[i]);
+		esc += tbuf;
+		}
+	else
+		esc += c;
+	}
 
     return esc;
 }
diff --git a/src/util.h b/src/util.h
index 83986b59c3..498bdf00e4 100644
--- a/src/util.h
+++ b/src/util.h
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ void delete_each(T* t)
 		delete *it;
 	}
 
-std::string get_escaped_string(const std::string& str);
+std::string get_escaped_string(const std::string& str, bool escape_all);
 
 extern char* copy_string(const char* s);
 extern int streq(const char* s1, const char* s2);