diff --git a/include/arg.h b/include/arg.h
index 138a44b..2b18791 100644
--- a/include/arg.h
+++ b/include/arg.h
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 #define ARG_H
 #include <stdbool.h>
 
-#define LAT_VERSION "0.9.2"
+#define LAT_VERSION "0.9.3"
 
 struct config {
   bool stdin;
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ struct config {
   bool color;
   bool lines;
   bool headers;
-  bool force_binary;
+  int force_binary;
   bool has_read_stdin;
 };
 
diff --git a/src/lib/arg.c b/src/lib/arg.c
index 6f4d714..e25b1db 100644
--- a/src/lib/arg.c
+++ b/src/lib/arg.c
@@ -17,19 +17,26 @@ void help(void) {
          "\t-n, --lines\t toggle whether to print line numbers or not\n"
          "\t-t, --headers\t toggle whether to print file headers or not\n"
          "\t-b, --binary\t toggle whether to force the data to be treated as "
-         "binary or not\n"
+         "binary or not. see examples\n"
          "\t-V, --version\t show program version\n"
          "\t-h, --help\t display this help text\n\n");
   printf("environment:\n"
          "\tNO_COLOR, see https://no-color.org/\n\n");
-  printf("examples:\n"
-         "\tlat file1\n\t\t print the content of file1 witht default formatting\n"
-         "\tlat - file1\n\t\t read from stdin (the '-' character reads from stdin) "
-         "and then print the contents of stdin and file1\n"
-         "\tlat -nc file1 file2\n\t\t print the contents of file1 and file2 "
-         "without printing line numbers or colors\n"
-         "\tcurl example.com | lat\n\t\t pipe the results of 'curl example.com' "
-         "into lat\n");
+  printf(
+      "examples:\n"
+      "\tlat file1\n\t\t print the content of file1 witht default formatting\n"
+      "\tlat - file1\n\t\t read from stdin (the '-' character reads from "
+      "stdin) "
+      "and then print the contents of stdin and file1\n"
+      "\tlat --lines --color file1 file2\n\t\t print the contents of file1 and "
+      "file2 "
+      "without printing line numbers or colors\n"
+      "\tlat --binary file.txt\n\t\t force file.txt to be treated as a binary "
+      "file\n"
+      "\tlat -bb file.txt\n\t\t force file.txt to NOT be treated as a binary "
+      "file\n"
+      "\tcurl example.com | lat\n\t\t pipe the results of 'curl example.com' "
+      "into lat\n");
 }
 
 void version(void) {
@@ -62,7 +69,10 @@ void parselongarg(char *arg) {
   }
 
   if (strcmp(arg, "--binary") == 0) {
-    conf.force_binary = !conf.force_binary;
+    if (conf.force_binary < 0)
+      conf.force_binary = 1;
+    else
+      conf.force_binary = !conf.force_binary;
     return;
   }
 
@@ -96,7 +106,10 @@ void parseshortarg(char *arg) {
       conf.headers = !conf.headers;
       break;
     case 'b':
-      conf.force_binary = !conf.force_binary;
+      if (conf.force_binary < 0)
+        conf.force_binary = 1;
+      else
+        conf.force_binary = !conf.force_binary;
       break;
     case 'V':
       version();
diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index 72b4e9d..0ea8c0c 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -23,8 +23,10 @@ void run(FILE *fp, char *filename, bool tty) {
   struct filedata f;
   f = readfile(fp, conf.stdin);
 
-  if (conf.force_binary) {
-    f.binary = !f.binary;
+  if (conf.force_binary > 0) {
+    f.binary = true;
+  } else if (conf.force_binary == 0) {
+    f.binary = false;
   }
 
   conf.headers = conf.headers && tty; // tty still overrides user
@@ -72,7 +74,7 @@ void run(FILE *fp, char *filename, bool tty) {
 
 void initconf(void) {
   conf.stdin = false;
-  conf.force_binary = false;
+  conf.force_binary = -1;
   conf.has_read_stdin = false;
   conf.process = true;
   conf.headers = true;