diff --git a/src/client.cc b/src/client.cc
index 03f35c3f..f847d24e 100644
--- a/src/client.cc
+++ b/src/client.cc
@@ -425,9 +425,9 @@ void Client::info_show(StringView title, StringView content, BufferCoord anchor,
 {
     if (not content.empty() and content.back() == '\n')
         content = content.substr(0, content.length() - 1);
-    info_show({title.str(), Face{}},
+    info_show(title.empty() ? DisplayLine{} : DisplayLine{title.str(), Face{}},
               content | split<StringView>('\n')
-                      | transform([](StringView s) { return DisplayLine{s.str(), Face{}}; })
+                      | transform([](StringView s) { return DisplayLine{replace(s, '\t', ' '), Face{}}; })
                       | gather<DisplayLineList>(),
               anchor, style);
 }
diff --git a/src/commands.cc b/src/commands.cc
index 728b4403..8fe38134 100644
--- a/src/commands.cc
+++ b/src/commands.cc
@@ -1277,7 +1277,7 @@ const CommandDesc echo_cmd = {
         else if (parser.get_switch("markup"))
             context.print_status(parse_display_line(message, context.faces()));
         else
-            context.print_status({ std::move(message), context.faces()["StatusLine"] });
+            context.print_status({replace(message, '\t', ' '), context.faces()["StatusLine"]});
     }
 };
 
diff --git a/src/display_buffer.cc b/src/display_buffer.cc
index 12a234e2..e7e2da54 100644
--- a/src/display_buffer.cc
+++ b/src/display_buffer.cc
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ DisplayLine parse_display_line(StringView line, const FaceRegistry& faces, const
                 pos = closing + 1;
             }
         }
-        if (c == '\n') // line breaks are forbidden, replace with space
+        if (c == '\n' or c == '\t') // line breaks and tabs are forbidden, replace with space
         {
             content += StringView{pos, it+1};
             content.back() = ' ';