diff --git a/x.c b/x.c
index bd23686..254d3d0 100644
--- a/x.c
+++ b/x.c
@@ -580,11 +580,33 @@ selnotify(XEvent *e)
 		 * copy and pasting. When receiving some selection data,
 		 * replace all '\n' with '\r'.
 		 * FIXME: Fix the computer world.
+		 *
+		 * Also, replace most C0 control codes with spaces, except for
+		 * HT and CR. Note that we are not replacing C1 control codes
+		 * (0x80 to 0x9F), as these are possibly valid UTF-8
+		 * continuation bytes.
 		 */
 		repl = data;
 		last = data + nitems * format / 8;
-		while ((repl = memchr(repl, '\n', last - repl))) {
-			*repl++ = '\r';
+		while (repl != last) {
+			if (*repl <= 0x1f) {
+				switch (*repl) {
+				case 0x09: /* HT \t */
+				case 0x0D: /* CR \r */
+					repl++;
+					break;
+				case 0x0a: /* LF \n */
+					*repl++ = '\r';
+					break;
+				default:
+					*repl++ = ' ';
+					break;
+				};
+			} else if (*repl == 0x7f) { /* DEL */
+				*repl++ = ' ';
+			} else {
+				repl++;
+			}
 		}
 
 		if (IS_SET(MODE_BRCKTPASTE) && ofs == 0)