diff --git a/selfdrive/debug/can_printer.py b/selfdrive/debug/can_printer.py
index b4436bd2b..0aaaf1350 100755
--- a/selfdrive/debug/can_printer.py
+++ b/selfdrive/debug/can_printer.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ import cereal.messaging as messaging
 from common.realtime import sec_since_boot
 
 
-def can_printer(bus, max_msg, addr):
+def can_printer(bus, max_msg, addr, ascii_decode):
   logcan = messaging.sub_sock('can', addr=addr)
 
   start = sec_since_boot()
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@ def can_printer(bus, max_msg, addr):
       dd = chr(27) + "[2J"
       dd += f"{sec_since_boot() - start:5.2f}\n"
       for addr in sorted(msgs.keys()):
-        a = msgs[addr][-1].decode('ascii', 'backslashreplace')
+        a = f"\"{msgs[addr][-1].decode('ascii', 'backslashreplace')}\"" if ascii_decode else ""
         x = binascii.hexlify(msgs[addr][-1]).decode('ascii')
         if max_msg is None or addr < max_msg:
-          dd += "%04X(%4d)(%6d) %s \"%s\"\n" % (addr, addr, len(msgs[addr]), x.ljust(20), a)
+          dd += "%04X(%4d)(%6d) %s %s\n" % (addr, addr, len(msgs[addr]), x.ljust(20), a)
       print(dd)
       lp = sec_since_boot()
 
@@ -36,8 +36,9 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                                    formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
 
   parser.add_argument("--bus", type=int, help="CAN bus to print out", default=0)
-  parser.add_argument("--max_msg", type=int, help="max addr ")
+  parser.add_argument("--max_msg", type=int, help="max addr")
+  parser.add_argument("--ascii", action='store_true', help="decode as ascii")
   parser.add_argument("--addr", default="127.0.0.1")
 
   args = parser.parse_args()
-  can_printer(args.bus, args.max_msg, args.addr)
+  can_printer(args.bus, args.max_msg, args.addr, args.ascii)