diff --git a/src/_pytest/compat.py b/src/_pytest/compat.py
index 87d4d51c1..1857f51a8 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/compat.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/compat.py
@@ -185,6 +185,9 @@ def get_default_arg_names(function):
 _non_printable_ascii_translate_table = {
     i: u"\\x{:02x}".format(i) for i in range(128) if i not in range(32, 127)
 }
+_non_printable_ascii_translate_table.update(
+    {ord("\t"): u"\\t", ord("\r"): u"\\r", ord("\n"): u"\\n"}
+)
 
 
 def _translate_non_printable(s):
diff --git a/testing/python/metafunc.py b/testing/python/metafunc.py
index ef6993d94..0d5b6037f 100644
--- a/testing/python/metafunc.py
+++ b/testing/python/metafunc.py
@@ -390,9 +390,11 @@ class TestMetafunc(object):
                 pytest.param("\x05", 2),
                 pytest.param(b"\x00", 3),
                 pytest.param(b"\x05", 4),
+                pytest.param("\t", 5),
+                pytest.param(b"\t", 6),
             ],
         )
-        assert result == ["\\x00-1", "\\x05-2", "\\x00-3", "\\x05-4"]
+        assert result == ["\\x00-1", "\\x05-2", "\\x00-3", "\\x05-4", "\\t-5", "\\t-6"]
 
     def test_idmaker_manual_ids_must_be_printable(self):
         from _pytest.python import idmaker